Hey guys, thias has been the first time ive ever fucked with anything in my car, basically...

Some of you may remember me from the other thread, about which sets of speakers to power.

I installed the head unit, rear speakers, two amps and a sub yesterday. Tall order for me. Anyway, the one amp with my sub works fine, but my other amp, an older amp, going to my rears, basically comes on and off in spurts of a fraction of a second, then off, then on, then off...even the light does this. I even hear the audio for a fraction of a second, then off, then a second or two later, another fraction, then off, and so on.

Anyone ever incurred this?

[Edited on December 18, 2005 at 12:17 PM. Reason : .]

12/18/2005 12:16:31 PM

You got a short probably.
Check power connections and speak connection for frayed or lose wiring.
Probably is going to be on the power-side.

12/18/2005 12:45:32 PM

how do you have the system grounded?

the ground is the #1 thing to screw up on something like this. To establish a proper ground you must completely and totaly strip away all finish from the grounding point until bare shiny metal is exposed. Without a proper ground the amp will do exactly what you described. Many people don't make the effort to strip it properly...

a good ole file works the best IMHO

12/18/2005 1:33:01 PM

either a bad ground or a short like said above. Check the ground point, and all of your connections.

12/18/2005 6:41:17 PM

id say a short. clean up all your connections...

12/18/2005 6:45:48 PM

I would like to re-itterate... if the metal your grounding to is dull grey then you haven't removed all of the protective (non-conductive) coatings and its not being properly grounded.

how did you run the remote wire ?
You said you got the 4 channel from a friend... are you sure it was working after sitting for a long period of time?

12/18/2005 8:24:31 PM

Thanks for the responses...


gofigure, you are right...it *is a dull grey, not a shiny metal that they are grounded to. I assumed this dull grey *was just bare metal. I will check this tomorrow. But, both ground ring terminals are sandwiched on this one bolt. The working amp's ring is on the bottom, then the non-working amp's ground ring, then the bolt. Both grounds are on approximately 13-16 inches of 8 guage wire.

The remote wire is ran from the head unit, back to the amps, where it is crimped with two other wires. Then those two wires go to each amp's remote start terminal.

I will check all connections tomorrow andmake sure they are clean, and Ill also file down my ground point.

The amp I got used from a guy...i hadnt seen it working, was just going on his good word. We'll see if it was a lemon...


Thanks again, guys, ill post tomorrow with results.

12/18/2005 8:45:42 PM

yeah you didn't strip the protective coating... its almost deffinitly the ground take sandpaper/wirewheel or a file to it until the entire contact diameter has been cleared and is shiny metal... then the amps will both work properly if they are both in proper working order that is...

12/18/2005 10:42:42 PM

I tend to think, given that one amp works, they are both grounded to the same spot, and the other older one is the flaky one, that the ground is likely not the problem. In my experience you can get flaky behavior when you start to really crank the volume, but it takes a very miniscule amount of exposed metal to make the actual ground. Usually, the uncoated threads are enough even if it isn't the ideal case. It is still a good idea to do this, so do it anyway, but I'm not going to be surprised when it isn't the culprit. I assume the amp has a light on it. Does the light go on and off with the music? If it does, unhook all speaker wires from that amp, and see if the light is flashing on and off. Report back (of course, after going ahead and fixing the ground).

12/19/2005 7:35:44 PM

happened to me when the remote on wire wasn't connected well once

12/19/2005 8:11:48 PM

Okay....fixed ground as best I could...I even hooked up JUST the bad amp's ground to that spot. Same result. I unhooked the speakers from it, same result.

Yes, the light goes on and off along with the fractions of music.

I will check the remote wire tomorrow...im starting to think this amp is just a lemon. All I need is 50x2 power, it cant be much to replace it? right?

12/19/2005 9:00:29 PM

Quote :

"Yes, the light goes on and off along with the fractions of music."

Did you try disconnecting the outputs from the amp and running it like this? It isn't clear from your post if you tried it this way or not.

12/19/2005 10:13:08 PM