Unneeded ground?

[gandyrail]

I have a black 12g ground wire from a plenum corner bolt across the fire wall to one of the bolts holding the heat sink fo rhte coil in my 1981 2000. Does anyone else have one or was this added for some reason by a PO

[azruss]

On an FI car I have 2 grounds on the plenum. They are both necessary and factory

[vandor]

It usually goes from the coil heat sink to one of the rear camcover nuts. All cars with electronic ignition have this.

[gandyrail]

Thanks both of you, I'll keep the wire , it sure looks redundant but not hurting anything - reading vendor post again says from the cam tower bolt not the plenum bolt maybe the PO left the wire off until the assembly was done and put it on top

[4uall]

this is what mine look like fyi

[bradartigue]

Thanks both of you, I'll keep the wire , it sure looks redundant but not hurting anything - reading vendor post again says from the cam tower bolt not the plenum bolt maybe the PO left the wire off until the assembly was done and put it on top

Typical on an FI car is a ground from the exhaust camshaft tower rear cover, one from the transmission to the body, one from the engine mount to the same mounting lug as the coil, two on the plenum from the FI wiring harness. While this may seem excessive it was really the first time FIAT had reached near adequate grounding on these cars.

Perhaps it helps to explain that the FI system on these cars "floats" above the motor. In one sense it has almost no common connection to the rest of the car. Unlike a modern engine, where the "fuel management system" is integrated into the very core of the power plant, assisting in both engine and transmission optimization, L-Jetronic (on the Spider) served only to deliver and manage fuel. No knock sensors, angle sensors, air density, etc. sensors. Those grounds serve the FI system harness, which is not integrated into the rest of the harness.