engine/alternator whine

i have read several posts on this site and tried pretty much everthing suggested..

i have a 94 ford explorer 4 dr 4.0 6 cyl. i have a kenwood hu, lanzar optidrive 100 which is about 10 years old maybe older but still works great.running door speaker ( new wiring to all door speakers)  i recently got a lanzar max < color=#ffffff >MXA282 a 2.5 fared cap. and volfenahg 12" subs.. dual voice coil wired parralell for a 2 ohm stereo load.

things i've done with no success - ran a ground for the hu from the same place my amps are grounded. also ran a temp wire for power from my disribution block for the amps. ran a temp rca over the seats. dissconnected my antenna.. soldered a wire from the outer shield of the rca's and screwed the other side to the chasis of the hu.

things with a positive result. when i put the muting plugs on the noise is gone.. also i plugged my wp3 player into a rca converter and go directly to both amps and no noise and it sounds great..

if i hook my rca's to the lanzar optidrive 100 i get no noise.. but when i hook the same rca up to the lanzar max mxa282 i get noise..

i dont think it's an amp problem because when i hook up the mp3 player it sounds great..

any help would be greatly appreciated

craig dennis -  thanks for the reply.. i was also thinking to try a different hu.. my wife has one in her van i think a pioneer, would not take long to pull it out and temp wire it in to my truck.. 

also to answer your question about the the smaller lanzar i actually had it in the truck for many years powering the subs no problems.. i decided to upgrade to a bigger amp for the subs and then power the door speakers with the smaller one.. the lanzar opti drive is a 2 channel amp by the way. and so it the newer bigger one. both are 2 ohm stereo stable.

i think i might try my wife hu later today and see what happens i will repost if that helps. i'm kind of thinking it is coming from the hu as well. but i wonder why with the smaller lanzar i had no noise... weird.. maybe it better filters the noise or something no idea..

i've been playing with car stereo and sub boxes since 1989.. almost 20 years and cant think of anything else to try...

thanks again for any and all responses

chris

all, i tried a different hu today. a pioneer. well the noise is better. not perfect but on a scale of 1 - 10 10 being the best i'd say it's like a 6.. maybe 6.5..... where before it was like a 2... so i think i'm headed in the right direction with the hu but just wonder why all of a sudden i get noise with this new amp..

are the filters maybe in the old amp or something. no idea.

thanks again

yup tried that and the ohm reading is .3 - .1 which should be fine. i even for giggles soldered the lead on the rcs to the chassis like it is shown.. also yesterday i was looking at ym ground on the battery which was a little funky.

so i cut the leads and got my torch out and soldered on a new copper fitting and put on a new ground terminal on the battery.

crazy....... the other thing i was thinking was i know there are line level converters.. was thinking to try one since the speaker output from the radio sounds clean.. or maybe a ground loop isolator.... i never really had any luck with either of those 2 devices in the past so i've been hesitant to try....

thanks

chris

yup i'm with you craig dennis.. i think before i spend some cash on a new radio i will try one from a friend first to see if i can find one that is pertty good...

also for gigles last night i regrounded my amps... i used a self tap screw ( pretty meaty ) sanded the paint off the floor... then because if you over tighten it it will strip.. i got it tight enough and got out my torch and soldierded it too.. so my chasis ground is 100%... just plainf driving me nuts... just dont understand why my 12 year old lanzar hooked to the same radio does not produce the noise... i'm sure it's built much better... but still...

anyway thanks for all the input... i going to try even another hu and see what that produces.....

chris