2001 Silverado install??

K8SWR · Post by **K8SWR** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 6:01 am

I'm a Ham and I currently have a radio installed in my truck with the Antenna wire going through the Firewall at the steering column boot and powering it off the ACC power port.. (a no-no I know) the problem is I haven't been able to find a good place to run the power and antenna coax...

Anyone with a similar vehicle done something different??? or have a suggestion????

Brentd2183 · Post by **Brentd2183** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 7:31 am

Yup, as for the power wires, under the hood if you follow the pos. battery wire it will go to a little red box on the drivers side of the engine where you can open a cover and grab power right there. Its better than the battery because the terminals on the battery are sorta buried and rings never seems to fit to well around the lugs.
Firewall access if you look a little more to the drivers side of the steering boot you will see the main wiring harness boot, make a slit on the rubber boot as far to the side as possible, do the same thing from the inside of the truck too as there are two side to that boot. Then just push a snake right through both holes and you can pull what you want. It works well for a few small wires, if you need more make your own hole in the firewall, if you need it i can tell you where to look for that. Your ground wire can just goto a seatbolt, make sure its clean.

EVModules · Post by **EVModules** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:28 pm

I wouldn't use the seat bolts for ground. With radio equipment, I'd rather get the ground point at the battery that's connected to the fender. You ran the power wire thru the firewall, why stop there? Bring the ground thru while you're at it.

Brentd2183 · Post by **Brentd2183** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 1:54 pm

Is it better for radio to have the ground wire going back to the battery, well not the battery, but the ground strap next to it? I do remember some radios actually wanting the NEG terminal. But as far as most power stuff goes, lights, sirens and whatnot isnt a solid chassis point good enough? I like to find a factory ground point for some things, little wires like dash lights, but i read somewhere, probably here, that you should keep your ground wires short to keep down on picking up noise. Educate me, i know better than to do the self tapper into the sheetmetal, but i always thought a solid bolt, grinded clean worked pretty well for most applications.

ki4cye · Post by **ki4cye** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:51 am

Ground wires should never be ran directly to batt. because if your ground strap goes bad it is going to pull ground through the radio when you try to start it.
If you insist on running it to batt. put a fuse in it.
Seat bolts work fine from my experience,they are usually welded to the body.
I have also always added ground straps,at least #8 wire,from batt. to body,frame and engine.