Since I first installed my amplifier and HK headunit, I've always had a popping when the radio/amp first turn on with the bike, and when I turn the radio on/off going down the road. I attributed this to a poor amp ground connection using the triple tree ground point. When I last tore things apart, I made a jumper ground wire from that ground point direct to the battery negative. I still get popping when components turn on. If I listen close, I can hear a soft pop when I hit the brakes/brake lights come on, and when the turn signals flash their error code at ignition-on.

BATT+ -----------------------> AMP +
BATT- <-----Neck ground<----- AMP -

Short of a loose ground wire in that path, what else would be causing this popping? Or is my bike just a calcified/corroded electrical mess?

 

"calcified/corroded electrical mess".. now that's funny.

grounds can be a nightmare. Before you go off chasing your tail on this...

take a look at the bikes ground cable at battery and where it attaches to the frame of the bike. Make sure the connections are corrosion free, clean and tight. be amazed at what a lite terminal brushing with a brass tooth brush will accomplish. put a dab of dielectric grease on the connections before you put them back on.

are you using RCA inputs to your amp or speaker wire inputs?

also you mentioned stock head unit and amp. is this the PBR amp?

 

It's the ss420. RCA preouts from the HK. I didn't check the main ground lug, mostly because I was lazy. That would've been my preferred ground location to attach to, but getting to it would've required removing the battery to work comfortably. I have to tear everything apart again once my parts come in from the dealer to fab an XM module harness; I'll check that main ground stud then...

 

Went though the main ground connection in front of the battery, everything was clean, but I cleaned everything up for insurance. I moved the ground wire from the battery to the ground lug with no difference, so at this point I don't think it's a bad ground connection. What do I do next in stomping this popping out?

 

ok so the next step would be to determine where it's coming from.

disconnect your RCA inputs to the amp. Does it still do it? If yes, the issue is the amp's turn on circuitry, if not then the source of the pop is coming from inputs to the amp.

the preouts from the HK, are they onboard preouts like Iron Cross does or are they preouts utilizing a speaker wire to RCA adapter?


You can try a PAC Tr4, I've had great success with turn on/off pop using this. This will provide a 1+ sec delay in turning on the amp so it's not turning on the same time audio signal is being piped to it.

 

Yeah I need to take the batwing off again to remove some obsolete wiring, and intend to test without the RCA's connected. The RCA's are coming from the ICA modded-HK. Assuming the noise is due to the HK, the remote delay relay is exactly what I'm looking for. Assuming I attach it using the unused speaker outputs from the factory harness for the input trigger, will that also take care of the popping when I turn OFF the radio? The delay will work for power-on, but my first thought is that it wouldn't be able to correct the power-off pop.

And if it turns out to be the amp itself, what am I left with to do besides trying to RMA it back to Amazon?

 

if it's the amp itself you'll know by pulling the RCA inputs. In that case the TR4 would likely be your solution. If the noise is coming from the head unit itself, there's a couple of things to try.

1. take a piece of wire and ground from back of head unit to case of amplifier to see if it goes away. If it doesn't
2. PAC SNI-1 ground loop isolator would be the item to use.

 

I pulled the RCA inputs out of the amp, and no popping. I made a jumper wire to bond the amp and radio chassis together, that does nothing. I stuck a GLI in the mix- that actually kills the audio, but I think that's a factor of the GLI being bad more than anything else. I've got a couple on order now. I did get the TR-4 remote delay, and if nothing else, that eliminates the turn on pop (but not the turn-OFF pop). I think I'll leave that in the system: now when I turn the radio off, the amp will shut down as well.

Besides waiting for the new GLI's, what else can I do?

 

It's an extra step, but you can manually turn the amp on and off by powering your remote wire off of your accessory switch. That will get rid of your popping you get when you turn it on and off. I don't know if that will cure your problem when you use the turn signals and brakes.

 

It would, but that shouldn't be necessary. If the ground loop isolators don't do anything, I'm thinking I might splice out the two radio harness grounds to the same ground point as the amp (at the steering neck ground point). Beyond that, I don't really know what I'm going to do... I want to keep it factory, and this HK is actually an upgrade from the stock RadioSound unit that it came with. I haven't tried it yet (but it may turn out to be worth investigating): using the speaker level wires either direct into the SS amp or using a line-out converter I have to see if that isolates the popping at all.