Is it acceptable to ground the solenoid to the transmission pan?

Trans man told me the solenoid draws 8 Amps. Is a 20 amp fuse okay?

I hope so, that's how mine is wired and I've never had a problem with it working, except for when I forgot to plug the power wire back in.......

Mine is grounded to the pan bolt also.

Tip - Make sure the wires are not on the back of solenoid where said solenoid will eventually rub through the wire and the transbrake will not work. Just hypothetically speaking, lol.

If the torque converter pin welds itself in the crankshaft, at least you'll know why.

better have one hell of fuse in that line for it to weld itself thru transmission pan,thru transmission and probably take few amps to get that to melt together.

Any trans builder worth a dam will tell you NO. Ground should go directly to the battery or to the frame at a common ground point with a ground wire back to the battery. TB solinoid is one of the most important components on your car, why would you not want to give it the best chance of operating correctly because of a simple ground wire?

AND you will sleep better at night. ^^^ lol

Just went through this with a friend. Hey, what's that wire to that pan for? That an electric pan or something? He didn't think it was funny...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TD3550,

I have mine grounded on plastic fan shroud which is bolted to metal. My neighbor said his buddy's 67 Firebird in high school was done in this fashion. SOOoooo!

Crossmember

Blowing smoke seems popular on this topic!

I've seen plenty grounded to the pan and they worked. Mine's grounded to the main ground which goes to the battery. Easy enough to run 2 wires and install a quick connect, I used a weatherpak, and my spare solenoid is setup with the same connector so it's easy to swap and the ground is good.

As long as the engine is properly grounded it's not going to make a difference.

FYI, I watched a video where they tested a direct ground to battery vs. grounding to the body. They checked for voltage drop across the ground. They used a 2/0 battery cable going from an amplifier that went directly to the battery ground from the amp, using all gold plated terminals. The second test was grounding the amp to the body panels in the back of the car. Believe it or not, there was more voltage drop on the direct ground than there was on the body ground. In case you're wondering, if you have more than a total voltage drop of .5 volts across the entire system, you have too much. In that test they had nearly a full volt on the dedicated ground, less than .1 on the body ground.....

I wouldn't advise grounding the trans solenoid to a trans pan bolt going through an aluminum pan and case.

On my Firebird the solenoid is grounded to the frame, same with my dragster as Big Steve explained.

The aluminum in the trans case and engine block if you run an aluminum block is a better conductor than chromoly is. Regardless of how you have it grounded, if your engine/chassis is properly grounded, it's very doubtful you'll ever have an issue, and as long as you keep the connections clean and tight.

We don't recommend grounding through the trans either.

just for comparison google 5r110 welded pump bushing or something similar. I've seen converters removed with snatch chains after an improperly grounded trans welded the pump bushing to the converter.

-Dalton

Great information people and thanks for sharing. I'll ground it to the starter bolt where my main ground cable is.

I thought the trans pan might be a little sketchy, but then I thought about how internal solenoids aren't grounded externally so I thought I better ask.

I helped a fellow racer repair a header at race track one day he has his grounded to collector bolt I questioned it said been that multiple seasons

I've grounded to the trans pan forever with no issues.
With a steel trans mount less then a foot from the solenoid there might be micro amps that stray else where.

And those with internal solenoids???