# Seat Belt Bolt for Ground Attachment?



## RBeachTL (Jul 21, 2008)

I've seen a few install threads that have used the rear seat-belt attachment bolt to secure the main ground wire. Anyone have any experiences with this attachment method that they are willing to share.

Thanks, 

John


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## Austin (Mar 12, 2009)

It works fine as long as you grind the paint off the metal to make a good contact. Using star washers is a good idea also.

If you are iffy that it is a good connection, try this:

take a piece of wire.
If it is smaller than 4 gauge take a dmm and test the resistance through the wire and keep this number in mind.
Now attach one end of the wire to the - terminal of your battery or where the battery grounds to the chassis
Then run it back to the bolt area but don't connect it. 
Now take your dmm and put one probe on the area that you will ground and the other in the end of the wire. Now subtract the resistance of the wire and that is the resistance of that grounding point to the battery. 

If it is more than a few hundredths of an ohm you might want to find somewhere else to ground. 

I believe mine is around .2 ohms.


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## tornaido_3927 (Nov 23, 2009)

That's really helpful info 

Do cables heat up if they're carrying a lot of power (relative to their size)? Just wondering if heat would be an issue under a seat.


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## The Baron Groog (Mar 15, 2010)

Personally I'd never use a seat bolt and always do a dedicated earth-if you follow the instructions above you should be ok for an earth-but I've never liked modifying the mounting point for something as important as a seat!

The cable will only get hot if it's too thin for the job.


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## NRA4ever (Jul 19, 2010)

I like to build a ground by drilling a hole in the floor for a connector near my amps & mount it there. I run a cable the size of my power cable from the connector to the frame. I attach my grounds to this connector.


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

I used the bracket bolt that is utilized for the child safety seat... it's damn solid and works better than other places I have tried.


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## RBeachTL (Jul 21, 2008)

Hey Mods.

I'm slightly offended that you consider my question "dumb" enough to move it into this forum. I think if you read the answers that have been offered they would be proof of the question not being "dumb"


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## Austin (Mar 12, 2009)

RBeachTL said:


> Hey Mods.
> 
> I'm slightly offended that you consider my question "dumb" enough to move it into this forum. I think if you read the answers that have been offered they would be proof of the question not being "dumb"


Don't sweat it to much. This question has been answered several times before so they felt it was a dumb question just because you could have searched it. But i agree the answers are good.


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## borahshadow (Jul 3, 2010)

RBeachTL said:


> Hey Mods.
> 
> I'm slightly offended that you consider my question "dumb" enough to move it into this forum. I think if you read the answers that have been offered they would be proof of the question not being "dumb"


It's kinda been my observation that the Dumb Questions Forum is more just a catch all/general questions forum and not so much a Dumb question forum. Sure there are Dumb (or a kinder word would be basic or searchable) questions there but it seems to be more of a "general question" forum.


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## mosconiac (Nov 12, 2009)

I remember there being some goop on the seat belt bolt I removed one time. Maybe that's some sort of anti-sieze...or thread locker. Either way, I'd wonder what kind of hinderance that goop poses to a quality ground. I'd put a little more effort into it and make a dedicated ground point BTJM.


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## sqshoestring (Jun 19, 2007)

One thing to watch for is moisture issues, at least around here I try to use the bolt that is higher off the lowest point of the floor. A higher one like a safety strap/etc would be good. Never had a problem other than rust on the bolts that are lowest in floor or can get wet from feet.

You can put a ground bar in some do that. Make an aluminum or brass bar and bolt it to the floor on sanded holes with 3-4 bolts. Then ground your amps to that. Another thing to do is put dielectric grease on the contact surfaces to keep rust/etc away for any ground. They used to have this paint on rubber stuff for boat connections but not seen any around in some time.

Yeah some people got really tired of newb questions plugging up the main forum while they discussed deeper issues. Common problem when a forum grows. They made this forum for basic/newb/incidental/simple/etc questions to keep them out of there. If you post something well covered in the main forum they will toss it out here, this is the non search forum.


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## lurice0 (Jun 10, 2015)

i know its an old thread, but i don't want start a new thread and be called a dumb noob. I kid, I kid. what if your seat belt bolt is bigger than a 0 gauge terminal? where can i get a 0 gauge terminal with an O ring big enough to fit my seat belt bolt? Thanks.


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## SkizeR (Apr 19, 2011)

lurice0 said:


> i know its an old thread, but i don't want start a new thread and be called a dumb noob. I kid, I kid. what if your seat belt bolt is bigger than a 0 gauge terminal? where can i get a 0 gauge terminal with an O ring big enough to fit my seat belt bolt? Thanks.


its better to make a dedicated ground either way.


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## borahshadow (Jul 3, 2010)

lurice0 said:


> i know its an old thread, but i don't want start a new thread and be called a dumb noob. I kid, I kid. what if your seat belt bolt is bigger than a 0 gauge terminal? where can i get a 0 gauge terminal with an O ring big enough to fit my seat belt bolt? Thanks.


If you go to an auto parts store (I went to NAPA) and ask to look in their catalog for large gauge copper lugs, You can order different gauges with different sized mounting holes in it. I don't know how large your seat belt bolt is so I can't say if they will have one big enough but it's the only place I've seen that has different mounting holes for the same awg.


But yeah if it's that big of a deal they you can/maybe should just make your own ground anyway.


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## ImK'ed (Aug 12, 2013)

Im with dedicated ground, i drill theough body and use ring terminals and bolt and locking nut, 2 man job but solid ground. Oh and obviously scrape paint under ring terminal


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## NealfromNZ (Sep 3, 2013)

Leave the seatbelt mounts for the safety reason they are there for. 

I'd suggest borrowing from the motorsport world and get a weld in anchor plate welded into the body at a point where you find low resistance as mentioned earlier.

https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=h...X&ved=0CBsQsARqFQoTCJ2I1PnjhMYCFYPGpgodyewAzg


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## sirbOOm (Jan 24, 2013)

Nothing but problems in my world when using seat bolts - don't. They're coated steal even on the threads and often actually thread into a piece that is sort of "tack welded" to the actual chassis/body that is what is actually grounded to the battery. Just because its thick and hard (that's what she said) doesn't mean it's a good ground. Put a bolt through the floor pan of the car, which is likely what is actually (eventually) grounded straight up to the battery. And if it's a truck, wire through the floor, ground to the frame, upgrade frame to battery ground. We never use seat bolts and we fix noise and amp issues in 5-min. by moving grounds from seat bolts all the time. Just did it the other day, actually. Guy grounded his damn amp to the seat bolt, shaved paint, all that kind of stuff. Moved it inches over and put a bolt through the floor - issue gone.


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## lurice0 (Jun 10, 2015)

yea you guys are right. i'm NOT going to do the seat belt bolt. Its just that i was re-doing my ground with 0 gauge, and i was re-tightening the bolt and it would start to get tight, then it would POP and be loose again. I can't get it tight. It just keeps turning and popping. I am using a lock washer. What's up with that?


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