Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

My 69 U20 never came with a starter ground wire. I have noticed though all these years that battery never seems to crank for too long before pooping out and needs a charge. As long as I drove it often enough it would turn over and start. If mine was supposed to have one is it the large dia cable or just the 10 ga to the frame? I always thought just being grounded through the 2 starter mounting bolts were enough. Please advise. Thanks

Please disregard, I just checked wikitech and yes I need one! Thanks,

The originals I have seen were like a short battery cable, even had the yellow stripe on it. I'm just using a braided cable like the ones you see offered for the Z cars.

I have found it necessary to use a maintenance charger on my car. Switching from the original style skinny group 53 to a group 51 has helped a lot, much better power.

I use this ground strap from Napa

ground strap

Its smaller than appears in the picture, but long enough to go from the starter mounting bolt to the frame.

Also, your problem sounds more like an old battery or one with not enough CCA.
Have your battery load tested or just buy a top level battery. If you have access to a smart charger, I have had good luck with them.

nismou20 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2019 5:40 pm My 69 U20 never came with a starter ground wire. I have noticed though all these years that battery never seems to crank for too long before pooping out and needs a charge. As long as I drove it often enough it would turn over and start. If mine was supposed to have one is it the large dia cable or just the 10 ga to the frame? I always thought just being grounded through the 2 starter mounting bolts were enough. Please advise. Thanks

Please disregard, I just checked wikitech and yes I need one! Thanks,

A good starting point to trouble shoot poor cranking is to test your alternator. Simply see what you have for voltage at your battery while running. Next would be your cable connections, Though there is supposed to be a ground for the starter it should be grounding through the motor as well.

A simple voltage drop test across both cables should tell you what you need to know.Providing battery has been qualified, set your multimeter to voltage dc,positive lead of multimeter to batt pos,neg lead of multimeter to positive on starter, crank starter and read voltage.Perfect world would be 0 or no drop.I believe 500mv is a limit used today.ditto this on your ground cable,negative lead of meter to neg battery,positive lead of meter to starter body,crank and look at your reading.should be able to eliminate cables and connections at this point.
just my 2 cents