Scuba_JKU

Hello,

So I purchased a used cobra 75 and installed it originally with my tailgate mount on JKU. After research I realized that's the worst place for it and moved it to the liscense plate mount.

the weird issue I have is when I'm on the freeway and I key up the mic, my jeep loses power. Almost to the point where it wants to stall.

I have searched the intrawebs and cannot find anyone who has had a similar issue.

i have a 8ga power and ground distribution coming from the battery under my driver side seat. This is where I connected my CB and pretty much all my leds and accessories.

The cobra brain is behind the glove box not mounted. Does the brain have to be mounted to metal?

Any insight would help.....I've never seen anything happen like this before.

Thank you,
Eric

jedg

Do you have remote start? I had a similar issue but mine was mounted on the rear bumper to the driver side of the license plate. When idling, if I keyed the mic it would kill the engine. Never figured it out. I moved the antenna to a location toward the front of the vehicle and didn't worry about it.

Scuba_JKU

Yeah I have a viper alarm installed with remote start. That is really weird tho. Was yours ran directly to the battery?

jedg

Yup.. run directly to the battery (with a fuse in it of course).

Scuba_JKU

This is so weird. I don't understand why this would happen. That's whats driving me nuts.

jedg

I even took mine to a CB shop. They were the ones that figured out moving the antenna to the front (next to the A pillar) got rid of the problem.

Atoche

Well, this does seem rather odd...

I run my rig directly from the battery (positive lead of radio to positive terminal of the battery, negative lead of radio to the negative terminal of the battery) with 8AWG copper wire with no problems.

Wiring or properly functioning unit are the only suspects - as you already know the wiring is pretty simple.

Is the radio new? How do you have the negative lead terminated? Can you run both from the battery direct? Do you have a multimeter? you should be able to check continuity of your leads to check for shorts... You can also wire both leads direct and test.

gingerchocolate

I had this happen with my 75 as well. I actually got the red lightning bolt dash light to come on when I keyed the mic.

I had the CB wired directly to the battery too.

The solution was more grounding. I also didn't have the remote box mounted.

I opened up the remote box and added a ground wire to the PCB.

I also ran a ground to the mount.

Since then i've done a lot of research regarding 2-way communications and Jeeps. Bonding with braided wire is everything. The JK has a pretty poor grounding system. Bonding made a HUGE difference and even handled a minor missfire I was having. (another story)

Scuba_JKU

I moved it to the battery today and still the same problem. Does the brain have to be mounted? Mine is just behind the glove box.

coolhand129

You are exactly right.! Same issues with an amateur radio on the 20 meter band. Dash lights, my dual battery genesis light, etc would come on with the keying of the mic. I have been told by a long time mobile amateur radio friend to ground the chassis together, the exhaust to the chassis, etc. With braided copper grounding straps.

Still working on that.