Light Bar Repaint Question

[mgambuzza]

Removed, repainted, and tonight I'll reassemble my light bar and horn assembly tonight. Before I do this, an item came to mind and wanted to ask the people on here from past experience. I just remembered the bar probably serves as the positive ground for the lights and horn?? Do I need to sand off paint in any particular area to ensure a good ground on the headlights and horn? I wasn't sure whether that or the bolts when they tighten on the fenders and on the headlamps provide the "good enough" ground for these items.

 

[ahirt]

Just did the same thing last week.. I did not sand any areas but I did clean the bolt holes well as well as the threads on the bolts themselves. I then used Loctite Copper Antiseize 8008 on the mounting holes and bolts. This antiseize is advertised as being highly conductive. When I checked the ground it was very good.

 

[Badpuppy]

ahirt has a good solution. The method I use is to clamp a wire to each conduit inside the radiator shell and run to the forward hood latch screw under the frame. Use a star washer to cut through frame paint. Eliminates the bar and fenders completely.

 

[CarlG]

The horn does not depend on a ground path thru the headlight bar. I always run a separate ground for the headlights.

 

[hazelhoff]

I had the same issue, headlight ground I mean. I usually wrap some copper wire around the bar-to-fender bolts before putting them in. An old farmers trick ... on old tractors the rear fender lights always failed. We simply jammed a copper nail between the fender and the rear axle housing ...

Henk

 

[mgambuzza]

Thanks All for your suggestions - Success!! Took a bit of each suggestion. After painting, when reassembling, used star washers on the fenders, used some copper wire to wrap on bolt, and copper antiseize. I will admit I was initially worried it wouldn't work, but when all tightened and the switch thrown - all lighting worked, and horn still operated - thankfully no broken wiring!