little wiring help

[Jester1318 10+ year member]

So today I had a buddy of mine helping with the BIG 3 in my truck. He accidentally hit the positive termninal of the battery with a grounded ratchet. When I Asked if he had disconnected the power wire for the amps he said no. I checked the inline fuse and the fuses at the distro block.... all was good so I hoped for the best.

When we finished up and turned on the truck... nothing. After much testing I have determined the 2 USA-50 to possibly be toast but the USA-200 seems to still be good. So unhooked the amps, hooked up the 200 and still no power. When I test the power wires and grounds at the amp i am getting something like ~3 volts WTF.

On a side note one USA-50 seems to have a bad RCA, if I move around the RCAs I get sound out of the amps but not the 200.

I have checked the fuses and wire as much I thought needed to be checked, but is there something I am missing? I am about ready to just call it quits with this whole stereo thing........

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[project f-150 10+ year member]

Haha trouble shooting can be a pain in the @$$ but don't give up. But if he just touched the pos. terminal of the battery with a grounded tool it should nothave done anything to your fuses or amps. The current would have traveled down the tool to ground nowhere else. That doesnt mean something else didnt cause a prob. with your fuses. Did you check voltage on each side of the fuse?

 

[Jester1318 10+ year member]

Ok I am getting ~12 volts on either side of the fuses now. But I am still getting no power or protect lights on the amps.

Could it be the remote wire that is the problem and how should I go about testing that, also what other fuses would you look at besides the inline and fuses at the distro block, I have checked nearly every visible fuse in the truck but will do so again...

 

[Rattlebrain 10+ year member]

Get your battery tested. You may have shorted it out internally.

 

[Jester1318 10+ year member]

Seems as though the voltage the the amp will stay ~12 volts (truck is not running) until the remote wire is hooked up then it drops to ~3 volts. I will be taking the battery in to be checked here in a few. Another ideas are welcome....

Thanks for the help

 

[Jester1318 10+ year member]

OK battery tested good, any other thoughts?

 

[project f-150 10+ year member]

I didnt expect the battery to be damaged. but whats the voltage on the remote line? check the remote disconnected from the amp. and test the voltage on each side of each fuse holder when the amp is on and trying to draw current not off. cause if it is off and you have a bad fuse or loose connection you might sit at 12v until a load is placed on the line. Does the amp have fuses?

 

[protonman 10+ year member]

seems like either ground problem or remote wire.

first check voltage at amp across the postive and negative connection of the amp, then check positive amp connection to your car ground point(chassi)==they should all measure about 12v. Then check ground point connection on amp to the car chassis ground==should be 0 volts.

then last or easiest if car stereo is out already, disconnect remote from amp and hook new remote wire to antenna or remote (blue wire) on the radio.

If all comes to check out then, take amp to another working car to test, if it runs then amps okay. Or bring your friends known working amp with warranty and test in your car.

guess---remote wire, then ground wire, then last maybe headunit, all based on your testing so far.

 

[Jester1318 10+ year member]

None of my wires ever changed between working and not. I think something must have shorted in the headunit itself.

The remote wire checks out at ~12 volts until connected to an amp, same with all power wires. I never even moved a single wire until it stopped playing.

Hopefully the guys I buy most my stuff locally for will replace the headunit like I was told they will for me, otherwise it will be time to find someone to repair it.

 

[draarong2004 10+ year member]

all this from just grounding the battery? sounds like something else happened that had nothing to do with that battery if it checked out fine....

 

[project f-150 10+ year member]

yeah as i said earlier just quickly groundng the battery would do nothing to the electrical components in the vehicle. and i doubt its the head unit either.

 

[draarong2004 10+ year member]

while you were doing all this testing in the car, how tight were the battery connectors, were you able to start the car? is the top of the battery corroded around the terminals? how good is the stock grounds? or are you using upgraded ones? how tight were they?

 

[Jester1318 10+ year member]

The battery connectors were as tight as could be by hand, the car was able to start easily, come to think of it the terminal on the negative side was a bit corroded but not were any connections acutally were (around the bolt to tighten it) the stock grounds are still being used and are as tight as i coudl get them by hand

 

[ray@ss 10+ year member]

popped the fuse on the deck......

pull it out and check it.

 

[ray@ss 10+ year member]

love that avatar prontoman....

great azz