[eM-K]

I'm trying to hook up my 400 watt audio amp.. I think i've done everything right. I have it hooked up to my battery.. the remote cable attached to my stereo.. and now all i have to do is the ground cable. I cant get the red "power" light to come on.. even when the ground cable is touching metal... it will give a little spark and the power light will ficker for a second and then not do anything. What am I doing wrong!! I need to get this working!

 

[crazy larry]

scrape the paint off the metal, use a self tapping screw to secure the ground to it, ought to do it.

make sure where ever your mounting the amp, is grounded well, some trunks aren't as grounded as you'd think. paint, body seam sealer, etc can affect the ground ability ....

 

[cuztomcarbuilder]

Amps

Take a spare wire and jump from the battery terminal to the remote turn on of the amp and see if it comes on. This will tell you if the amp is ok. If it does come on then you need to check the head unit. Sometimes there are 2 blue wires at the back of the head unit. One goes to the power antenna and the other goes to the amp. If there are two blue wires for remote turn on, you will find that the power antenna wire only gives you 12 volts when the radio is on and no power when the CD player is on. If you have only one wire and it is listed as AMP turn on, And if the amp doesn't come on when you jump it then you have a bad amp. If it does come on when you jump it but not with the head unit, then you have a bad head unit. Hope this helps.

 

[docvette]

Duel power

Doc hereimp:

I think customcarbuilder and I are saying the same thing...But here goes...

There is a duel power input on high watt amps...One provides the high power/current to operate the linear op amp amplifier chips, the other is relay and low current switching...

This closes the relay contacts internal the amp to deliver the high current to the audio amp chips.. and operate line level pre amps.

You need to have both of these hot at the same time in order for the amp to turn on.

One will be large gauge and probably marked 12 volts, or battery.

The other will be small (18 gauge) and may be marked Remote amp, power antenna, or Acc...I couldn't really give you wire color, but I would go with Red, yellow, and/or blue...most popular. They can be different from amp to amp so you may want to check your install sheet.

Doc imp:

 

[5.0 freak]

How old is the amp, I had a similar problem in my amp and is was because the power pre-outs were fried. it would turn on, for a few seconds then turn off. Aslo you sayed that it would spark then turn off, check your fuse in the engine compartment, usually when it sparks like that you blow your fuse,(In my case anyway) Get some 40~ fuses for it and it shouldn't happen as often if thats what the problem is.