where is the best spot to ground amps in the rear? right now im just using what was in the car when i got it, which was behind the back seats, towards the bottom.

where the lower section of carpet begins, its pulled back and a hole is drilled there. i grinded off all the paint so its bare metal, but i think i may be getting noise from there. its a 4 gauge ground straight to my nine.1 sub amp, and i dont think there is any distortion from them, but its a lot harder to hear from subs.
my kenwood 35x4 is done with 8 gauge, same as the power wire, but it will be replaced in a couple days with an orion 8004 with 4 gauge.
i dont have the wire on the rcas hooked up to anything. what are these for, do you hook it to the head units ground and to the amp ground?

i hear the noise whether the car is started or not, havent really done much testing but i know how to use a multimeter, just am not sure what to look for and where. i understand there is a method to check the quality of a ground spot, how is this done?

 

i usualy ground to seatbelt mounting bolts. they are direct to frame. in my rear hatch the i drilled a hole in the fender lip and put a large bolt in it. it workes great.

 

fender lip, eh?

dunno about that... but you can drill pretty much anywhere on the rear wall, put in a screw and a lockwasher and call it a day..

 

The RCAs are used to send the signal from the H/U to the amp i ono how ur doing it but you might wanna expalin it a lil better....

as for the ground.... take the plastic offa the seatbelt housing and there is a bolt that holds that on.... no paint or nething just an easy ground

 

on expensive rcas, they have the normal l and r rca cables, but in between them, attached to the cord is a small wire. i dont know if this is only there to be used as a handy remote wire or what?

 

the biggest thing about grounding the amps i would suppose is where they are located in the back.. Mine are in the well, and so i x'ed the carpet.. and grounded them to the bottom of the well.

 

you're saying to ground it to the big thick bolt that goes in the buckle part of the seatbelt? the bolt is pretty thick, about 3/4 inch around, where do i find a ring terminal that will do around that for 0/1 gauge? or is there a better way than ring terminals?

 

it's definitely not a remote wire! you don't want 12v travelling so close to your RCAs...

it's a grounding wire for the RCAs... one to the headunit, one to your amplifier... unnecessary.

 

blah grounding it to the amp and the H/U is just adding another path for current to flow ne hows so i really dont see the point...

BTW if the ring terminal doesnt fit on the bolt you can drill it out to fit... i had to do that for my power wire ring terminal

 

i would but the 0/1 gauge ring terminals i have are barely any wider than the bolt, there would be maybe 1/8th inch of metal on each side. plus the terminals are thick as hell, almost a half inch thick so it would take forever to grind it out. guess i need to find some different ring terminals.

what is the purpose of the rca ground if its not necessary? i've never hooked mine up but the wire is still there, exposed on both ends.

there is just a little bit of corrosion on my bolt, just the normal for an 18 year old car. do i need to grind this off where the ring terminal will contact it? there was a plastic piece between the bolt and the frame, so the terminal wouldnt be directly on the frame. sorry for all the questions, i just want to get this ground done right, and i need it in 0/1 gauge so i can split it to 4 gauge for each of my amps, they're both pretty power hungry.

 

yea corrosiong = bad juju.. lol clean that crap off to make a good connection....

also you want to most contact as possible so id say look for wither a diff ground or diff rings.

FYI plastic = insulator aka impedes current flow which is bad for grounds.. id say find a better spot

 

when you said to remove the plastic cover from the seat belt assembly, did you mean the buckle that the belt fastens into? thats what i took apart.

or did you mean the rolling mechanism of it? i also have that panel off.

the plastic piece im talking about looks more like its for keeping water and such kicked up from underneath the car outside. its not like a plastic spacer or anything. is right underneath the torx bolt that holds in the buckle side of it.

 

my last system i had with my amps in the wells, i found a ground pre-existing near the hatch anchor behind the panel. took off the two bolts and theres access to sone good spots there. if you were already pulling panels to hide wires before, just go straight to the back.

 

 

lol disclaimer.... dont drill into the hump the is directly behind the seats.. unless you want to figure out the easiest way to make a gas leak into the car....


i was talking about the plastic cover for the rolling mech.

 

again with the hump... i've never been able to get someone to clarify this for me. where is it that you are not supposed to drill, it it DIRECTLY behind the back seats, what you see when you fold them down, the part that they lay again?
or is it the flat platform in the hatch area, between the back seats and the well?

 

that whole back area is pretty much fuel tank lol.. I know mine is right up against the front part of the well, and i believe it gets pretty close to where the seats are

 

I did say "rear wall," because I figured that was self-explanatory... Maybe not.... but I meant the rear-most 'wall' of the car. (the place where the taillights are)

Find a spot and make a nice ground... and forget about drilling into the hump... any way you look at it, it's pretty dangerous...

the only thing I could see is if you were to remove the gas tank, and drill the hole, then use some sort of plastic fastener (like all the door panels use... that'd probably be fine...

 

i wasnt planning on drilling there i have just never been able to get a straight answer about that. i've always had short screws mounting my amps on the platform, but i think im going to mount my nine.1 in the back of my seat. not sure if my orion 8004 will fit in the seat, its about 2 feet long.

i pulled up the carpet in front of the rollout mechanism, and found the bolt i think you were talking about, its also very thick, same type of bolt as the buckle side has. what i did was drill a hole in front of there, on the angled part so i can use a thick *** ring terminal that wont sit flat on a level surface. (round part comes a little lower than the bottom of the ring part.)

i used a split washer that i flattened out, a small but long machine bolt, nut, and 3 small lock washers. i put some dielectric grease on the points of contact. i grinded off the paint on the inside of the car, but not where the lock washer and nut are on the underneath of the car. seems like it should be a pretty good ground, but im still getting a little bit of noise. its mostly just noticable on the front and rear speakers, but if i get right up to the woofers i can hear just a bit of noise even if theres no music. i hate tracking this type of stuff down.

whats next for trying to isolate the bad ground? i have a spare car battery sitting around, should i hook up my amps directly to that? i still need a fused power wire for this right?

 

meh.. check all grounds.... to all amps, and the H/U. then check ur RCAs... are they away from any source of power... check and double check everything.. if all the wires are fine send ur amp in to get checked out or ask NEEDAZ how to use a DMM to check it

 

are you planning on installing it in the back of your seat, or the back seat?

 

into the back of the back seat. i got the orion 8004 today, and its too big to fit in the seat, so it'll just be my nine.1 mounted there.

 

I don't think you can mount a NINe.1 like that man... mounting it sideways is not too good for these amps... from what I've heard, but it won't kill it... the fact that it won't have any airflow, or reduced airflow is what really worries me....

I'm building a stealth amp-rack right now that I will essentially be covering the amp with 3/4" MDF/HDF... I will be cutting about 6 holes for 12v fans to drag air across the amp... otherwise it will be an investment that will perish early...

btw, does your NINe.1 get hot? mine's always warm, low volume or high volume.... not much of a difference... but right now it's in a nice, open, air-breathing environment...

 

not really, its at 1 ohm turned up about 3/4 of the way, and it just gets warm. you could leave your hand on it. i have the 0/1 gauge ran from the battery now, and the orion installed. i have both amps grounded with a 4 gauge for each, to a hole i drilled below where the seatbelt mount, on the drivers side.
now i get a LOT more power, my amps never cut out anymore either. hits really, really hard.

im not getting any noise now when the car is turned off anymore, i used to get the same noise whether the engine was running or not. now its only when the engine is running, and gets louder with the rpms so im guess its alternator whine. i heard somewhere to ground the chassis of the alternator to the engine, is that right? should i do that in 4 gauge also?

 

the alternator is grounded by the bracket it's installed with.... you may want to add an EXTRA engine ground, if you feel so inclined... but also, why don't you have a 0/1 guage ground for your NINe.1 to accompany the 0/1 power wire?

 

yeah...assuming your power & ground lines were the same length (which they never are), the ground should be a gauge or two smaller (larger diameter conductor).

 

Actually, I could have sworn they need to be the same...

power in

power out

obviously the wire is short for the ground, but still a specific guage of wire has an amperage rating... which you should not exceed.

 

As you state, the ground needs to be at least as large as the + and they both need to be heavy enough to handle the current flow, but a larger ground will help with noise to an extent. Having a much shorter run of ground to the body has the approximate effect of a larger conductor as the shorter run can carry more current without resistive losses. I agree, there is no problem with running the same gauge for both -- I merely say this to help control noise. Since most everyone buys a different part number of wire for the ground (as in the color of the insulation), there really is no inconvenience in getting a larger diameter while they're at it.

 

i am going to as soon as i find a local shop that will sell me a short length of 0/1 gauge. dont want to buy 20 feet when i only need 3. planning on having 0/1 gauge from the same ground spot, to a splitter for 2 4 gauge wires, same as the power side.

 

There are many different things which can add to/introduce noise into the system, but more than adequate grounding is one thing which helps to reduce noise.

As for your grounding...If I remember correctly, one 0 gauge is equal to about 2.52 4 gauge wires. So it looks like you're on good track.

 

no terminal, wire brush the contact area, strip three inches of wire and wrap it around the bolt (clockwise) and tighten. perfect contact.