broken ground wire near flasher relay

[Lz7w]

when starting to lay out the wiring harness in the trunk, I noticed that this brown wire is broken, and its adjacent wire has been modified. I think this is wiring for the flasher relay (these 2 pieces should mount behind the fuel gauge), and the brown wire with the crimp maybe runs to the door open/closed switch(?). can anyone help me understand how this is supposed to be wired? thanks for your help!

[edmayo]

Just use an ohm meter and see if the original harness wire is still grounded. Then see if the butt connected dark brown wire is grounded. If it is then there was no need for the scabbed on wire to be there, unless it grounds thru some added on switch. Follow the dark brown wire and see where it goes! That original ground wire probably grounded at the ground stud near the hood strut mount. Maybe some one left it off.

[Lz7w]

thanks, Ed! I'll give that a try with the original brown wire and see where it takes me once some of the other ground wires are in place. the dark brown wire is disconnected since I'm in the process of reinstalling the harness after paintwork.

[pocketscience]

I think you'll find the original brown runs from the blinker flasher relay to the headlight flasher relay.. and is connected to the ground loop.. at least it does on the schematic.. The dark brown should go to ground somewhere otherwise the blinker flasher unit won't operate.

[Lz7w]

I got back to this today, and with some consultation of the wiring diagram, I think I now understand what you guys were saying:

the silver cylinder is "headlight flasher changeover relay" (50) and the black cube is "direction warning blinker indicator" (48) in the diagram...so the dark brown wire replaces the ground wire that usually goes from 48 -> 50 -> ground loop connection in the trunk.

do I have that right?

it seems odd to have that separate ground (poorly) spliced in rather than an "inline" repair, but maybe there's a continuity issue with the existing ground wire? guess I'll check that out next like Ed suggested. thanks folks!