Best Subwoofer Ground Location

[Me&my86MJ]

Where did everyone who has a subwoofer choose to ground it? I am thinking the stud the bottom of the bench would work but i feel like there is a better option.

[Pete M]

I grounded my system to a seat floor bolt.  

[gogmorgo]

The only option that's really all that much better than bolting to some part on the body is just running it straight back to the battery. 

[Me&my86MJ]

2 hours ago, Pete M said:

I grounded my system to a seat floor bolt.  

Ok that is what i was meaning

1 hour ago, gogmorgo said:

The only option that's really all that much better than bolting to some part on the body is just running it straight back to the battery. 

That was original plan, just seems like lots of extra ran wire. 

[Dzimm]

Your ground wire needs to be as short as possible.  I speak from experience helping my buddy with his old competition setup (4 15" subs in the trunk of a Dodge Neon, yeah we made it fit and it was stupid loud).  Just ground to whatever you have available, seat bolt works well.  You can also weld a bolt to the floor to act as a stud or just put a bolt through the floor.  Either will work just fine. 

[Me&my86MJ]

Ok either there is something funky with my seat bolt or amp isn't working/wired properly. 

[Knucklehead97]

Using a multimeter to test the voltage at the amp will tell you if it's your ground or not.

[bad_idea]

If your seat bolts look anything like mine, rusty as all get out, then there is something funky with them.  Use your multimeter to check for resistance from the ground lug of the battery to the ground lug of the amp.  Could be getting a lot of resistance due to the rust.

[Dzimm]

16 hours ago, Me&my86MJ said:

Ok either there is something funky with my seat bolt or amp isn't working/wired properly. 

Is it powering on at all?  What exactly is it doing? 

[Me&my86MJ]

No it doesn't seem to be turning on, check with multimeter got 14.65v(or 12.65v) at power wire, at power on amp, and at the ground on amp. The tiny red led lights aren't even coming on.

[Minuit]

What kind of sub is this?

 

Also, definitely check that your ground is actually ground. There should be very little resistance between the ground terminal of the sub and the negative battery terminal.

[Me&my86MJ]

Its an MTX audio tube sub/amp combo.

[Dzimm]

You look to be missing the remote wire.  It needs the signal from the radio to turn on.   It's usually a blue wire in the radio harness labeled "REM".  It will hook up to the lug between your ground and positive on the amp. 

 

Edit: after you hook up the remote wire, double check the fuse on the amp to make sure it didn't get blown during any troubleshooting. 

[Me&my86MJ]

2 hours ago, Dzimm said:

You look to be missing the remote wire.  It needs the signal from the radio to turn on.   It's usually a blue wire in the radio harness labeled "REM".  It will hook up to the lug between your ground and positive on the amp. 

 

Edit: after you hook up the remote wire, double check the fuse on the amp to make sure it didn't get blown during any troubleshooting. 

Oh $#!&, I read I didn't need REM hooked up. Not to hard to run another wire. 

 

Fuse was first thing I check, then I even tryed hooking power and ground backwards and blew the fuse. Well fingers crossed and I will update when I get that wire ran.

[shrapneltyphoon]

Just got done ripping out the previous owners amp and he had used a sheet metal screw through the back panel.  Worked but still would go with the seatbelt bolt.  Just clean up the metal and screw it down.  

[Me&my86MJ]

On 9/23/2018 at 6:35 PM, Dzimm said:

You look to be missing the remote wire.  It needs the signal from the radio to turn on.   It's usually a blue wire in the radio harness labeled "REM".  It will hook up to the lug between your ground and positive on the amp. 

Thank you Dzimm, that was the problem and solution to my puzzle. 

 

Side note amp/sub doesn't seem to work with aux input....

[Dzimm]

Just now, Me&my86MJ said:

Thank you Dzimm, that was the problem and solution to my puzzle. 

 

Side note amp/sub doesn't seem to work with aux input....

The subs work with radio tho? 

Does the radio have separate bass settings for the aux input? 

[Me&my86MJ]

Yes, worked wonderfully with radio, listening now at 2/3  volume level I used to. You know Dzimm I honestly don't know and will definitely have to check. 

[Me&my86MJ]

On 9/26/2018 at 6:22 PM, Dzimm said:

The subs work with radio tho? 

Does the radio have separate bass settings for the aux input? 

   So sub only works with fm/am tuner, not aux or cd's.... I tryed iPod in usb port but stereo said usb error. So i need to find usb friendly device to check if sub works through that source.

    Stereo unit didn't seem to have any special settings for aux bass either,  just basic sound adjustment type settings. 

  So like most things on my jeep it works and it doesn't.

[Dzimm]

2 hours ago, Me&my86MJ said:

   So sub only works with fm/am tuner, not aux or cd's.... I tryed iPod in usb port but stereo said usb error. So i need to find usb friendly device to check if sub works through that source.

    Stereo unit didn't seem to have any special settings for aux bass either,  just basic sound adjustment type settings. 

  So like most things on my jeep it works and it doesn't.

That's interesting.  I've never seen something like that happen.  Does your radio have multiple audio output plugs on the back or just the two? 

 

Try using a flash drive with mp3 files on it in the USB port. 

[Minuit]

Most aftermarket headunits these days have separate tone (including subwoofer volume) controls for aux and radio, usually buried under menus. Other than the headunit settings, I can't think of any reason your sub would only work on AM/FM and not aux. What is the exact make and model of this headunit? Can you feel the cone of the sub moving at all if you lightly touch your finger to it?

 

Just for poops and laughters: does the light on the sub stay on when you're in aux mode?

[Me&my86MJ]

Just two inputs, it's an Alpine unit, yes light on external sub controller turns off, it actually fades off and stays off when I turn it from am/fm to cd/aux, I still have yet to try another device in usb

[Dzimm]

8 hours ago, Me&my86MJ said:

Just two inputs, it's an Alpine unit, yes light on external sub controller turns off, it actually fades off and stays off when I turn it from am/fm to cd/aux, I still have yet to try another device in usb

Double check your remote wire.  I'm wondering if you have it hooked to a powered antenna lead and not the actual remote wire.   

[Minuit]

Yeah, sounds like you've got the power antenna wire hooked up to the amp instead of the remote turn-on.

[Me&my86MJ]

4 hours ago, Dzimm said:

Double check your remote wire.  I'm wondering if you have it hooked to a powered antenna lead and not the actual remote wire.   

......... Well I guess this is where a nice wiring diagram or owners manual would have made this a whole lot easier. Wow, that being wired that way can make it work like that. Well I will be pulling it out again and hopefully get that squared away. I think and hope there is only one other wire that was free but I could be wrong. Thank you guys for your help too