I took the body lift out of my 91 tracker one evening.  Then when I fired it up to drive out of the shop the Check engine light was on.  I looked under the hood and found the main ground wire had fallen off.  I was not too sure where it was bolted to so I bolted it to the top mount of the alternator which was also missing the nut.  It didn't fix the problem.  It sputters on cold start and has "flat spots" in the accelleration.  Any ideas what it might be?  It's kinda frustrating cause I put a turbo in it but it's not running as well as it aught to.  I took it into a shop (not my idea of a good time, I prefer to fix it myself) but the scan would only temporarily clear the codes.  I thought maybe a new 02 sensor, but that didn't fix it either.  I thought also maybe a bad ground.  Where does it bolt on to yours?

the ground wire on my truck goes from the firewall to one of the bolts holding the distibutor down. what code did you get when the truck was scanned?

derek

The mechanic said that someone screwed up my computer because he could not read the codes.  I've done nothing to the computer.  It has worked fine until now.  I do have a ground wire that goes to the distributor.  But the large 4 guage main ground from the battery,  where does it go?

the computer is not screwed up the switch under the dash needs to swithed to be able to read the codes just went through the same thing. pull out the speaker or switches on the drivers side should be in there or my other kick has it hanging off the back of the gauges. Hope this helps let me know how it goes...

IIRC the mainground wire goes to the lower mounting bolt of the starter motor.

if you cranked the moter over with the main ground off you could fry electronic components because the voltage has to find a new path and it will run through things its not suppost too.