The bracket is grounded via screws. The cb shop said it was grounded. Goingv there today.

right on. i just dont see where the ground from the wire meets the bracket. maybe i just cant see it in your pic.

There is no ground wire on the bracket....

all you need for the antenna is the "ground plane", which by the pic is the rear fender (antenna mount is grounded to the fender). the CB radio needs to have its own wire ran to the negative battery mount for the ground from the radio itself. definitely do not put your radio to a common ground, you will get feedback and no one will hear you when other electrical devices that share that ground are on (for instance, i grounded my radio where my windshield wipers are ground, i cant use the radio in the rain cause the wipers cause interference every time they cycle).

i would check the wire to make sure the pin is straight, and there arent any breaks. what is your SWR?

you need to ground the coax cable. there is a copper wire braid inside the insulation. connect that to the bracket. then the center wire is the hot wire. without the ground your not gonna get anything. maybe a trucker with an amped up radio a mile away but thats it.

thats your problem.

wrong. the copper braid inside insulation isnt used at all. the only reason they use that kind of coax is because of the 50ohm resistance in the wire matches to the antenna very closely (not perfectly, hence why you still have to tune it and get a good SWR). the CB radio uses the center wire for TX and RX.

ill say it again OP, what is your SWR (standing wave ratio)?

well my **** didnt work until i did that and instructions say to ground it. fact

Well, when the car wash ripped the bracket it broke the coax. So the Wilson antenna was broken too from just normal use. I got a new coax and the whip and spring swr is 1.4. The Wilson fiberglass antenna is 1.6. Problem solved.

then what you probably did was in fact ground the mount. do you have a pic of your set up, more importantly, the mount?

awesome. glad to hear you got it fixed.

^ see page 1 of this post. its the bal type. and i didnt ground the mount.

the mount is grounded in fact, see the metal underneath the lining on the base by the bolts? that provides the ground for the mount.

just by chance do you have the Hustler SSM-2 Stainless Steel CB Antenna Ball Mount?

Threre is no certain length you need to run, just from the radio to the antenna. Only time it factors is if you running over 100ft. In a car there is hardly any loss unless your coax is faulty. If you have to cut your coax to change your swrs then you have bigger problems then just your swrs and coiling your coax isn't bad actually its recommended if your having noise problems.

x2.

Everything is working so well nown

good to hear... i dont take my jeep to automated car washes anymore... they break too much stuff and never wash enough mud...