what's wrong with my setup?

[jrod]

I've just tried to put my old amp and sub into my new car, keeping the facotry deck, i'm not sure what i'm doing but it isn't working. so far i've put in a hi-lo converter from the front speaker wires, ive run the main cable, and earthed it. I've put the power control wire (for the amp) off the accessary's wire, is this right?? all that happens at the moment is when i switch the deck on the light on the amp comes on for a short period of time, then turns off. no sounds comes though. does anyone know what im doing wrong?

[Car Audio Factory Outlet]

you will need Phreddy's RCA Mod!

Your OEM setup does it have the AMP option??

[jrod]

im not sure about an amp option, but i got these hi-lo converters, ur sposed to be able to tap into the signal in the speaker wires, this then converts it to an rca signal

[wrx884]

where have u hooked up ur remote wire on ur amp?

[jrod]

on the amp it is hooked up to the 'remote' terminal, at the deck i've just tapped it into what i think is the accessory's (yellow). as i said above, when i switch the deck on the light on the amp comes on briefly. It's really doing my head in

[wrx884]

have u tried running the speakers with out the hi and lo converter?

actually 4get do they tell u which speakers wires ur supposed 2 tap into? or can it be ne1?

[jrod]

yeah it tells me left right pos and neg, i'm pretty sure from memory when the amp is running the litlle light on it stays on

[wrx884]

yer it should hmm mite b a question 4 the more experienced installers lol its weird coz 4 a brief moment u r gettin power 2 it try mayb puttin a voltage tester on the power terminal and the ground terminal and see if u got power running though at all? or if it does breifly like u said and switches off?

[jrod]

i checked the voltages they all seem fine, might have to take it in to sum pro's

[Car Audio Factory Outlet]

i checked the voltages they all seem fine, might have to take it in to sum pro's

Sounds very strange....

What type of amps is it and have you checked the polarity of your connections to your sub and speakers??

As that will do it too.

[jrod]

its a kenwood 4 channel, polarity's are all good. I tried hooking up the power control to the constant power but the amp still doesnt turn on, even though i get 12 v between active and ground, and 12v between power control and ground

[jrod]

ok so today i spoke to the guys at jb hi fi today. they thought my problem would either be a bad ground connection, or a short on one of the speakers. I disconnected all speakers, and moved the ground wire, still no luck though. The weird thing is, when its turned off i get 12v between active and ground, but when i turn it on, this drops down to about 1v, hence why the light comes on and then fades away. I take it this is not normal and it should stay at 12v?

[wrx884]

try gettin ur hands on another amp 4 a test and see if that does the same thing seems like some where along the lines the power is gettin drawn away wen u turn on ACC check those connections rnt touching ne parts of the cars body shouldnt b. Also check the voltage b4 and after its turned on at the battery and see wat reading u get?

[Phreddy]

I think what you have here is a high resistance connection to the main battery feed - either at the battery terminal itself, at the fuseholder contacts (you ARE running a fuse, aren't you??), or somewhere along that feed. As soon as you try to pull any current through it, all the voltage is "lost" across the high resistance.

To put it in simpler terms, a flaky or dirty connection. (oh, if this is the voltage you're measuring AT THE AMP power input terminals, it could also be a flaky earth, despite the fact that you're re-done it) Measure the amp +12V main power terminal, but with the neg lead of the meter connected to the car chassis, not the amp GND terminal. If it's still dropping, the bad connection is in the main +12 circuit. If the voltage is good when measured as above, then it's the ground connection.

What gauge wire are you running on the main battery feed? I'm assuming it's a decent thickness, otherwise you'll lose that voltage along the cable length.

Assuming that is OK, if you take the measurements as I described and feed back, we can investigate from there.

Cheerz!

[jrod]

i figured it out!!! i knew it would be something simple too. As u said Phreddy it was a bad main connection. I thought I checked it, as the resistance accross the fuse was zero so I thought it was all good. but when i noticed only 1 volt dropping across the amp when it was turned on i set out to find where the other 11 volts were. sure enough 11 volts dropped across the fuse. What I figured is the fuse was burnt out, but not completely, so it was connected enough to give me zero resistance, but when i tried to pump the amps through it struggled. I got a new fuse, and sure enough, all good. Cheers all for your suggestions, I have bass!!