ok, so I've been hav'n a little trouble finding the source of my alternator whine. did i say little?
well near the end of my rope, hunting for ideas (big THANK YOU to Tony and others for the links to help me fig'r it out) I decided to get a knife, then I grabbed the closest non-conductive thing i coulf find, a box of special K cereal. chopped it up and lined the inside of my sled with it, only a whole for the main plug.
BINGO !!! the alternator whine is g o n e.
so I'll cut 'speed holes' in the cardboard so the empeg can breath/cool....but what on earth does this mean?

but what on earth does this mean?

No pun intended, I'm sure.

It means there's something really really funny going on with the ground/audio wiring either in the player, in the sled harness, the amplifier, or the wiring that connects it all to the car power.

For all intents and purposes, the sled body and the ground wire coming off of the sled harness should be at the same potential. What you described should not happen.

Obviously you can't live with the cardboard on your player. You need to be able to slide the thing in and out without messing with bits of cardboard. This shouldn't be happening at all, there's something else wrong that needs to be fixed.

Have you opened your player and looked for loose/frayed wires? Perhaps if you contacted David (and pointed him to these three threads) he would give you permission to do so.

You could line your sled with electrical tape or some other non-conductive adhesive in lieu of the cardboard.

Better to fix the problem correctly though.

I think I would be inclined to get hold of a voltmeter and measure the potential of the sled with the unit out and the engine running. You may have the dashboard shorting to something above earth potential.

Either that or the earthing between the empeg board and the case is broken and the case is floating, in which case it becomes a pretty cool antenna...

You may have the dashboard shorting to something above earth potential.

Ooo, good idea.

or the earthing between the empeg board and the case is broken and the case is floating

Right, another likely possibility.

should the sled be isolated from the car's earth, or securely grounded?

can I assume the empegs case is grounded, well 'spose to be anyway?

should the sled be isolated from the car's earth, or securely grounded?

It shouldn't need to be EITHER.

It should be at exactly the same ground potential as the rest of the player's casing and the player's ground wire.

The fact that you get noise when the sled is grounded and you lose noise when it's not indicates that there is SOMETHING WRONG with the wiring, either in the car, in the sled, or in the player itself. If things were working as they are supposed to be working, then it wouldn't make a difference whether you grounded the sled or isolated it or what.

I agree with Rob's diagnosis that it sounds like something is shorting out and actually applying a voltage to the frame of the dash itself. Do as Rob said, try measuring the DC voltage of the dash frame as referenced to ground on the battery's negative terminal. There should be zero electrons flowing between those two points. If you get anything other than zero, start looking for things that might cause that.

with the unit running- if I back probe the sled connection and measure drop to the case I should get a big fat zero...right?
but if I don't, how will I know if the problem is in the sled connection, or internal to the empeg?
and just how much is acceptable for a drop? .005vdc? more? less? I'll never see a true 'zero' so I wonder what the normal number is.

If you have a 12V line shorting against the sled, and the sled is earthed, then the battery will go flat as all the blue smoke will leak out of the wires in the car. You probably wouldn't have much of a car left by now, either.

You are more likely to have a situation whee the sled is floating (ie. isolated in a plastic surround or some such?) and something is touching it above ground potential. If you see anything over a half volt, then I would be looking hard at your wiring.

It sounds as if you need to ground the sled. If your battery goes flat quickly, then there is a current leak along the earth wire, which you should be able to measure.

.005 vdc max (sled to ground).
no shorts, or battery problems.
new, beefcake power and ground leads. no OEM wires used at all.
grounding the sled made no difference.

lost.
is a screen flicker with no skip in sound normal?

is a screen flicker with no skip in sound normal?

No, it is not. The screen should not flicker other than the normal images of the visuals. Please describe the flicker in more detail.

I'm starting to wonder if your player needs a visit back home.

>>I'm starting to wonder if your player needs a visit back home. <<
bite your tongue !!
the flicker is as if I blinked and didn't know it. super fast, no sound/play change. from time to time I've had tracks start over, but i figure that could be so many things i didnt mention it, and it doesnt happen often. never noticed the display at the same time.
I dont wanna give up my unit, but if I must , oh well.

I've had tracks start over

Which also should not happen.

I dont wanna give up my unit, but if I must , oh well.

If you have to send it back for repair, it won't be gone long. Don't worry.