Sparking wires in trunk

[Barberx]

As my car had a Bluetooth radio, I decided to remove and sell the antenna and base. After removing it however the radio wouldn’t work until I grounded the wiring in the trunk again. However, it was sparking while I grounded it. Is this because I’m losing the ground on the radio base? (See pics)

 

[Pingu]

You may have fried your radio. I made the same mistake.

ALWAYS disconnect the battery and give time for the radio's capacitors to discharge before playing with the antenna.

 

[Barberx]

No, it works fine after reassembling. I’m more worried that the ground is sparking even when the antenna base is installed, I’m assuming whoever put the Bluetooth radio in did a hack job

 

[Duncodin]

The radio has two 'live' inputs. One of them is on the ignition (ie only live when the ignition is on) the other is permanently live. The ground is, as you have noticed, all the way back at the antenna mounting bracket. Although some after market installers do earth the radio nearer to the centre console. Connecting anything live or to ground is likely to cause a little spark especially if it has an active draw of power. It looks like your rig is drawing quite a bit of power even when switched off?

As Pingu said, when playing with electrics it's best to disconnect the battery