Blew a fuse and can't get the amp to work.
 

Okay I began this Friday working on my amp. I was lucky enough to find a hole in the firewall very quickly; I drilled through a plastic bracket and placed a grommet that came with the wiring kit.

I passed the power cable through. I then used the truck release U bracket's bolts as a ground. Is this a good ground? Im not sure.

Ok after then I connected (spliced) my LOC (line out converter) to the rear speakers wiring. And I also grounded the LOC at the same location as the Amp. Everything looked solid. But the amp got no power. I assume this is because of the Remote Wire. I could not find a place for "remote wire" in the back of my HU. I even tried placing it in the antenna slot, all of this to no avail. In fact the bare wire (remote wire, that was connected to the amp) made contact with the metal of the HU and it shorted out a 10A fuse. I was freaked out….cause I though I blew the cd player!!!!


Ok anyways I have no idea if I need the Remote Wire to get the amp going. Won’t the amp stay on all the time if I don’t use the remote wire? Or it won’t come ON without it? Any ways its either that or Ground wire was in the wrong location. I just don’t know…I spent at least 3-4 hours with a friend prepping everything….

Any ideas please help…

i have heard of some people splicing there remote wire into their cigarette lighter.

you MUST use the remote wire...it is in fact your ON/OFF switch for the amp...it obviously gets power from the big power line from the battery...but the remote wire operates an ON/OFF switch for it.

question....do you still have the stock head unit? if not, what head unit are you using?

IF you are using the stock head unit the wire you need to TAP into is the pink/black wire....its the aux power that only comes on when the head unit is on.....see the image below for all the wires to the stock unit.

Im using the stock deck, i replaced the 10A fuse and it all came back to life!! whew!!

I'm gonna try Pink/Black wire soon, also do you think the ground that i used is ok? The trunk release U bolt?

Do i also need to put a wire from the negative battery terminal to the chasis?

edit:

im gonna try to take some pics this time :)

OK i located the Pink/Black wire....although after i tapped into it nothing happened. I didn't blow a fuse so i suppose it was a good sign.

But im still not sure what the problem is....is it the remote wire? or is it the ground? How can i check???

Can i run a small 12V computer fan from the amps positive wire and the ground? I mean this way i could find out if im getting a good connection from the ground or not. Then if this was to work I would know that its the remote wire.

the release ubolt MAY be okay....you just need to ensure that there is good metal to metal contact where the lug for the ground wire is.....but.....the PREFERED method of ground is to keep the ground wire as short as possible. NOW....does your AMP have its own seperate fuse? I know mine does...and maybe that blew too...check it out....

OTHER WISE....get yourself a test light (looks like an icepick with a wire and an alligator clip on the end, theres a light inside)...you can get one at any parts store, they are cheap....that is unless you have a volt/amp meter already.....you DO know that the pink/black wire will NOT have any juice unless the deck is ON...right ? which means your amp won't come on either. if you use a test light....clip it onto the end of the lead you attached to the aux power wire (pink/black) and put the pick to a ground...the light in the handle should come on...if not...you are not getting power to the aux power lead for some reason...if you are....then either your amp isn't getting power...or the ground is bad.....OR like mentioned earlier, the amp has a fuse on it somewhere and it blew when the other one did.

check these things out and get back to us.

okay want to cover one more thing....when I said to TAP into the pink/black...if you cut it in two to strip the ends...you need to put ALL THREE back together...as in both ends of the pink/black...and your new lead to the amp....k?

UPDATE:

Ok it works!, only thing is that it wasn't the Pink/Black wire.....i had to eliminate the wires one by one. I eliminated 8 wires belonging to the 4 speaker (front and back) then i was left with a few wires. I took a guess and tapped into of them and connected the negative battery terminal, all of a sudden the amp's power light was on!! But the key wasn't in the ignition, so i knew i just tapped into the constant 12V. Ok then i tapped into the wire beside it ('ll take a pic later) and now the amp turned ON with the Radio.


Very happy with it!! And thanks for all the help!!! I went a surplus store and bought a fuse holder, a few fuses and a toggle (on/off) switch so that I can control the remote turn on.

Now i just have to make a clean install of everythning....and i'll be bouncing...

Well that is about par for the course.....YOUR wiring harness is DIFFERENT! I really hate it when that happens!!!! :{D

HOWEVER....you approached it very methodically, EXACTLY what you should have done and exactly what I would have and HOW I would have done it.....good job! happy jamming!!

Ground connections should always be made to the loor on a primary piece of metal and all paint should be removed before grounding.

Sir Nuke your help has been most helpful. If you hadn't mentioned the Pink/Black wire I would have probably never touched the wiring harness again. Because I already blew a fuse and I would have been too afraid to try it again. But in the search for that wire I took a guess and luckily it was the right one.

What happened was that I connected the remote wire and then I connected the negative terminal to the battery. Nothing happened, and then I realized I left the ground unplugged and so as soon as I brought it in contact with a bolt on the bed of the trunk it sparked! So I knew, at least I had a good Ground. Then when I went around to the amp I saw the power light. Hehe!!

I’m going to post pics of everything. Including a fuse box I made from a DV cartridge case…lol (for my remote wire switch)

ok i got lame pictures!!!!

http://www.mykg4orce.net/temp/amp/index.html