OT: GROUND STRAPS AND HOW IMPORTANT THEY ARE
 

There are many posts regarding good engine/body grounds and I was reminded
of something that happened years ago when I left a XMAS party with my date.
We headed out to my 1972 (or so) Pontiac Firebird and once settled I found
the auto console shifter in drive, my date had hit it when getting out. As
I tried to shift it into park, or neutral, to start the engine, I found it
frozen. The console stick shifted the tranny via a steel cable and it was
now the ground of the engine and welded tight. Later I found the engine
ground strap was bad so another ground was developed, my shifter cable.

To start the car I bypassed the neutral safety switch (from underneath the
car - it was snowing) and started it in drive. Mind you it was snowing
heavy. Out of the parking lot was a hill you had to climb to get to the
main road and everybody was getting stuck and had to back down several time
and try it again. I had only one shot at the hill. The firebird had a 455
CU in it and I lit it up and made the hill on the first time and all the way
home without ever shifting. I remember thanking her for bumping the shifter
when she got out. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get the tranny in
drive.

I had to replace the ground strap and the tranny shifter cable. My date?
She is my wife now and we still try and make the hills in one try, now with
our Jeep. Oh, I did get lucky that night!

Andy