Another noisy radio

[Gearhead]

I have a noisy audio system. It's happens on all sources (radio, tape, intercom, CB) and is detectable in the speakers but worse in the headsets. It appears to be a noisy power issue. It changes pitch with RPM, and here is the thing I find strange: it decreases when the bike had additional electrical load. Brakes or driving lights cause it to go quieter, and the blinkers do just what you might expect, the noise gets quieter-then-louder...etc.

 

I figure I'll check the ground on the system, as well as the ground on the factory noise filter. Do noise filters go bad? Any other ideas?

 

Thanks,

Jeremy

[RPG]

Sounds like a poor ground connection. Try cleaning and tightening your battery terminals first. If that doesn't fix it, find your radio ground and remove and clean it.

[Guest Vermincelli]

I've had a similar problem with mine that I have yet to solve. Redid the ground, replaced the antenna, reran all the wiring and still the problem exists.

I am beginning to suspect the problem is internal in the amp now.

I have been looking for another amp over the winter but now I'm leaning towards removing it and putting in a car stereo instead and wiring the headset into the rear outputs with the fairing speakers into the fronts and use the fader to go back and forth between them.

[dray]

get a noise suppressor they work

[Eddie Fulmer]

I found a loose ground on my battery and that fixed/repaired it. I hope you can have the same luck.

[Gearhead]

I'm also posting this in a similar thread in the 1st gen tech section.

 

I eliminated about 90% of my noise, and it did end up being ground-related. I am optimizing the alternator output by minimizing the losses. I followed a troubleshooting chart on Electrex's web site, very thorough, I recommend it. One test was for voltage drop from the regulator to the battery, both on the hot and ground sides. In my case, both at idle were around .15-.2V. But when I turned on the driving lights and revved up the enigne (increasing the load and output) the drop was .6V hot and .4V ground. I ran a 12 ga wire, soldered into the regulator ground wires on the regulator side of the connector, up to the neg side of the battery. This takes some of the current and reduces the voltage drop to near zero. It also eliminated most of my noise!

 

Now there's just a small bit of that same noise that's not volume-knob-related, and also a component of noise that does increase with volume, but it only comes on radio and sounds like ignition interference.

 

Does anybody know where on the 1st gens the ground harness attaches to the frame?

 

Jeremy