[QUOTE]Originally posted by 145
[B]So, did you remove the rear strut bar to do your sanding, Lucid?

 

from the sound of it (testing w/ just the battery), that was the sort of results i would have expected you to get. i'm not an electrician or EE - but those numbers look good to me.

i grounded each of my 2 amps to different ends of the rear strut bar. i've heard two schools of thought on grounds - some say - all together, others say, spread them around. i usually keep the head grounded up front and everything else near each other on the chassis. if i don't have problems, i don't mess with them.

personally, i don't like scraping or sanding my paint unless i absolutely have no other option. i'd try to use the bolt and exposed threads as my ground, and then if i had ground issues, go the extra mile with the sandpaper, etc. if you notice though - factory ground points are not all sanded and prepped. (i haven't looked at more than a couple, so i can't say all.)

 

Don't have much time for a long reply. Just using the jumper cable from your trunk would allow you to extend your reach, especially if the multimeter has short leads. (First compare the resistance from that jumper cable, the free end, to the battery ground to make sure you have a good connection with your extension). Things that might make the voltage change would be the quality of your connection, electronic circuits which may be active (radios, alarms, interior lights (dome, trunk)). The voltage change over a 0.5 ohm resistance may be too small to see, but the resistance difference from ground could be enough to indicate a weak ground point. If you hooked up the wire that you were going to use in your sound system, you could test it by pulling the end to the battery ground and measuring the resistance difference there. I would encourage you to learn how to use the ohmmeter function anyway, it can bail you out of a lot of confusing situations.

 

as promised - a couple of pics of my ground and my current amp install... don't laugh too much at the amp install - it's tight in there.

amp
closeup on ground

i have a matching ground installed for my sub amp on the opposite side.

 

PJK3: I like that amp install! I would remove the foamy stuff from around the amp, though.

Anyone used the spare tire screw/bolt (whatever that is) for a ground. I will be installing another amp in the spare tire and that location looks very tempting. I will check it with a multimeter as soon as I get a long enough wire to run to the battary.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by PJK3
[B]as promised - a couple of pics of my ground and my current amp install...

 

thanks! what you don't see in the picture though are one of the things that make it possible and the other thing that makes it shameful.

if you look closely, you'll notice it's mounted upside down. now, before i catch objections about heat - the thing that makes this possible is that it is a fan cooled amp w/ the intake on the top. so, the fan is actually pulling air from the air space between the gas tank and the fuel filler lines, and it is venting the cooling air to the car front side of the amp (which is coincidentally very close to the driver's seat vent). and the fan actually routes the air dead center along the heatsink that runs the length of the amp. outside of the fan cooled zone, the entire amp is open to air b/c the casing is a fine meshed screen type material. so, it actually stays pretty cool in there, even under load and w/ all the insulation crud around it. i spent a good bit of time talking to Adcom's technical group before trying this stunt (fyi - it's an Adcom GFA 4304). they seemed to think it was a practical solution.

now comes the shame. it's actually not mounted to anything. it's just wedged up in there (and i do mean tight) for support. i don't think this is going to be my permanent solution, but it will work for now. i have been driving (and not wussy either) around and checking it every couple of days for movement and heat. i haven't seen it budge a bit yet, and it seems to be maintaining temperatures well. hopefully i'll get some sort of amp mount designed that will let me do something better... but for now, it isn't going anywhere.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by mgiang7
[B]

hey does that amp do balanced inputs?