Whatever part, motor, or electrical load that ground is for will not work. For instance, a motor is an electrical load, put power to it -it won't operate without a path to ground after the load. A lighting bulb is an electrical load. Send power to it. and the bulb won't light, power will not travel through the bulb filament making it bright, without a path to ground after the bulb. Every electrical load has to have a path to ground, or it will not work-the reason for the term "circuit"-every wiring circuit (starting circuit, light circuit, ignition circuit, etc.) begins at the power source and ends at the power source. The ground completes the circuit back to earth (ground), and as you know, all grounds go to metal frame, and thus go back to the battery. If the circuit is not complete, the electrical load will not operate. See?
Another example of the strange ways of electricity: lets say your heater blower motor doesn't work. You pull off the electrical connector to it and find that the blower has voltage to it. So you think bad motor, right? But if the ground wire is loose after the motor, that power at the connector will not travel through the motor making it run if the ground is not there.
Another: a starter motor does not have a ground wire but still works. Like many other electrical loads, the starter is "case grounded". When you bolt up a starter and tighten the bolts, you are case grounding the starter motor. power flows through the motor and to ground. Many cigarette lighters are examples of case grounding.
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