Jeep Grand Cherokee Head Unit Ground

[TJ Smith]

I'm looking to upgrade my system. The Grand Cherokee doesn't have a ground wire in the factory harness, and I wanted to know if any one could recommend a good spot near the HU location to ground it?

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[plugitin 5,000+ posts]

i ended up going underneath the drivers dash...couldnt find anything good in there

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

What year do you have? IIRC mine had one in there, a separate black wire from the main harness. Works fine for me.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

I ran my ground to a factory ground in the fuse box in the passenger side kick panel. That works well for me. I have a 97 FYI.

 

[-01limited- 10+ year member]

My 01 had one with like the clip thing. And IIRC my 97 had one too? I know I didnt need to run it anywhere special.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

My 01 had one with like the clip thing. And IIRC my 97 had one too? I know I didnt need to run it anywhere special.

Yup. I take back my last post. I have something else grounded there. Dammit, now I have to think of what it is. Anyway, I have a VIC which had the time on it controlled by the factory radio. There was a clip that was attached to the back of my factory radio. It had 2 wires. I'm pretty sure one of them was to send a signal for the clock on the VIC and the other was to ground the radio. I clipped the connector off of that and grounded it to the factory ground. Now, WTF did I ground in the fuse box? Maybe I'm just imagining grounding something in there...

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

Nope. I grounded the PAC SWI-JACK there. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif Now I remember!

 

[TJ Smith]

I have a '00 Grand Cherokee. I'm getting a receiver that you can add GPS to. The GPS unit has a separate ground, and then I have a E-Brake bypass that also has a ground wire. Could I tie all of them together into that ground wire or should I try to find someplace else for those? Thanks for your help.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

You can definitely tie them all together, but I'd probably find another spot other than the factory ground for them if you do that. The factory ground is a rather small ground that's probably tied in somewhere with a bunch of other grounds. Come to think of it, it's probably why I had alternator whine and why my headlights used to introduce noise into my system until I got my ground loop isolator. Luckily, I didn't lose any audible sound quality by adding it.

 

[TJ Smith]

i ended up going underneath the drivers dash...couldnt find anything good in there

Do you remember where under the dash you connected it? I have a Kenwood amp that is grounded under the back seat, if I ran a ground wire from there to behind my head unit would that work? Some of the posts I've read say you shouldn't have a long ground wire.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

A long ground wire can introduce some hiss or noise into your system. If you run a long ground wire and don't hear any noise, I'd say you're fine. If you run a long wire and get some noise, shorten it up a little and that should help. I'd recommend trying to find somewhere in the dash. I know the dash on my 97 is fairly easy to disassemble. I'd imagine yours should be as well.

 

[TJ Smith]

Thanks ej for all the help, and sorry for all the ?'s. I have one more. How can I tell a good grounding spot from a bad one?

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

Bare metal is best. I'd imagine with the Jeep being unibody, almost any bare metal will be a "chassis" ground in a sense.

 

[plugitin 5,000+ posts]

Do you remember where under the dash you connected it? I have a Kenwood amp that is grounded under the back seat, if I ran a ground wire from there to behind my head unit would that work? Some of the posts I've read say you shouldn't have a long ground wire.

They dont have to be grounded together. I just grounded it on the drivers side, to one of the steering column nuts/stud i think.