What's your thought of this antenna design?

Hiya, Dude.
I recall seeing a fix somewhere in the forum, although possibly not in the CB section, about a mechanic who solved a similar (or identical?) problem by infiltrating some sort of graphite or teensy metal (molybdenum?) into the front wheel bearing grease. I believe the bearings' original grease provides for enough insulation that the bearings are rendered more-or-less nonconductive. Either that kept the static created in the tires as they turned on the highway from returning to the vehicle's "common ground", or whether it was to drain static from the rest of the vehicle through the tires (which seems less likely from my old chem major studies), I cannot recall.

As I read the symptoms in your problem, it was the mention of brake application curing the static that provided what, if I had a better sense of moving parts in the first place, would have passed for what an otherwise more astute person could call an "Ah-hah Moment".

I tried doing a search using a couple of specific terms and came up with either zero hits or over 10,000 in the whole TRS forum array. It may be the neat drugs from the ER following the MVA that have taken that part of my brain offline for the moment. Mayhap the problem as stated will engage someone else's better-functioning powers of recall and/or logic.

Either that, or something else. <-------- Handlebar's Universal Disclaimer™ (®Handlebar Enterprises Int'l, 1981)


73

 

There was a problem for many installations of cop cars and other vehicles with radio equipment in them at one time, one reason for the two strips of rubber on the bumper on many of the 60's and 70's cars. It may be caused by an isolation of the wheels from the rest of the car, never thought of the grease thing but I am thinking this is the same thing, a build up of static electricity and no where to discharge it, so if you have a couple old rubber bundgy cords, see if you can attach them to frame (meaning to something that conducts, like the fuel tanks or air tanks) and have them drag on the ground to see if that solves the problem.

 

Try a bird pearch forget about the wheel bearing greese above unless you really want bad trouble

 

Very old problem. In the 50's whitewall tire, AM car radio days there was a spiral beryllium-copper spring in the front wheel bearing grease caps that at a point contacted the axle shaft. Low frequency AM broadcast band radios were torn up terribly with the noise. Problem was so bad engineers standardized the spiral spring and virtually every make/model from the 50's to the 70's used the idea. The idea was keeping the rims electrically contacting the axle, on to the chassis ground. Not as bad later on as tire composition changed and long chain carbon linked polymers came into use that acted as a neutralizer to triboelectric charging. A cheap cure today is a spray bottle full of 50/50 water and Downy fabric softener. Spray the tire sidewalls once every couple weeks or more if it's rainy. Unless you don't mind repair costs I would not be putting anything in the wheel bearing grease. Stuff works great on the seat in winter dry weather where certain pants materials give you a zap getting out of the seat. Just do not get back in the seat until it's dry or you will slide back out of the truck the stuff is so slippery. Painful in a Cab-over. If the grease change only got your noise down to S3 try the fabric softener idea on top of what you did. Could well drop it all the way to nothing. Cheaper than changing tire brands for one not as noisy.

 

Good thread! I slip seat and could potentially drive any one of 200 trucks.......how much graphite do I need to buy???????