Speakers whine!

I have a 91' Chevy pickup truck and decieded to put a basic sound system in it. Replaced all Oem speakers with matching 250W R.m.s Pyramid 4X6's. It is a four channel 1000W amp mounted under the drivers seat, i got all done, powered up, and took the truck around the block and listened to the whine that went with the engine behind my music. I have read several forums and learned that when I have the amp on, but no music, playing, if i unplug my inputs, and the sound goes away that it is the inputs. I did that and when i unpluged the RCA cable the whine went away. I did this test while my truck wasn't running, which makes me think that it is the power wire. When I installed i made a huge no-no that i shouldn't have... don't laugh, i have my power wire, a secondary ground to the battery(as suggested by the amp's manual), the input wire for the right front speaker, and the output wire to the right front, and right back speaker all in the same bundle, all touching eachother. Oops! What wires need to be away from each other. I've learned that the audio wires are ok together, but, i need to get the power wire away from everything, is this correct? My left speakers dont make such noise. what do i do. Sorry for being lengthy.

i will try that tomorrow morning, if the power wire doesnt solve the problem, where do i install the ground loop isolator?

You might also try running a ground lead (at least 12-14 awg) from the HU to the amp ground, and not use the factory ground behind the HU. Keep your power leads at least 6" away from all the rest. And don't use cheap RCA patch cords.

It would also be better not to use your seat bolt for the ground. As Sound Pressure said, scrape down to bare metal and use a star lock washer between the terminal connector and the metal. This will "bite" into the terminal connector and the chassis and will keep the terminal from "spinning loose" under vibration.

Seat bolts threads are often tarred, painted in the threads, mounted into reinforced welded plates, etc. Anytime when you have two seperate pieces of metal joined together, either by welds, bolts, etc., there is the possiblilty of a poor ground.

Also check the ground lead coming from the battery to the vehicle's body. More often than not, the car manufacturer will only install a 10 gauge lead, which isn't sufficient enough for high current draw. Upgrade your Ground lead from the battery to body with at least an equivalent size to your amp wire.

Good point webguy,

I forgot but webguy did not about cheap rca's. Sometimes you can get away from it but other times you cannot and you can get frustraded looking for something else when it is the rca's.