What amp wire is this ?

[Rocket Man]

X2

 

[Fleetgeo]

What's a drain wire? I've never heard of that before.

Still confused myself I was looking up online and I ran into a post that described my situation it was said that a drain wire is similar to a ground for low resistance I'm still in need of help lol

 

[Fleetgeo]

Usually, rather than attempting to ground the entire shield, the drain wire is used to terminate and ground the shield. A braid is a woven mesh of bare or tinned copper wires. The braid provides a low-resistance path to ground



This is the exact words stated on the post I looked at not sure if it's accurate because I my self never herd of a drain wire

 

[Contend997]

Looks like a ground wire

 

[Cattivo]

I'm an electrician, a drain is similar to a ground wire...that wire is considered a secondary ground which will help in reducing static, engine whine etc. to your stereo system...best way to describe it is, if you have ever stripped back the insulation on a coax(home tv cable wire) there is the middle copper conductor then white colored dialectric then the silver braided ground(drain) then insulation. The primary ground on coax is the connector itself

It is your secondary ground which should be grounded on its own, not with the primary ground

 

[Tonyrodz]

So it shouldn't just be hanging like that? I've never seen that before, purposely left that way.

 

[Cattivo]

Theoretically it shouldn't be hanging like that, it could of been disconnected(ungrounded) for bypass reasons

 

[Rocket Man]

I'm an electrician, a drain is similar to a ground wire...that wire is considered a secondary ground which will help in reducing static, engine whine etc. to your stereo system...best way to describe it is, if you have ever stripped back the insulation on a coax(home tv cable wire) there is the middle copper conductor then white colored dialectric then the silver braided ground(drain) then insulation. The primary ground on coax is the connector itself

It is your secondary ground which should be grounded on its own, not with the primary ground

The connector is crimped to the braid on coax , so on a coax there is only one ground which is the braid, designed to keep out interferance. From what I could see on mine, the braid on this isn't on a coax but on a regular wire harness. But anyway, according to what I've read on the GM system with the Bose Lux system (which is different than the standard Bose system) , the audio adjustments (bass, treble, balance, etc.) are carried through the system bus back to the Lux amp in the rear which is supposedly a "smart" amp with a microprocessor inside it. And that braid is indeed supposed to keep external interference from being introduced into this system bus line. I'm not sure if they wrapped it around the bus line or around the speaker/ power wires coming out of the amp but I do agree it should be grounded. Probably won't keep anything from working but it might increase the chance of noise if it isn't.

 

[Cattivo]

The connector is crimped to the braid on coax , so on a coax there is only one ground which is the braid, designed to keep out interferance. From what I could see on mine, the braid on this isn't on a coax but on a regular wire harness. But anyway, according to what I've read on the GM system with the Bose Lux system (which is different than the standard Bose system) , the audio adjustments (bass, treble, balance, etc.) are carried through the system bus back to the Lux amp in the rear which is supposedly a "smart" amp with a microprocessor inside it. And that braid is indeed supposed to keep external interference from being introduced into this system bus line. I'm not sure if they wrapped it around the bus line or around the speaker/ power wires coming out of the amp but I do agree it should be grounded. Probably won't keep anything from working but it might increase the chance of noise if it isn't.

The coax- braid(drain) was crimped to the connector on older styled RG59 coax wire utilizing the braid as a primary means of grounding...on newer styled coax RG6 the braid(drain) is folded over the cannon head connector 180 degrees and used as a secondary means of ground to eliminate static and bleed over. The outer perimeter of the RG6 connector is self grounded when tightened onto a splitter

I don't have the Bose Lux system in my truck so I can't elaborate if that drain was mistakenly disconnected or bypassed for whatever reasons. It certainly wouldn't hurt to ground it as you mentioned.

 

[Rocket Man]

The coax- braid(drain) was crimped to the connector on older styled RG59 coax wire utilizing the braid as a primary means of grounding...on newer styled coax RG6 the braid(drain) is folded over the cannon head connector 180 degrees and used as a secondary means of ground to eliminate static and bleed over. The outer perimeter of the RG6 connector is self grounded when tightened onto a splitter

I don't have the Bose Lux system in my truck so I can't elaborate if that drain was mistakenly disconnected or bypassed for whatever reasons. It certainly wouldn't hurt to ground it as you mentioned.

And I just gave away how long ago it was that I was an electronic tech! It's been quite awhile. The concept is still the same though, and of course we're talking an old GM system although it works well.