its mounted on a box in the back well area.I would like to ground it to the metal body behind the rear glove box is this o.k? Or is there a better place in the back area?thanks

 

try to use a factory bolt. but make sure you use a star washer, and make sure to scrape away all the paint to bare metal. the only thing you need to make sure of is that you make a good, solid connection to bare metal.

 

is there a factory ground bolt in the back anywhere?My amp kit came with only 4 feet of ground wire.And does the amp and the remote turn on ground(from stereo) have to go to the same place/ground or is it just better?thanks

 

there isn't a factory ground bolt specifically for this. but look behind one of the panels within reach, find any factory bolt that looks like it would be a good ground and use that. try not to use a spot thats already being used as a ground for another amp or else it will cause a hiss or humming in your system.if you take the panel off thats covering the hatch catch, there should be plenty of options. as for the remote turn on, it's blue from the radio and should NOT be grounded. it should be run from the radio to the remote turn-on input on the amp. the radio doesn't need to be grounded in the same spot as the amp. just use the factory ground behind the radio and that will work perfectly.
:hail:

 

well I hooked everything up and when I start the car Im gettin a terrible noise(hum) threw the speakers.So I guess my ground isnt good?thanks

 

make sure that your power wire is ran on the opposite side of the car from the rca's. if these run within 12 inches of each other and are parallel, it will cause noise. if that has been done, try a different ground.

 

thanks for the help.I did have the wires on the same side.I switched the rca's to the passenger side and it seems better but its still there.its only with the car running,not in the on position(ignition).and its making some weird popping noises(threw speakers) when the key is turned on and off.Maybe before I had 2 problems and now I have one?the ground.Im gonna move that and see.I will let ya now what happens.thanks

 

For best results DO NOT USE A FACTORY BOLT. Most bolts in cars have a special coating on them to prevent rusting, this also reduces their conductivity. Although they will work they are not the best way because they won't give %100 connection. The best thing is to find a piece of body panel under carpet or something, scrape a small patch of the paint off and put a screw in there to ground. Also remember to check your factory body ground at the battery. There should be one ground going to the engine block from the battery(probably a 4AWG ground) and there is also one going from the battery to the body(or atleast there should be) Make sure this is atleast the same size as your amps ground for best results

 

I have all the grounds at the battery,to block,to body,etc.I tried another factory bolt and no change.Im gonna try the screw threw the body in the taillight area.This doesnt have anything to do with the amp being mounted to the box and only a few inches ,if that from the woofer,does it?Let ya know in a few minutes.

 

the ground going from the battery to the body is not 8ga like the amp,its pretty small.could this be causing this?

 

could be. make sure the power and ground are the same size.

 

Definately use the same size.

I grounded my amps on that chunk of metal that the hatch-pull-down unit bolts to. I drilled a hole, and used a self-cutting sheetmetal screw with two star washers- one on each side of the crimp-on ring-terminal. Keep your ground wire as short as you can... and try not to let the power/ground wires come near the preamp wires. If they -have- to, DON'T run them parallel with each other- they'll pick up noise like crazy! Cross the power wires with the preamp wires exactly like a "+" sign, at 90 degree angles. That's physics; it'll stop the magnetic field of one wire from entering the other wire.

And like Beene said, check the ground strap. You can look at the one that goes from the back of your engine block to the firewall... mine was all mangled and rusty looking. I replaced it with a thick sucker from Summit Racing. Or, you can simply add another ground wire- run it from the battery's negative terminal to the chassis. That might be the best way to go for you.

 

thats where I have it grounded is to the pull down mount.The wires are no where near each other.I replaced the battery to body ground but not the engine to body.I also noticed the battery ground is running to the smog bracket,is this right,shouldnt it go directly to block?Im gonna give it one more shot and then try mute cords on the amp,someone said to try that to make sure its not the amp.thanks

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...threadid=73070

 

flip the carpet up from the rear seats and look on the rear deck above wher the gas tank is. don't put any screws through that!!!! there is some metal that is raised up and has about an inch of clearance,I swear GM put this there for grounding an amp!! use 50 grit sand paper or a dremel/wire brush (don't forget the s/glasses) expose a 1" diameter section of metal until it's pure shiny metal,use a heavy duty copper loop terminal (sold for any size wire at lowes or autozone type places) crimp that ***** onto the end of you ground wire with a large hammer or vise,use the abrasives to prepare the contacting side of this terminal the same as you did on the chassis,find a sheet metal hex or phillips screw that with thread properly and secure your ground.drill an UNDER-SIZED hole in the center of the prepped area on the body,apply some solder flux or silicone to the contacting surfaces(any kind of electrical corriosion inhibitor will do) tighten the sheet metal screw & star washers down firm,wipe away the excess grease w/some carb cleaner and hit it w/some primer,test your continuity with a multimeter if you have one,it should be a solid "beep" or read 000.00 ohms on the ohm-meter.

your noise is most likey from a ground loop. check all your grounds pertaining to the stereo system,use the shortest grounding wires possible. all of the above is good advice too. use an old school power supply noise filter for the HU.... if all else fails. that fixed an ignition buzz I had in my '80 mark VI's stock stereo w/eq booster. ($15 system!!),the filter was like,$2 out of JC whitney,I may even have a couple at my mothers house that I would be happy to get rid of!

 

L8r

 

junkyarddog I just replaced my carpet and remember this piece your talking about.thanks for all the help everyone.JYD im in va.After getting much advise im convinced I just tried to rush this too much.Im gonna take all the wires out start over with new grounds,and use the area described by JYD.I think I need to re-do the head unit wiring also.I got the ok from the seller to send the amp back for a replacement,but It seems no one thinks thats the problem.Does it not make a differance that the sound did not get worse or change when I moved the ground wire 3 times,just wondering?thanks

 

You mean that chunk of metal "dead center" under the carpet, in the hatch, right about where the hatch slopes down for the hatch well? That was for taking a full size spare tire! Yep, you could get a full size spare in your Firebird that would take up the whole cargo area!

What kind of preamp (RCA) cords are you using? You're not using the ones from the amp kit, right? How much was the amp kit? Spend $25-30 on RCA's... no less. The more you spend now, the less you'll spend later. If bought correctly, RCA's can last through many stereo systems.

Keep in mind what I said, too, about how you should cross RCA cables and power cables. That goes for the wiring by the head unit, too. If you run the RCA's parallel with any wires, you'll pick up noise. You need to make them cross at 90 degree angles.

If by running the RCA's down the passenger side of the car, you need to run "with" factory wires, then it's time to move the RCA's. Pull out the passenger seat (4 10mm bolts). Tuck the RCA's under the carpet, further away from the door sills.

Hey, what kind of carpet did you put in? I put in an ACC carpet two years ago, and man, it really made the car look 100% better!

Oh and GndPrx/Carl, you just ruined my day. Your car is too CLEAN in that spot. Dammit! I am unbelievably jealous. (sigh)

 

that's a good pic grnprx! exactly what i was talking about,I used the piece of metal that's flush with the rest of the metal on top of the f-tank but has clearance under it,so the screws won't puncture through the outside to the fuel tank,it's on the pass side next to the spare tire panel. i used that location because my amps were right on top and I set them so that the power lead was next to the edge of the carpet. my 4 gauge ground wire was only 6" long! I still had some current problems though,my JL Audio 500/1 and decrepid battery didn't help much.

 

Thanks for the compliments...

The power and ground are 1/0awg wire and the ground is connected with 2 10mm bolts and a grounding terminal. The bolts actually go through two chunks of sheetmetal where a joint is, so for a unibody car that is about as good as it's going to get.

Unibody has so many joints and welds that any spot is going to have some loss, but that's what we have to live with in later model cars.

 

the amp kit cost me $45.00 and yes I used the rca cables that came with it.When I say the rcs cables are on the pass. side I mean not mounted,just in the air laying on the seats pretty much.I have moved them around by hand with the system on and no change.I have also moved them around at the deck.I think the ground or the amp is the problem at this point.And after trying the ground 3 diff. places,its ard to believe at this point the 4th is gonna be any better.Could the amp be too far,its in the well area in the back.How about I hook the amp to he 2 kenwood 6x9s and see if I have the noise.Wouldnt that rule out a problem in the box/woofers?anyway I will keep goin.thanks

 

Okay, let's start this over from step one...

You have noise...is it alternator whine? Does the pitch increase when you press the gas?

Here are the steps you need to do to begin isolating the problem...

NOTE: This is assuming that you are running from the deck direct to the amp with no processors or breaks in the signal chain in between.

1. Disconnect the RCA's from the back of the radio but leave them connected to the amp. Turn on the system and check for noise. If noise goes away then the problem is originating at the head unit.

If noise still exists...

2. Disconnect the RCA's from the amplifier. Connect a shorted out end of an RCA (muteing plug as it has been called in the previous post) into the amp inputs. If the noise goes away then the problem is originating in the RCA's.

If noise still exists...

3. Unmount your amplifier from it's current location and relocate to different areas while listening for the presence of noise.

- If the noise goes away when you unbolt the amp, make sure that you are not mounting the amp to any metal components of the body. You may be grounding the amp through the chassis creating your grounding issues.

At this point there should be no noise left in the system if all of the above steps have been followed to isolate the source of the problem.

Once the source is determined you can then work on a remedy.

- If it is in the head unit, reground the headunit to another grounding point. If that doesn't work, remove the radio from the mounting sleeve and check for noise with the radio lying away from the center console preferable while the radio is lying on the carpet. This isolates the radio from touching any metal source and takes it away from potential electronics in the dash causing problems. If any of the above solve the problem your radio may have a problem with an internal ground or sheilding requiring service.

- If it is in the RCA, remove the head unit and lay it away from the center console as suggested above and proceed to run your RCA from the radio directly to the amplifier through your interior. Do not run it under the carpet or through any wire bundles or metal at this point. If the noise is gone, try with the radio in it's normal home. If it comes back then there is something in your center console area causing the problem and you may try a different brand/style of RCA. If you are using Twisted Pair, try co-ax instead...

So basically isolate and then troubleshoot....don't just take random chances at what the problem may be.

He||, I've even seen bad spark plug wires or ignition coils cause engine whine in systems.

 

I did the removing the radio from center console,and moving the rca cables with no change.I will do all your other sugg.and post back later.thanks

 

oh-and I have another set of rcas I will try.

 

okay-I went outand unhooked the rca from the deck and left plugged ito amp.Turned on system and no noise.Cant see what this tells.Isnt this just going threw the 4 reg speakers and system?Again I dont know.So anyway I then changed to the other rca cables I have and hooked everything up and the same noise again.I didnt do the short thing to the amp yet because im still not sure what to do and dont wanna burn anything up.I did notice when I move the ground on the deck it makes some noise threw the speakers which tells me theres a problem with that maybe?It runs from the radio,then poorly spliced into the factory harness.Should I just run this to a new point like under the dash?

 

Like I said earlier, It's probobly the ground
:hail:

 

Nah, it's not your ground. A VERY small percentage of problems come from the grounding point.

You unhooked your RCA's, and got no noise. Do the same thing, but with muting plugs.

I think you need to list what kind of head unit, RCA cables, amp, etc., that you have. So far, it sound like it's either the RCA cables, or the receiver itself.

 

yeh,after moving the ground 3 times I dont think its that anymore either.The kit is made by scothchs or something like that,thats on the wire and I got it from a local car audio store.The head unit is a jvc,cant think of model sittin here but its around 3 years old ,a cd player,35x4.It came from my mothers jeep,it works fine but never had amp hooked to it until now.The woofer box came from the same jeep but is only 4 months old,it doesnt have a name on it.It was bought at circuit city.I think its the amp or the wiring at the head unit.I am gonna re-do that and if i still get the noise then I will try another amp.thanks

 

Kit's made by Scoche?

Look into some Lighting Audio preamp cords... spend $25-30. Are you using a separate wire to turn the amp on, or are you using a "built-in turn-on lead" that's in the center of the preamp cords?

 

I dont think it is spelled that way,I will have to go out and look at the wire,dont have package.I know it said something like that.Anyway if the whole kit cost around $45 then I dont think the rcas are worth but maybe $10.So I will give that a try(new RCAs).My turn on lead comes out of the radio in the harness with all the other wires.The rca outs are on the other side of the radio,I noticed right next to the antenne lead.I have tried unplugging that too.When I turn the key on right before the cd plays there is a deep bass sound then it goes away when the song starts.thanks

 

hooked up some monster cable rcas I had,9ft. instead of the 15 ft.I was using before,still have the noise.Hooked amp to a test speaker,still noise.moved amp,still noise,replaced radio ground,still noise.Gonna send amp back and get another.If it still does it I will buy a new cd player.thanks to all.