http://www.mmxpress.com/technical/ampinstall.htm All I did was find a chassis bolt nearby and attach the amp ground wire to that. It's been that way for a year. Do I need to do all of the above?
Ideally, yes. It is critical that the amps have a path to get their voltage and current as efficiently as possible. Most all factory wiring is barely big enough to even handle the load of all the stcok electrical system. Remember that auto manufacturers are in the buisness to make money, and do what is acceptable for the car to be built safe and reliable, they are not worried about the aftermarlket accesories that alot of cunsumers add onto thier cars. Most factory electrical systems have somewhere in the range of a 10 ga. wire from the alternator to the battery, that little wire essentially runs the entire electrical sytem! the ground is about the same. Now add on another 30 or 40 amps of current draw from amplifiers and such. Even more in alot of cases! Those amplifiers are using 4 ga. grounds and power wire. Now, look back at what the stock wiring is! You might as well just stick 10 ga. wire in the 4 ga. connections on the amplifiers! ITs basically what youare doing without upgraded wiring to the battery for power and ground, dont forget the alternator too! One thing posted in the statement above I disagree with is the use of distribution blocks, IMO, ALWAYS ground each amplifier independantly. This prevents a situation called ground saturation, or the excessive current flow through a localised areea. not a good thing. This is especially true in larger amp installs. I recomend the ground method of the nut, bolt, and washers. Most reliable ground that you can make.
So you run two ground wires from the amp? One to the negative battery terminal and one to a chassis ground nearby? I'm a little confused. This has me confused:
not quite! Dont run 2 wires from the amp! The ground wire from the amp should ideallt be no longer than 18 inches as a rule of thumb. the ground wire from the battery to the chassis is just that, a short peice of 4 ga. wire fromthe negative terminal of the battery to the body of the car, again, around 18 inches in length. This wire should also be grounded the same way as the amp, all paint sanded away to shiny metal and bolted on. Never ground the amp at the battery, unless the battery is 18 inches from the amp!
I have a major problem with the ground distribution block. If you have multiple amps all grounded to the same spot you could run into a problem. Heres why. What goes in an amp must come out. If you have an amp drawing 60 amps then 60 amps comes out. What goes in must come out. Now if we have an amp returning 60 amps and one returning 20 amps and they are attached to ground at the same point, then the amp returning 60 amps could cause a problem for the amp returning 20. Two things can happen (both the result of bad grounding techniques). 1. the anp returning 60 will cause a resistive connection for the amp returning 20 or 2. the amp returning 60 might find a path to ground through the amp returning only 20. I always try to ground multiples amps in the same area, about an inch apart. Ground is the most important connection.
think about it this way.. get two gallons of water, put a squeeze bottle end on one. see how long it takes you to get all that water out of the jug. Now try to get two gallons out through the same hole, in the same time.. it is possible, but it takes a much greater force. I know that this is a stupid analogy, but electrons work in the same way, they flow. when they flow very quickly, they heat up from the friction of bouncing against eachother. this is why you need good grounds everywhere with as big a wire possible, and why distribution blocks are moronic, and why sony's catch on fire
