OK to ground ring terminal between 2 washers?

[tracyrick 10+ year member]

Can't find this specific answer searching and it is worrying me.

Grounding an amp, 4 gauge wire, using the bolt that secures my front seat to the chasis. Subaru Impreza.

- The painted seat frame sits directly on the chasis, no washers in between

- The 2 flat washers for the bolt sit between the bolt head and the seat frame

If I put my ring terminal between the 2 washers, is that a good ground? Essentially makes the ring terminal connect to the chasis via the washers/bolt.

Or do I need to put the ring terminal between the chasis and the seat frame? That seems like a crappy connection point because I don't think the seat frame rests perfectly flat against the chasis...

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[XTRProBoy 10+ year member]

As for the washers in general yeah you should be fine as long as the ground point has all the paint scraped/sanded off as usual and the washers are normal, unpainted metal washer, and you make sure it's nice and tight.

As for the seat grounding point, that's not the best place to ground really is it? I mean with the ring terminal and two washers you're going to mess up the seat height a little on that one corner. Plus you said the seat doesn't normally sit flat anyway. Personally I'd ground somewhere else--the washers aren't the "problem" in this case it's the ground point.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

The washers are on top of the seat frame not under it, so the seat height isn't affected. The problem is that the bolt is painted or some way treated and the paint on the seat frame is blocking your good ground. If you want to ground there, I would put the ring under the seat frame, scrape the paint off the chassis where the ring will be and place a washer under the other 3 seat mounting points to make sure that it is not tweaked.

 

[tracyrick 10+ year member]

I just tried this:

Sanded chasis > Ring terminal > locking washer (the kind that bites) > painted seat frame

But the ring terminal won't sit flat there because of the way it bends up where I crimped the 4 gauge wire into it. The seat frame there is too wide. Bummer. So I just sanded down the underside of the bolt head and bolt post and all sides of washers and put the ring terminal between the two washers.

I'm hoping that the bolt will be a good ground since it's threaded into the chasis. I've never heard anyone say if this is an effective solution, or plain ghetto???

 

[THUNDERBIRD 10+ year member]

i would have just sanded a spot on the floor and used a self tap screw and a star washer