I am looking to install my CB today. I was told there is a hole in the bottom of the cab to run wires through. Anyone know where this hole might be? I looked under the truck and saw something that looked like a rubber gromet, but not sure if that is the right one. Any insight on this?
Truck is a 2002 Single cab.

I would of posted this in the 97-03 section, but it doesn't see much action, so I knew this would get more views here.

 

Yeah, that should be it. I think its primary use is for a drain?? Idk, but that should be the place. Thats how i ran mine in the cab.


Zane

 

Those holes look kinda small. Hopefully I can fit the antenna cord through them.

Off subject a little here. CB manual says to ground out cb to chassis on a negative grounded vehicle. Do I have to run the wire to the chassis, or can I just hook it up to any screw?

 

I would just ground it to the chassis. I use a cig lighter for mine makes for an easy hook-up.


Zane

 

So, run the wire into the engine bay, and hook to chassis?

Also, it says to connect other wire to ignition switch. Ignition switch fuse is 40 amp and owners amnual says it is a maxi fuse. Can't I just connect it to the audio 15 amp fuse on the fuse box under the steering wheel?

 

I wired mine to the cig lighter fuse so its always recieving power, or I can turn it on with the truck off. I think it was a 15A red.

 

Awesome. Think I am just going to do that. Where did you ground it to? In my cb manual it says Run positive wire to chassis for ground, and neg wire to fuse.

 

I recommend running both to the battery. I've ran mine through that grommet... in fact, I've got a nice loom of wires running from my accessories through there.

 

Are you sure you read that right? That's backwards. Negative wire goes to ground and positive wire goes to fused power. Unless you have some odd sort of cb.

 

Manual says on a positive grounded vehicle. Positive wire goes to chasis, other to fuse. When I looked under the hood, it looked like the positive was the one grounded out on my truck. I also don't know anything about anything, so I could be wrong.
From hearing everyone, think I will just run it to battery. Just red to red, black to black when hooking to battery, and wrap the wire around the battery terminals??
Anyone know where to run them through the firewall at on 97-03?

Also, how the hell do I get that "behind the seat" box out of my truck? The pass. side nut just spins the whole bolt when I put a socket on it. And I can't find the other side when I look under the truck. Anyone know where those things are at?

 

Just ground it to a bolt that you can get continuity from using a test light.
Most of the time the fuse is on the positive side, and also our trucks run a negative ground. You can look in your owners manual, it will list the available fuse slots in your cab fuse panel.
If you choose to run a wire to the battery, just make sure you use a fuse at the battery. If you don't you can get a nice sized fire going, and say bye bye to your truck.
When working on the wiring, if you're not sure, get some help. A short in your system can burn your truck up

About the bolt you can't get out, I remember having that problem, but I can't remember how we got it out. I think there is access to that nut underneath, but I don't remember for sure.

 

Yea, there is a fuse built into the wire. Hopefully I won't have to drill that dang bolt out, so I can get teh carpet up and run the ant. cord.

Don't have a test light. Guess I should pick one of those up for future needs anyway. So all I do is test any bolt, and one that I get continuity from, just wrap the wire around the bolt shaft? Also with hooking to a fuse, just wrap the positive wire around the fuse prongs, then put fuse back in box? Manual says 12amp fuse, so should I just use a 15amp since there are no 12s?


Sorry for all the questions. Like to make sure everything is 100% correct before I do it. Don't like to pay people to do the stuff either. Only way I can really learn is doing it myself.

 

You can use almost any screw under the dash for a ground, as long as it is going into metal. With the ground wire, if you don't have a good one it just doesn't work.
As far as pulling wire under carpet, you can use a coat hanger. Just straiten it out, and push it from the point you need the wire to come out. Then tape the wire to it and pull it back through.

Just be carefull with the hot wire.

 

Well, we got some nice weather, and I didn't feel like waiting to figure out that stupid tool box behind the seat. So, I ran the ant. cable from antenna to under the toolbox, inbetween bed and truck, to under the cab, and have it coming in cab right by where the front bracket of my nerf bar is. Hard to see cable that way. Then ran it under carpet to cb. Looks good.

Grounded the cb to one of the bolt connecting the gas pedal, power coming from cig lighter fuse.

Seems to turn on fine and everything. Don't hear anybody though. Went through all the channels, and didn't hear a thing. Hopefully there was just nobody talking at the time. Whats the range on these things. It is a cobra 29LTD.

Thanks for all the help with the wire questions everyone.

 

well on my setup which i dont have it all totally set up how i want i can get a few miles out of it and thats w/o the antennas grounded

i forgot are you running 2 antennas or just one??

try chilling on ch 19 for a while, that is mostly used for general info and general chat