I'm trying to get a better understanding of the grounding issues when installing everything. A lot of folks are saying a good ground is the root of a good percentage of the problems, and to scrape the paint off the FJ door hinge real good. But then I look at one of the pictures from the original post...
And it is showing the plastic washer in there. Why Plastic? Don't you want the assembly to make a good (or better) ground connection to the Bandi mount?
Also, I have read the Fire Rings are prone to breaking if you crank down too hard on them. What are the other options to using a Fire Ring? Anyone have any pics?
Thanks....I'm just a CB newb here
The grounding is for the shielding just under the black plastic cover of the antenna wire. (the meshy braided stuff) It is kept separate from the center wire in the middle of the ant wire. The plastic washer also keeps them separate. Everything above the plastic washer is signal. The signal is kept away from ground as it goes through the center of the washer on its way to the radio and is kept as far from ground as possible. What IS grounded needs to be as secure as possible in order for the transceiver (CB) to be efficient.
I'm trying to get a better understanding of the grounding issues when installing everything. A lot of folks are saying a good ground is the root of a good percentage of the problems, and to scrape the paint off the FJ door hinge real good. But then I look at one of the pictures from the original post...
And it is showing the plastic washer in there. Why Plastic? Don't you want the assembly to make a good (or better) ground connection to the Bandi mount?
Also, I have read the Fire Rings are prone to breaking if you crank down too hard on them. What are the other options to using a Fire Ring? Anyone have any pics?
Thanks....I'm just a CB newb here
I wondered about this also. So I put a meter on the ring connector. There are actually 2 rings in that end. One gets the coax center to bolt head, to connect electrically to the stud connector, while the other ring is connected to the shield in the coax and goes to ground. That is why they put the nylon bushing in there to keep the bolt from shorting the 2 rings together, and to allow you to see how to orient the ring and make a ground connection to the ring where the bushing sticks out an eighth.
All this makes me wonder how hard you can crank the bolt down before you crush the insulator between the 2 rings though??
HTH..
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07 Titanium loaded..
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Many thanks to all those involved in developing the Bandi/CB Install...I just did this a few days ago and wow did that go smooth. Not sure what kind of a hack job I would have done without the sticky and help. The only problem I had was that I couldn't adjust in the antenna. After making a few posts for help I did the continuity check and found out that I DIDN"T have a GOOD GROUND between the Firering and the Bandi Mount. Drummelled it and then whalla...works great.
This is why this Forum is so great....others have paved the way for the less experienced!
I just wanted to add a note here to make sure people do not over tighten the fire ring portion of the bandi mount. If you over tighten the bolt you can and probably will damage the ring. I did this and spent several hours on it before I figured out what was going on and I spoke to another guy today at a local meet that did exactly the same thing. Basically there is a solder join in the ring that breaks when you over tighten the main bolt. It twists it in such a way that will make you crazy trying to figure out your horrible SWR readings.
I know several people have mentioned that they "really had to crank down on it", but I just wanted to let people know that they shouldn't tighten down excessively unless they have to. If you properly remove the paint and get good metal to metal contact, normal torque on the mount should be fine.
Hope this helps others from repeating my mistakes.
If I did overtighten the fire ring, how would I know? Can I do a continuity check somewhere?
Got the setup (Bandi mount, Cobra, firestick - everything went in as advertised - thanks to all for the pics and directions). But now, my SWR readings are too high. Checked grounds, checked for shorts - everything seems fine. Can't tune the screw on the tip of the firestick up or down enough to get readings below 3.
If I did overtighten the fire ring, how would I know? Can I do a continuity check somewhere?
Got the setup (Bandi mount, Cobra, firestick - everything went in as advertised - thanks to all for the pics and directions). But now, my SWR readings are too high. Checked grounds, checked for shorts - everything seems fine. Can't tune the screw on the tip of the firestick up or down enough to get readings below 3.
If you take the antenna off of the radio, you can use an ohm meter to check the antenna line. Just check the cable at the radio end. You should NOT have continuity.
Just checked that - it's an open circuit, no short. So that means I didn't crack the fire ring, right? Any thoughts on the high SWR? I have good grounds between the Bandi mount and the frame of the vehicle, a good ground between the copper wrap of the antenna cable and the vehicle (checked with an ohm meter - dead shorts for both).... When I put the screw all the way in or all the way out, I still get bad readings.
If you go back in posts, you'll find I had that exact issue with a 2' Wilson antenna. I switched to a 4' K40 and the SWR instantly came down to an excellent number. If you've got a local shop, I'd suggest checking there to see if they've got anything they can take out to your rig and test right then. The place here was nice enough to bring out half a dozen antennas to find what worked best on my rig.
It might be worth a try since your problem sounds very similar to what I was experiencing (nothing below 3:1).
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