aanndd iimm bbaacckk!! static question

This happened to me a while back. I found that it was a grounding issue. I went through and put 2 braided copper lines off the antenna mount to the frame of the truck, and then grounded my radio to the frame with some 12 gauge power wire. Fixed it. But if its not your rig that may not work for you.

 

Are you using an external speaker? I'd disconnect it and see if the music is still coming through the radio's internal speaker. I guess maybe first I'd try disconnecting the coax from the back of the radio and see if it quits. That way you can determine if it's coming through the antenna system or not.

 

I don't think it's in the antenna side either, but it's the easy and free way to make sure.

I meant to comment on this before, but running a power line direct to the batteries is a good way to prevent a lot of noise problems. I personally fuse both the positive AND negative wires at the battery with an inline fuse. I worry about the negative wire chaffing and shorting to a positive battery terminal or cable, and a fuse on the negative side will prevent this. Had a buddy have his truck burn down from a short in the wires to his inverter that would have just blown the fuse to at his battery if he'd had one.

 

Its a ground problem. Run your power wires from your galaxy right to the battery. also check the grounds on the stereo, maybe add a ground to the chassis of the stereo radio to the battery.

Freightliner likes to try and ground thru paint, really does not work out too well, but they continue to bolt ground cable to the painted frame rail, then from there to the painted body.

These need to be removed, wire wheel around the frame stud to expose bare metal, use a small amount of conductive grease on the frame and the electrical connectors, do the same at the point where the grounds blot to the body. Be very careful with the conductive grease, it will conduct electricity, keep it off your clothes and wear rubber gloves you can toss out.

You can get this stuff from your local electrical supply house

Make sure the connections on your speakers are clean and tight, depends on the stereo and the installer if they ground the speaker to the body or to the stereo wiring.

Good Luck

 

Dont mean to step on any toes, but in my experience running the ground all the way to the battery makes for a really noisy ground. I always run power direct and fuse inline, but ground goes to the frame for me.

 

That's interesting. I used to subscribe to the theory that the shortest ground wire you could run was the best until it was pointed out to me that the electrons have to go from the battery to the chassis ground, which may involve going through the starter, engine block, alternator housing, etc, and then to wherever the ground wire from the radio is. Electricity and electrical noise in vehicles can be a fickle thing though, obviously folks should use whatever works the best for them in a given situation. Another plus of using a chassis ground instead of running it straight to the battery would be not having to worry about the negative wire coming into contact with a positive battery terminal like I was talking about above.