amp/sub question

[Smokin' Rubber]

Is there anyway to tell if an amp is fubar? Made an attempt to hook up my amp and subs and couldn't get any sound, might need to read owners manuel for deck again but I was just curious if the amp could be fooked since I know for a fact that the subs work

[cdFxer]

Check to make sure you have a good ground, +12V at the main power connection, and +12V at the turnon connection, and verify your connections to the HU. Check the manual for the amp and check the input requirements-is it high level and your feeding it low level, switches, etc. If all that is good, then you may have let the magic smoke out of the amp As far as a bad amp, sometimes bad amps (check w/o any input signal) dump anywhere from a few volts DC to 30+VAC (lol, that was one smoked amp) across their outputs (measure at the speaker terms, not to ground). Thats not a definite check, but w/o any input an amp should be fairly close to 0 VDC.

[Smokin' Rubber]

Hmmm forgot to run a 12v circuit to it to get power hehe my bad....Btw where do I get the 12v's from? And what wire do I attach it to for the "remote on/off" thing so it will only be on when the keys are turned to accesory?

[Jahntassa]

The 12v to the amp needs to come directly from the battery. Depending on the ratings of the fuses on the amp will determine how thick a power cable you'll need. You'll need a fuse at less than 18" from the battery. Remote wire is generally pulled from behind the radio. If it's an aftermarket, it connects to the blue/white wire. If not, then there's a switched power wire behind the radio.

[Smokin' Rubber]

it has one 40 amp rated fuse, do I need to build another one into the line between the battery and the amp (the amp itself is less than 18")? Also, how the heck do I get a cable directly from the battery to the amp?

[Jahntassa]

You'll need 8 gage wire run from wherever the amplifier is, through the firewall, to the battery. Less than 18 inches from the battery, there needs to be a waterproof fuse holder with at least a 40-60 amp fuse. Unless the amplifier is under the hood, you'll need the second fuse. The fuse under the hood is to keep the power wire from melting, or the battery exploding, if there's a short in the wire. There's a reason the main fuse to the car is really close to the battery, and that's it.Most likely, you should go buy a "power kit" from Circuit City, Best Buy, etc. Unless you have spare 8 gage cable around (which is about 1/4 inch thick), you need to get the right stuff, else you stand to have issues down the line.

[Smokin' Rubber]

Well I got 2 feet of 8 gauage to go from the amps to the subs, but 2 feet ins't nearly enough lol. you're probably right I will just get a sub/amp installation kit and save myself some trouble... and I always wondered why people had waterproof fuses that ran backwards from the battery , I guess now I know heheThanks for the info man, I dunno when I'll be able to actuall install in now that I moved into campus housing and school starts again next week but we'll see. Btw can I use the 12v switched power thing under the arm rest as my remote on/off circuit for the amp?

[Jahntassa]

Using 8 ga from the amp to the subs is way overkill. You'd only need 12 - 16ga at the most, unless you're running a few thousand watts. And yeah, the kit will probably save you a lot of time in the long run

[Smokin' Rubber]

Hmmm ok so you think I should get smaller wire for the subs then? the peak is 1,000 watts for each to 2,000 watt theoretical peak for both together. Btw, where do you think I could or should run the 12v wire through the firewall?