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Combining grounds in terminal strip?

Steve Crewdog

Steve Crewdog

Well Known Member
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Grrr...... So I'm down to my last 2 grounds (Aux Audio 1 & 2), and I've only got 1 open position on my ground terminal strip. I could combine these 2 aux audio grounds into one ring terminal, but my gut tells me that would be a bad idea. I could also add a small auxiliary terminal strip and feed that into the primary terminal ground strip, but I think that would also be a bad idea. Thinking I might have to make another terminal strip and run some grounds to that, then to the ground stud.


Thoughts?


Tia
 
Combine

Steve Crewdog said:
Grrr...... So I'm down to my last 2 grounds (Aux Audio 1 & 2), and I've only got 1 open position on my ground terminal strip. I could combine these 2 aux audio grounds into one ring terminal, but my gut tells me that would be a bad idea. I could also add a small auxiliary terminal strip and feed that into the primary terminal ground strip, but I think that would also be a bad idea. Thinking I might have to make another terminal strip and run some grounds to that, then to the ground stud.


Thoughts?


Tia
Click to expand...

I think the two tied to one ring terminal would be fine. Until you need one more! :D
 
Bad grounds are probably the number one electrical problem, I would refrain from combining grounds into one ring terminal.
 
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bruceh said:
AC43-13 (11.98f) allows up to four terminal connections per stud.
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^^^ This!

11-13347-b.jpg
 
ground terminal stacking

I have no problem with more than one. Most avionics shops do it all the time. making sure you still have at least one stud thread above the nut.
Most times I will put a star washer between the ring terminals
Art
 
wirejock said:
I think the two tied to one ring terminal would be fine. Until you need one more! :D
Click to expand...

That's when you put 2 wires into one connector!


Thanks for the help everyone. My wife called and asked how it was going, I told her I was dead in the water and swearing at a problem. Decided to make this thread, walk away and head home. By the time I got home Wirejock and Mich had already posted and I was in a much better mood.
 
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Since these are Audio circuits you are talking about, be very careful you do NOT introduce a ground loop, or you can end up with a lot of noise in your audio system. This includes the best practice of using shielded cable, and only grounding the shield at one end, typically on the connector shell at the audio panel.
 
DRMA said:
Since these are Audio circuits you are talking about, be very careful you do NOT introduce a ground loop, or you can end up with a lot of noise in your audio system. This includes the best practice of using shielded cable, and only grounding the shield at one end, typically on the connector shell at the audio panel.
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Thanks for the head's up, Dave, my wiring harness was built by Advanced Fast Stack, they do beautiful work, and like you say, it's grounded at the connector shell.


Spent a nice morning looking at the terminal strip and updating my wiring list, this afternoon I cleaned it up, combined a couple systems into one stud, and will have separate studs for each of the Audio Lo grounds.


It's nice to put big things together, but there is also a quiet peace to be found when you're working a problem, unlacing wires and rerunning them, making the runs cleaner and easier to fix later down the road, looking at something you did before and thinking "Ok, that's nice." or "Ugh, while I got this open let me fix this ugly thing. I really didn't know what I was doing back when I ran this wire, and I'm much better now." Getting done and going "Oh yeah... That's better."
 
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DRMA said:
Since these are Audio circuits you are talking about, be very careful you do NOT introduce a ground loop, or you can end up with a lot of noise in your audio system. This includes the best practice of using shielded cable, and only grounding the shield at one end, typically on the connector shell at the audio panel.
Click to expand...

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