1971 Speedometer Ground

[Andrew P.]

Hello,

1971 350
4Spd, AC, PS

I am in the process of rebuilding my Tach and Speedo and pulled the driver's cluster. I know both the Tach and Speedo are grounded with a single female spade connector on the bottom of the gauge pod. The CSM wiring diagram shows these as black connectors. I noticed a brown female spade connector (exactly like the black ground connector to Tach) that was not attached to anything. Does anyone know if this wire is indeed a ground for the Speedo? Someone previously had grounded the Speedo with a wire from the back of the Speedo gauge pod to the steering column support bolt. I just assumed that they could not get to the back of the Speedo to ground it properly with the female spade connector and improvised. I have looked at the wiring diagram and do not see any other single brown female spade connector wire. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Andrew Papanicolaou (48361)

[John H.]

Re: 1971 Speedometer Ground

Hello,

1971 350
4Spd, AC, PS

I am in the process of rebuilding my Tach and Speedo and pulled the driver's cluster. I know both the Tach and Speedo are grounded with a single female spade connector on the bottom of the gauge pod. The CSM wiring diagram shows these as black connectors. I noticed a brown female spade connector (exactly like the black ground connector to Tach) that was not attached to anything. Does anyone know if this wire is indeed a ground for the Speedo? Someone previously had grounded the Speedo with a wire from the back of the Speedo gauge pod to the steering column support bolt. I just assumed that they could not get to the back of the Speedo to ground it properly with the female spade connector and improvised. I have looked at the wiring diagram and do not see any other single brown female spade connector wire. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Andrew Papanicolaou (48361)

Andrew -

Do you have the '71 Assembly Manual? It's a FAR better and more detailed technical reference than the Chassis Serice Manual; your issue will be covered in UPC 12.

[Andrew P.]

Re: 1971 Speedometer Ground

John,

Thank you for the reply.

Yes, I agree that the AM would be of much more use. Fortunately, I did find the answer to my problem. It seems at some point someone plugged the single spade black ground for the speedo to the ignition capacitor. (which should be single spade brown and bit thicker, 12 gauge). Once the driver's cluster was in place there was no way to attach the speedo ground so they fashioned a wire and grounded it to the column support bolt. I verified that each connector had a good ground with my test light.

Thanks again for the reply,

Andrew Papanicolaou (48361)