I have an 81 and installed a ken hairris radio with an amp for the rear only and all I have is static only when the engine runs. I put a noise suppresser on the alt and still the same .
The antenna has a good ground where do I start. radio is fine when engine is off

Thanks
Todd

 

Okay, so the rear amped speakers have static but the front speakers do not? Do you even have front speakers?

Usually static is poor connections or a wire with a signal grounding out. Check all your wiring...maybe go through how you wired it all, and we'll start there.

 

this is the system that i got from steve aka wuttin

in the first pics is the amp and the deck same speackers and the front are energy 4x6 in dash just the backs are amped

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...ghlight=wuttin

 

Make sure the Power wire is kept separate from the Audio cables. Also, static or alternator whine is usually a bad amplifier ground.

 

Are you getting the static from the front speakers? Are they playing fine?

 

Yes I am getting it from everything

 

should the body of the radio be grounded? like to the floor? or something

 

The radio's ground wire should be grounded to the dash frame. I don't know about the C3 Vette's but, on the C4's a good ground for the amp is under one of the seat mounts.

 

Okay then that rules out amp wiring because the front speakers are not amped. The focus is now the head unit, as mentioned, the ground. I always as a practice will run dedicated power and ground wires to the battery to avoid ground loops and to keep constant power to the head unit even if you have a battery cutoff switch.

You need to inspect the wiring of the head unit and verify that no loose strands of wire are grounding out.

 

Ok looks like the power antenna just burnt out so i will pick a new one up today install it and see how that goes.
the amp is powered from the battery and grounded there as well with just the trigger line coming from the radio , the radio is plug into one of those after market adapters to fit the cars wiring harness Steve aka wuttin, had this same hook up for his car without any problem.
so let me get this new antenna today and then try once more.

 

Ok new antenna non power and still the same i think i will pull my hair out now!

help!

 

Have you checked to make sure their is no static when the engine is off but the stereo is on?

 

hey DB your helping me all over the forum
there is only engein noise i have put on the noise suppresser on the alt and it did nothing so only when it is running.

 

Okay. Do you have the filter in place at the tach?

 

what would i be looking for is it at the distribter or behind the tach?

 

It's at the tach...assuming you still have an HEI distributor. It's a small brown cylinder with two wires...one going in each side, and it goes inline with the wiring that plugs into the distributor.

 

Odds are, you have a ground loop between your head unit and your charging system.

If it was my car, I would do the following: Make sure that the alternator has a good clean ground at the engine. If you have any paint work on the engine, alternator brackets, etc... you may have an issue with the paint causing a bad connection between your alternator and the rest of the cars grounding system.

One way to eliminate this is to run a dedicated ground wire directly from the alternator frame assembly to a 'common' ground point.

Next, check the ground wires that connect from your engine block to the common ground areas. (Frame, battery, etc...) If any are loose or have corrosion, you will have noise problems.

Next, run a dedicated ground wire from the battery to the radio. On the back of the radio is a small threaded hole that is used to support the back of the radio. A small stud or a screw is used with a piece of back strap to hold it in place. It's a great place to ground your radio. Just make sure to connect the radio ground there as well. Remove and ignore the ground wire that is attached to your wiring harness.

If after all of that you still have some whine, then we need to look at a couple of more things. Assuming that your power wire from the alternator to the battery is fine, and the power wire from the battery to the radio is fine, then we need to determine if the whine is coming from your alternator or the ignition system.

Remove the main power wire from the alternator and tape it up so it won't short out. Remove the alternator plug for the field as well... we want to completely remove the alternator from the system electrically. Start the car and see if the whine is there or not. If it's gone, then you may have an internal problem with the alternator. If the whine is still there, then it's probably in your ignition system.

Some ignition systems can cause you all kinds of problems because of the high voltages that are used. I think that there are some metal guards that can be used to help suppress the field around the distributor, but I'm 100% sure.

Another source of the whine is the type of spark plugs that are being used. Non-resistive plugs are a big source of noise, so double check those when you get some time.

Let me know if this helps.

Mark

 

ok guys thanks i will try all of this and let you know if it helps
stay tuned
Todd

 

Hey DB on the distributor cap on the drivers side there is 3 plugs the one closest to the cap with 4 wires then two other plugs one that has red wire that goes into the harness and the other one goes to the egr i think but it has a wire coming off of it with a connector but not connected what is this for?
and there is no brown cylinder where would i find it anyone have a pic?
Todd

 

The outer plug next to the red wire should be brown, which goes to your tach. what color is the third wire hanging off and where does it come from if the one end is loose?

If you can get yourself a factory style tach filter it's have a terminal foot which bolts to the manifold. The connectors of the filter go inline with the brown tach wire from the distributor, which is that wire next to the red IGN power wire.