knuckless

haha i know im just joking

Misterwally

Does that cassette still play cassettes? I visited your garage and looks like the little 65 does not see a lot of time on the road so you may not find my suggestion prudent. Since she didn't come stock with a cassette deck I wouldn't think your dad would mind if you up graded the head unit. You would kill two birds with one stone. A modern unit would likely have the filters built in to get rid of the whine or buzz your hearing from the old casstte player. At the same time when you took the Stang out for a cruise you could have modern day audio pleasure. I'm restomoding my 65 and plan on driving it a lot so an upgraded sound is a must.

tx65coupe

I agree. Radio Shack has a noise filter for stereo interference from the alternator. You might be able to get one at the Autoparts store.

Canary94GT

Yeah, I'm wondering how easy that would be to get a drop in replacement. It looks like this one has a clamp screwed onto the top of it so you can slide it right in under the glove box, and take it off and store it away when you don't need it. It would be very nice to use most of what I already have set up.

Otherwise, I will read into those filters if the noise does not improve when I start it up again.

msmith

A whining sound that rises and falls with engine RPM is alternator whine and can usually be corrected by better grounding of the radio and/or amplifier.

A buzzing or crackling sound that increases in frequency with engine RPM is ignition interference.

As stated by Starfury, a capacitor (aka condensor) is usually placed in line with the solenoid and/or in the distributor to suppress RFI/EMI interference. Bad ignition wires are often the cause of this problem as are "racing wires" that don't have sufficient RFI shielding in their design. RFI stands for "Radio Frequency Interference"... EMI stands for "Electro-Magnetic Interference". The noise can enter audio electronics through the power wiring or, in some cases, it is picked up by the antenna.

The first rule of noise troubleshooting in audio equipment: check all your grounds. Then check them again. Once that has been eliminated, look for other possible causes.

The condensor in the distributor is a likely culprit. It is basically a temporary storage device for electricity (a simple capacitor). When the points start to open, the current flowing through the points looks for an alternative path to ground. If the condenser were not there, it would try to jump across the gap of the points as they begin to open. If this is allowed to happen, the points would burn up and you would hear crackling through the car's radio. To prevent this, the condenser acts as a path to ground. It really is not (it's just a little storage tank), but by the time the condenser is saturated (filled up), the points are too far apart for the small amount of voltage to jump across the wide point gap. Since the arcing across the opening points is eliminated, the points last longer and there is no static on the radio from point arcing.

So, to summarize

1) Check the audio equipment grounds
2) Replace the distributor's condensor with a new one (they do go bad)
3) Replace the ignition wires with ones designed for RFI suppression
4) Replace the spark plugs with ones designed for RFI suppression

If that doesn't work, check the grounds again. :-)

rst08tierney

I know most one here wont agree but im a true fan of the USA-630. Its a repop of the original and all your modern day USB and IPOD support but with the original look of a classic stereo. The unit comes with built in RFI/EMI suppression.

In the long run like other said, nothing beat a solid ground

Misterwally

There you go partner. That unit or something similar. Today units of decent quality have the RFI/EMI suppression built in. The cassette is out of date so get er out of there and spend the time on a new install rather then go through all that seek and destroy and still wind up with an out of date headunit.

Canary94GT

Thanks guys, this is very useful info. I really like that USA-630, I think I've seen it in mustang catalogs before.

A week or so ago, I bought a new condenser, some BWD wires that say they have superior RFI protection, and some new Autolite 46 spark plugs.

Don't have the money for a new head unit at the moment, but we'll see how this goes when I fire it up probably next week.

How do I go about checking grounds, and how do I know if its a "good" ground?

Benton888

I have a buzzing noise that is constant with the enginges rpms so that puts me to believe it is a ground from the rear amps because the buzzing only comes from one or both of the back speakers...i was just wondering where the grounds are located for the amps in the trunk?