well after attempting this many times.. one 1100 hu and almost my backup hu, im asking for the best place to ground the amp is.. i currently have itgrounded to the chassis bolt.. please give ur advise..

thanks
blake

 

That is fine, just as long as the connection is connected to bare metal, free from any paint. Whenever I ground my amps, I sand down the metal to make direct metal contact. Since my amps are grounded in the trunk, I found the back seat frame a good ground, free from any noise.

 

if its not in diect contact with the paint free surface, could it cause a short. the metal ring touching the bolt isnt enough?/

 

If the metal is painted somewhat, it will not cause a short, it will sometimes pick up noise thru your system. For example, I know our trunks are painted somewhat underneath the trunk lining. Just scrape any paint away to get bare metal to metal contact. The overall objective is to get a good contact ground and to avoid noise.

 

i was thinking.. just above the rear passanger strut.. there are holes precut into the supporting frame work. i sanded down the paint and attached the amp wires to this.. is this a good ground? or is it not a direct chasis ground? sort of a dispute i had with a friend and im hoping im right...

thanks
blake

 

bump 56789

 

as long as the ground is making good contact (no paint) with the frame of the car, you should be ok.

 

i have mine grounded to the top of my driver side rear shock mount..... no problems... but after reading this I think I'm can sand down the paint and see if I notice a difference.

 

The shock strut is not likely the best ground. But good grounds are trickier than a shop full or expensive test equipment can explain. You should look for a point on the actual chassis or unibody floor. The fewest bolted pieces and fewest welds possible. Every bolt and every weld adds resistance between the alt and amp. But don't ground to the alt because it is the noisiest ground you could choose. One of the problems with car audio, the power source is very noisey.

There are also cheap ways to find a good ground. Like using a little powered speaker, a couple test leads and a magnetic tape head. And there is another test that uses a different test lead with a resister instead of the magnetic tape head. Both tests are cheap and I think they test for different types of noise.

 

wow.. that helps alot.. ...thx

blake