Quick question. Whenever my boat motor is running, my right rear speaker is ticking. Unplug the speaker, and it goes away. Fire up the radio while the motor is off, and the speaker doesn't tick. Boat has a JBL MR-17B headunit, with 2 JBL 6.5" speakers, 2 JBL 6x9 speakers. The speaker that is ticking is a 6x9. Boat headunit is grounded directly to the battery on it's own ground. Any ideas?

 

Does the wire powering the ticking speaker ever come close to the alternator, battery, or the power wire between the two?

 

Alternator? No, not even close to it. Boat is an outboard boat, so the wiring is far away from the alternator.

Battery? No. Batteries are in the far back of the boat.

Power wire? Yes. But, it has been like that for a long time, this is more of a recent problem. I re-wired the gauges under the dash and cleaned up a few bad grounds/bad connections (lights and a fluster cuck of wiring) from the previous owner, and this problem started. But, I didn't touch any of the wiring that runs by the speaker wiring. I originally thought it was a ground problem. So, I switched the ground from the common ground to the battery. Didn't help it. Still get a ticking while the motor is running.

 

Have you noticed the ticking getting worse as the boat accelerates or is it too loud at that point to tell?

Is it a higher pitched ticking?

What components were messed with?

My guess (TOO EARLY TO BE SURE) but you somehow may be catching sparkplug noise.

 

Try switching to an "R" spark plug, meaning it has a resistor...if it doesn't already have them.

 

I can't really tell if it gets worse or not at speed. Just when I am idling and the motor is quietest is when you can really hear it. It doesn't get louder as you get faster.

High pitched? Eh, I'd say middle-ish. Not bass-thumping, but not making your ears ring either, if that makes any sense.

What do you mean "components"? As in what did I re-wire? All that was touched was the gauge wiring underneath the dash. Radio and such wasn't touched.

Not gonna happen. The outboard motor is 35 years old. There's only one plug that I know of that fits this motor (NGK BUHW), and it's a goofy lookin plug (flat top plug).

Thanks for the help guys. Keep the ideas coming.

 

Try switching your wiring around - hookup your left speaker to your right output and right speaker to your left output and see if the noise stays with the speaker or moves.

If it stays it's either the speaker or wiring. If it moves it's your headunit. If it goes away it's your wiring.

Also, is the tick rythmic? What's the speed? Is it always present or only with certain input/sources?

 

Tick is rythmic. Doesn't seem to increase or decrease in speed. Doesn't matter if I'm listening to the radio or the cd player.

 

Well I'd say go ahead and try to narrow it down by switching up the wiring as suggested before.

 

you dont have to go changin plugs and all that jazzz. go to west marine and get a blue sea ground buss bar and run a ground from tha batterie to the buss bar. only put you electronics to that bar. gps's will fliker and fishfinders will show a weird scheme on tha screen.and stereos will buzz and pop and even start changing stations for some reason. ive been a marine rigger for 10yrs now so this is no new story to me.

 

well if the tick is rythmic and it doesnt change speed with the revs.... i say change the freaking song.

 

There are NO electronic devices like a GPS or fish finder hooked up in the boat. Only electronics besides the motor (which is a 1973, so motor electronics are primitive to say the least) are the radio, gauges, bilge pump, horn, and navigation lights. All electric devices are grounded on a ground buss, besides the radio, which is grounded directly to the battery (battery #1). Both batteries are grounded directly to the engine block. All power for the accessories is coming from a the same fuse block.


I wish it was that simple...