Need some help before I blow up my subs...or my car

[StupidLoud727 10+ year member]

Alright I need some help figuring out my problem here, because ive been working on it for 2 or 3 hours and haven't heard a note out of my sub, although the amp is turned on and my other speakers are working.

So here is my setup...

I have a DVC 4 ohm 12" Type R wired to a hifonics bx1000d amplifier. I am trying to wire it to 2 ohms, which should give it between 400 and 500 watts RMS. I have it wired like so (sorry rough diagram ignore the periods solid lines represent wires):

......................... to amplifier + and - outputs

l....................l

+.....-.....+....-

^....^.....^....^

l..............l banana cable between the two positives

.......l.............l banana cable between the two negatives

So do I have that wired wrong? I'm using 4 AWG power cable and the amp is turning on fine, my ground is working, and so is the remote turn on. I have the two RCA cables going to the line in ports of the amp, while nothing is in the line out. The speaker outputs on the amp are + + - - and i have the speaker cables to the sub going to first positive and first negative output. There is one other place I think I may have a problem.

Long story short, at the moment I cant put in an aftermarket head unit, so I kept it stock and tapped into the rear speaker cables instead. I used a unit designed to do this that is a box with two inputs for the other ends of the RCA cables from the amp, and 5 wires coming out between them. The right two are the positive and negative, so i tapped them into the positive and negative right where the wires go into the right side rear speaker, and did the same on the left side two wires. The center wire on the unit is an optinal ground, which i just taped to a ground point in the trunk. Did I do something wrong there?

I have no idea where the problem is, or how to set the 5 different dials on the side of the amp, which I dont think should keep the speaker from working at all if they aren't set right. I do have a gain knob that I wired to the driver's seat but since the sub isn't working I can't tell if it is doing anything. Thanks a lot in advance for the help. I stopped because I thought I smelled burning rubber...

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[htownplaya456 10+ year member]

Check your connections at the line output converter. Sounds like there is no signal coming to the amp so maybe the connections are bad. It sounds like you have them in the right spot. How do you have your remote wire hooked up?

 

[StupidLoud727 10+ year member]

Remote wire to turn on the amp? it's crimped into my head unit and run up the driver's side panels. My remote gain knob? Also up the driver's side but it has plugs like a phone line cable and i didn't have the stock cable it comes with since i got it used, so instead i used a regular 20 ft. phone cord, which fit perfect into the amp and gain control unit... so I think it should work but maybe I need the actual cable or a special one idk.

As for the line output converter, I think you are right, because i checked for power at the amp's speaker outputs and there wasn't any, and the rear speakers whose wire is spliced into are still working great. The thing is I even used those special splicing clips and plugs... you know what i mean. I'm pretty sure i did the correct sides, though i dont think it should matter much as long as I did the positives and negatives correctly. I doubt the ground has anything to do with it.

 

[morgans432 10+ year member]

actually my ground had everything to do with my subs not playing even when I had power to my amp.

 

[StupidLoud727 10+ year member]

yeah actually at first my amp was turning off and on and i didn't know what the problem was but i heard sparking. i checked and sure enough my ground had been pulled loose. but after fixing that i dont think the amp's ground is a problem at all it is solid. It must be the converter.

 

[htownplaya456 10+ year member]

did you scrape the paint off of the car before screwing your ground to it. Make sure your not using a seat bolt. Also I don't think that all of those knobs will work if you don't use their cable that comes with it. So I would try unplugging that from the amp all together. If you have a multi meter, with your amp off, check resistance of the power + and ground -. It needs to be ATLEAST less than one amp. The closer to 0 the better so check that and if you don't have zero keep moving your ground spot until you do.