Does trying to start car without ground strap damage alternator or ECU?
 

??

Which groundstrap?

Firewall to engine (under brake master)
?
Powerplant frame to chassis?

ECU direct ground wire?

Short answer, probably not. As long as the ECU itself is grounded yu are probably OK. I drove one of my vehicles with the ground strap to the ex. just hanging off for like a year.

Near the dispstick.

The 99/00 doesn't have one between the PPF and chassis.

cars with a stock real OPG will see the OPG stop working with that ground removed.

I forgot to put the ecu ground lug back on the intake manifold/valve cover area yesterday and ran the car around the block. Yeah....I was trying to figure out which plug was not firing and couldn't find it. So far everything seems to be ok.

I did this once with one of the GND straps off the trans after a swap and melted every ground wire in the car on my VW. That was a bad week.

Well the factory ECU's alternator control function, and the Innovate LC-1 wideband's analog output, are dead.

I installed my alternator control circuit in order to run the car.

Sorry to threadjack, but partially on topic and timely. Where are guys grounding the engine and ECU? My 1.6 had a ground lug on the back of the block, driver's side, my 1.8 does not. My ground cable won't reach to one of the 10 mil bolts on the front side of block for unused brackets. I'm thinking about maybe running this cable to the driver's side engine mount bolt, then wiring up a lugged bond from one of the 10 mil bolts on the front, to the engine mount, to the back of the head, to the back of the intake mani. Then maybe I'll run another engine ground to body to the back of the head. IIRC, my MS was grounded to a lug on the back of the old intake mani from the 1.6. What think?

BTW a follow up, the answer to my own question is NO.

The LC1 needed reprogramming, the alternator somehow started charging again when I let the ECU control it again.