Hi. I was wondering where some main ground locations are or common wires to break. I have a 99 cherokee and wanted to inspect my ground wires to see if maybe that is my alternator issue because my jeep has been kinda acting funny lately. Where would i find some common ground wires to break or cause problems? We had alot of rain here recently and maybe a ground wire with no splash shield finally corroded away. I have low voltage, wants to die sometimes (and yes i checked my iac and such and everything is squeaky clean) and it may be throwing something off with my engine as well as it is sometimes hard to start up or randomly runs rough but goes back to normal. I want to start with the free or cheap stuff first lol.

 

alt is grounded to engine. do you have 14 v when running? if so , alt is good.

 

The two main grounds are the B- post to the fenderwell, and the B-post to the block, right under your coil. That fenderwell ground is often flaky. The one under the coil less so, but both should be taken apart and cleaned down to shiny metal. Don't rely on a visual inspection.

There's a ground from the rear of the head to the firewall - a braided strap. That's just for suppressing radio noise from the injectors firing. Some people replace it with a big fat battery cable. That's a complete waste of money. The standard braided strap is more than enough on that one.

There's another near the oil dipstick, too.

Don't overlook the cables themselves.

As mentioned, the alternator itself grounds through its case to the mounting points. Not likely to be a problem, but it doesn't hurt to clean things up.

 

alright thank you! this helps alot. And i dont know yet my alternator is showing low volts on the gauge but id rather do free stuff first than spending alot of money to get something i didnt need lol. Not to say it could be bad as well but id rather do cheap stuff first as i know for a fact my grounds have never been touched at all and im gonna clean them up before i go any further. Maybe one corroded away. and im not sure of this one pothole did it but it seems after i hit it my jeep started to act up.

 

Heres a visual. See post #20.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/eng...130071/index2/

 

Wow! thank you so much im sorry im kind of a visual learner and pictures help me alot. but thit helps alot. Ill check them tomorrow along with my alternator and starter wires. Im gonna test my volts with a meter tomorrow along with poking around and redoing my grounds. Again thank you so much lets hope this will fix it. I hate to come out to a dead battery while pouring rain and that dreaded CLICK.

 

It will be generally similar to a 96 as shown in this video.

 

alright thank you!

 

Gotta love florida as you think about working on your jeep and instantly starts to lightning and rain outside. Ill update this when i get it finished.

 

No need to apologize. Not even a little bit. It's good to know who you are, and how you learn is part of that. We're all different. I think a lot of us do better with picture than lengthy descriptions. I like both, if the descriptions are done well.

 

Ok all cleaned, The wire going from the battery to the fenderwell was hanging on by a wire, Literally i replaced it and while it fixed alot of my funky problems the voltage is still low under load. So when i can im gonna replace my battery and alternator together and see the results as i pulled this alternator from a junkyard jeep (hey cant complain for 10 bucks) and my battery is unknown in heath terms lol.

 

Good plan. OR, get them tested at your local Autozone. They will test them for free.

But since it's a junkyard dog, and an unknown, maybe better to just replace them. NAPA has a lifetime warranty on their alternators. Pretty good stuff.

 

Yup exactly I was taking the risk as the previous alternator in there was from a jeep grand cherokee and did NOT fit and you knew it didn't lol. The bolt pattern didn't match so they used 1 screw and the tension of the belt to hold it in place. Which resulted in God awful loud rattling at any rpm. But I am gonna test it anyways to make sure. I need to get a few more shifts to afford one so I hope both hold till then. What's sad is my Jeep ever since I owned it looks to be the only time it has been shown love and care and actually use new parts when I can and try to fix it the right way. I even went so far is to clean the engine bay too so it's all nice and clean. No more leaks and proper maintenance is being done to it with regular oil changes and fluid flushes when I can. The alternator was because I needed it in a pinch and it was a decent price at the time. Never knew you needed a pry bar to take the alternator out and to put it back in lol.