I have a 98 tahoe 4d 4wd, I am about to run the power wire and I'm wondering which side will be better to run. I have done driver and passenger sides on friends cars with same type of vehicle. Just wondering if there is a definite better side to do it on. Also, where is a good place for ground under the rear seat? If read correct, running a cap you need to ground the cap and the amp seperately right?
Any info is greatly appreciated
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Thanks
JC
Wrongo, the cap can be grounded either way. Have a look at the Lightning Audio LL10DB cap distribution block
www.lightningaudio.com it combines both power and ground distribution as well as a mount for the cap. It is definintely worth the $. As far as running of the wiring goes before I chose 1 side or another I would find the best place to run the wire through the firewall, this would tell me what side of the car I would run the wire down. Make sure you upgrade the ground wire from battery negative to chassis ground and have a nice clean grounding point in the rear of the vehicle. If you have a dmm, measure the resistance on the ground return in the vehicle (particularily bad on GM's). If the resistance is high (after you have upgraded the battery ground) then it may be necessary to ground directly to the battery. Amplifiers run best when they can operate at their full potential, a back up of negative current at the amp caused by a high resistance on the ground return can cause all sorts of problems for amplifiers.
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Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.
I just want to emphasize forbidden's point. The leading cause of noise in a system is a poor ground. If you clean the area fully to corrosion free metal, you shouldn't have any problems. Instead of using an existing bolt, I usually make my own grounds. What I do is find a good spot under some carpet, then take a sander and sand off the spot I'm grounding too until the metal is nice and shiny. I then take my ground wire and either crimp or solder on (prefered) a ring terminal. I then take a self tapping screw and a star washer and drill it into place. That will give you a solid ground.
If you are using some very heavy awg wire, then if you can try and run a bolt through the bottom of the vehicle where you can attatch a nut to. Just make sure to sand the paint away first. That's how I did it in my car (in the spare tire well), and it works great.
Just be very careful and check underneath to make sure you aren't going to drill into any wiring or the fuel tank.
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A tip for running wires on the passenger side of 88-98 Chevy trucks.
The driver's side has a plastic channel for the wires to go into under the sill plate. If you can find an extra one at the salvage yard or somewhere else, it works great for the passenger's side as well. Then you don't have to worry about putting screws through your wires while reinstalling the sill plate.