So I was reading through the installation manual I found here on the forum for the Rotary Engineering 36DCD carbs I just acquired. It includes instruction on the installation of their exhaust system.

Anyway there is direction to " Remember to reinstall the radio groung strap on the right rear muffler hanger".

I have had my '79 since it was new and have no memory of it ever having such a thing.

My question is why would you need it and what would it actually do?

 

its really not a necessity as i've had 7's with a broken grounding strap on the muffler hanger and the radio worked just fine. it is an oem installed part and if you would like i can provide a picture of it.

 

I just never knew there was such a thing.

Thanks for the info, pic not necessary.

 

Its just an extra ground strap that provides a local ground for the rear of the car
that works via the exhaust grounding through the block ground. Its about a
quarter of an inch wide and fastens under the right rear taillight. If you look hard
you should see some of it still dangling there. Its easy to rip it apart plus it might
have rusted away.

 

I'd love to get a picture of this as well. Especially where it mounted on the body. I have never seen one before.

 

I also have never seen one. I'm going to need to get under my new car and see if it has one.

 

This is interesting... My original radio had really terrible reception. I tried several different antennas, even amplified models, and even replaced the antenna wire to the radio. But none of this made any difference.

So I replaced the radio with another (stock) unit. Before I placed it into the dash, I hooked it all up and tested it. Great reception! However, while the unit was still on I slid it into the dash, and as soon as it contacted the metal framework the reception went to hell again.

Later I upgraded to a HD Head Unit. Reception is okay, but not good. I wonder if this could have something to do with this ground strap?





.

 

My radio also has really bad reception

 

i'll post a picture of this once my camera finishes charging

 

Wow, your camera must have a huge battery. Five whole days to charge!

 

Maybe the ground strap to his charger is missing!

 

lol i totally forgot to respond to this. the camera takes about five hours to charge.. its an older sony 7.2 mega pixel with a lithium ion battery. i'll get the pic and post it up

 

ok, with the muffler hanging down a bit you can see the ground strap on the right side mounting stud:



with the muffler bolted back up, the ground strap is virtually hidden:



i will take some more pics of different angles of the 7's ground straps and post them up. my 85 GS seems to be missing the ground strap but i'll check my 85 GSL. the pics were from my 80 LS

 

Weird. Never had anything like that.

 

I'll be replacing my muffler today to a RB muffler on my GSL-SE. I'll take pics if I have one.

 

My GSL-SE does have it as well. It looks exactly like the one on Dave's car.

 

Very few of the 7s I've run across still have the ground strap. From the ones I've seen, it's a braided strap as opposed to a wire. Had no idea it was for the radio. How Mazda figured that one out is anybody's guess.