I recently installed a set of J&M handlebar speakers on my '07 Heritage, splicing the hot wire into the orange/white accessories wire and grounding them to the frame. When I turn on the ignition switch I get a lot of feedback / distortion in the right speaker. Oddly, the distortion is reduced when I turn the switch to accessories. I soldered the splice, used liquid tape and then electrical tape to cover and I have since wrapped a small amount of garden hose over the splice thinking I may be picking up something at the splice site. Nothing seems to help. Can you tell me if there's anything I can do to reduce the noise? Thank you.

 

feedback will more than often not, be caused by an inadequate ground. Do you by chance have a run-turn-brake light controller on the bike under the seat?

I had to pull mine off my Ultra because it was what wound up inducing all the noise into my J&M amp, HK radio setup. Took me a fricking month to trace that one down...

 

Thanks for the reply but I'm afraid I don't know what a run-turn-brake light controller is. My ground is the same bolt that the battery is grounded to but I'll double check it. If you could give me more info on the controller - what to look for and action, I'd appreciate it.

 

so just to make sure I understand you correctly, you ran a ground wire from the handlebars to the mid section of the bike where the battery is actually grounded? If so, I would make that ground wire as short as humanly possible. the longer the ground wire the more chance of noise being induced into the system.

The likeliness of it being the run-turn-brake controller is very slim. was just sharing my experience with my setup and the controller. On a side note, I replaced my stock headunit with a Sony headunit then decided to try the controller again, no noise whatsoever.

As for the controller, if you have one it's easy to spot. It will be under your seat, looks like a multi-wired "Y" adapter with a small black box at the end of it.

 

Thanks. Yes, I spliced into the accessories wire and connected the ground under the seat then ran the wires under the tank to the handlebars. It seemed like the easiest point to access the accessories wire. Should I reconnect by splicing into the accessories wire somewhere in front or under the guage panel on the tank to shorten the distance? Thanks for your expertise....

 

The ground is what I would focus on first. Change your ground on the audio system to the shortest length possible and attach it somewhere up front to rule it out first.

if that doesn't resolve the issue, then I would move onto the power wire. on the 07 model if you pull the headlight out of the bucket, there is an orange/white wire that is taped up right behind the headlight on the harness. you can get power from there for your system and eliminate the long run under the fuel tank next to all the other wires in the electrical system which may be injecting noise into the audio system.

you can always test the run-turn-brake controller by simply unplugging it and plugging the two ends of the stock harness back together and see what happens.

 

Thanks. I'll try all, starting with the controller, then the ground then the hot. I appreciate your help.