how to get true "Ground"" on the boat

[icemanbryan]

Bryan,
Some equipment (Furuno comes to mind) have external ground posts on the outside of the housing...basically a "chassis" ground.  This goes to the ground buss as well...

HF,
Yes, I've seen grounds run from jack plates, also I've seen grounds run from steering cylinders.  In fact, Teleflex sells a ground strap particularly for this reason.  In theory, all the external parts connected to the engine should achieve a ground path through the engine, ultimately the zinc.  But here in west central Florida, it seems jack plates and cylinders can suffer some abnormal electrolysis effects, and I'm not sure of the reason why.  If all is installed properly, the engine zincs should absorb all the ill effects, sacrificing themselves for the betterment of the other components.  But at times, the components themselves are being sacrificed rather than the zincs.  Really doesn't make sense from an electrical standpoint, but it happens.  I mean, why would Teleflex develop a part if it wasn't occurring?...http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/us ... ?pid=63771

When my boat was rewired that grounding strap was added on.

[seabob4]

If you have a bronze pickup for raw water is there anything wrong with connecting grounds to this? I know my pickup has a ground wire to it.

I would think that sure, you could connect grounds to the bronze thru hull but I believe the primary purpose of "bonding" the thru hull is to again guard against galvanic corrosion of the parts that could result in eventual failure (think sinking). Those bonding wires all should terminate back at the ground, either the buss or battery negative post with the latter being probably the best point of connection but again, I'll defer to a higher authority on this.

Bob, you are absolutely correct.  Although, if you are reasonably certain of the integrity of your boats electrical system, terminating at the ground bus is fine.  I like to keep battery terminals with the minimum of terminations on them.  And remember, per ABYC, no more than 4 terminations on any battery post.  Speaking of ABYC, Section E-11, AC and DC systems for boats, is now available in PDF form directly from ABYC, http://www.abycinc.org/committees/.%5CE-11.pdf.  It is a bit old (2003), as E-11 was updated in '08 and will be again in '13.  But basically the changes have been extremely minor, so the one from '03 is an excellent guide to follow.  Boring reading, but all the good stuff is in there...

[HIFLUTIN]

So I should run a ground wire from my jackplate to "what" on my Outboard?
I plan on keeping the boat in the water & have know that West FL effect

[seabob4]

So I should run a ground wire from my jackplate to "what" on my Outboard?
I plan on keeping the boat in the water & have know that West FL effect

HF,
You either run it to the ground bus in the stern (if you don't want to mess with engine rigging), or, if it's relatively easy, terminate where the negative cable terminates on your powerhead...