Power drop at remote wire

[Deon1818]

You've got your wires messed up somewhere. I would remove the amp from the vehicle and run short little jumper wires direct from the battery. That'll prove it's your wires.
@Deiimos is right. You'd be burning wires if you were grounding it out to reach 6 volts. As soon as you jump the amp from rem to power, the amp starts using electricty, and youre not supplying enough. that's why it dips and the amp protects itself because your not giving it a solid connection.
P.S. make sure you're grounding the amp to something that your battery is grounded to. If your using a body ground in the rear make sure it's clean as hell with no paint, and run an extra wire from your battery to the body in the engine bay. You could have a perfect power and perfect rem but if you don't have a ground your voltage will collapse as soon as the the amp turns on.
This is exactly what @dragon.breath said I'm just trying to expand and reinforce this idea.

TLDR Stop looking at your REM. Fix your Power and Ground

 

[Litoffsnozzberry]

You've got your wires messed up somewhere. I would remove the amp from the vehicle and run short little jumper wires direct from the battery. That'll prove it's your wires.
@Deiimos is right. You'd be burning wires if you were grounding it out to reach 6 volts. As soon as you jump the amp from rem to power, the amp starts using electricty, and youre not supplying enough. that's why it dips and the amp protects itself because your not giving it a solid connection.
P.S. make sure you're grounding the amp to something that your battery is grounded to. If your using a body ground in the rear make sure it's clean as hell with no paint, and run an extra wire from your battery to the body in the engine bay. You could have a perfect power and perfect rem but if you don't have a ground your voltage will collapse as soon as the the amp turns on.
This is exactly what @dragon.breath said I'm just trying to expand and reinforce this idea.

TLDR Stop looking at your REM. Fix your Power and Ground

my ground has a .2 resistance its on a bare metal but not the chassis. it reads 12.8 my battery ground is a 8awg wire, could it not being a 4awg ground make a difference? fuse has power and continuity between it. the only options I see left is moving my ground and adding an extra up front from my battery.

 

[Litoffsnozzberry]

I can take another pi ture on lunch of the neg term from battery to ground

 

[Deon1818]

my ground has a .2 resistance its on a bare metal but not the chassis. it reads 12.8 my battery ground is a 8awg wire, could it not being a 4awg ground make a difference? fuse has power and continuity between it. the only options I see left is moving my ground and adding an extra up front from my battery.

8 ga will make a difference but not that big of a difference.

In my opinion it looks like your connection is good enough to read good voltage, not good enough to draw any amperage. As soon as your amp tries to draw amperage by turning on, it drops voltage. Your multimeter will not do you any good if your testing resting voltage. Think of it like you ran a single tiny strand of power wire to your amp. not a small wire, a single strand of the inside of the wire. Would it still read 12 resting volts? yes. would it supply enough amperage to run the amp. No.
Somewhere, you have a single strand connection, a weak connection, a dirty connection etc. it could be where your power wire connects to the battery, or where the fuse is, or you could have a ground problem.
I would jump the amp rem so it starts pulling amperage, then do your multimeter testing. You'll get 12 volts everywhere the connection is good, start at the battery and work your way to the amp. i.e. if you have 12 volts before the fuse, but 6 volts after the fuse, theres your problem.
For shits and giggles and string jumper cables to connect your battery negative directly to the amp negative. that would rule out ground.

 

[Deiimos]

I agree 8 gauge ground isn’t going to cause the problem, changing the ground to 4 gauge isn’t necessary at this point. That amp will function on 8 gauge.

Just to add to it.
Continuity, resistance, and voltage measurements can sometimes be misleading by themselves, it’s an okay quick test on things, but sometimes not definitive of a good connection and you have to understand how to apply it when troubleshooting. A bad connection could easily show good voltage and perfectly okay resistance, however, when you try to pass current through it, it can’t do it and cause a big voltage drop.


For your voltage measurement to be more useful, you would power on the amplifier, let it sit at 4-6 volts, and then measure voltage at your fuse holder, and across the ground wire at the amp (not sure if you had the amp on or not in that last photo), or from a real chassis ground to the amp, to see if you can see at what point it is being pulled down or a voltage across ground when there shouldn’t be. I see you’re ring terminal has the red rubber boot over it, likely fine, but I would slide that rubber boot back and inspect all connections like that. I’ve seen people’s crimps where the ring terminal could easily slide off by hand after they crimped it, which is not good for a high current connection.

Deon gave a great example of following the path looking for the drop. You measure voltage at the fuse holder and get 12.9v, but then you turn the amp on and that reading goes down to 5v, you know it’s a problem at the fuse holder or battery connection, depending which side of the fuse holder indicates the drop. If it stays at 12.9, then the problem is closer to the amp, or the ground.


Another thing, you could try unplugging your RCA cables at the amplifier, then power it up and measure voltage again at the amps terminals and see if it drops any, some amps can try to pass power through the RCA shields if you lose the main power ground which isn’t good.

 

[Deon1818]

I agree 8 gauge ground isn’t going to cause the problem, changing the ground to 4 gauge isn’t necessary at this point. That amp will function on 8 gauge.

Just to add to it.
Continuity, resistance, and voltage measurements can sometimes be misleading by themselves, it’s an okay quick test on things, but sometimes not definitive of a good connection and you have to understand how to apply it when troubleshooting. A bad connection could easily show good voltage and perfectly okay resistance, however, when you try to pass current through it, it can’t do it and cause a big voltage drop.


For your voltage measurement to be more useful, you would power on the amplifier, let it sit at 4-6 volts, and then measure voltage at your fuse holder, and across the ground wire at the amp (not sure if you had the amp on or not in that last photo), or from a real chassis ground to the amp, to see if you can see at what point it is being pulled down or a voltage across ground when there shouldn’t be. I see you’re ring terminal has the red rubber boot over it, likely fine, but I would slide that rubber boot back and inspect all connections like that. I’ve seen people’s crimps where the ring terminal could easily slide off by hand after they crimped it, which is not good for a high current connection.

Deon gave a great example of following the path looking for the drop. You measure voltage at the fuse holder and get 12.9v, but then you turn the amp on and that reading goes down to 5v, you know it’s a problem at the fuse holder or battery connection, depending which side of the fuse holder indicates the drop. If it stays at 12.9, then the problem is closer to the amp, or the ground.


Another thing, you could try unplugging your RCA cables at the amplifier, then power it up and measure voltage again at the amps terminals and see if it drops any, some amps can try to pass power through the RCA shields if you lose the main power ground which isn’t good.

Thanks for expanding sometimes its hard to explain without making it seem complicated.

 

[Litoffsnozzberry]

8 ga will make a difference but not that big of a difference.

In my opinion it looks like your connection is good enough to read good voltage, not good enough to draw any amperage. As soon as your amp tries to draw amperage by turning on, it drops voltage. Your multimeter will not do you any good if your testing resting voltage. Think of it like you ran a single tiny strand of power wire to your amp. not a small wire, a single strand of the inside of the wire. Would it still read 12 resting volts? yes. would it supply enough amperage to run the amp. No.
Somewhere, you have a single strand connection, a weak connection, a dirty connection etc. it could be where your power wire connects to the battery, or where the fuse is, or you could have a ground problem.
I would jump the amp rem so it starts pulling amperage, then do your multimeter testing. You'll get 12 volts everywhere the connection is good, start at the battery and work your way to the amp. i.e. if you have 12 volts before the fuse, but 6 volts after the fuse, theres your problem.
For shits and giggles and string jumper cables to connect your battery negative directly to the amp negative. that would rule out ground.

so I ran all the tests. no voltage drop after the fuse, took it apart and retightened everything down. no breaks in the wire. i used a 12v power probe and ran the remote wire to the positive, still had voltage drop. do amps automatically recognize speaker impedance? alternator max output is 70amps alternator is 40-70 and the amplifier needs 501-750 watts which is 62.5 amps, if my math is right. didn't hook the amp up directly yet. if I hook up the amp directly and it still doesn't work what would that mean? if it does work but I can't measure any voltage drop on the main power wires could it be losing voltage at the head unit? had remote jumped and was putting 4-6 volts but couldn't find voltage drop on the main power plugs. was 14.40 before remote at amp even with everything unplugged. gunna check the terminals over tonight and get a DC amp clamp meter most likely. took a video of startup with probes connected dropped to 11.5 than right back up to 14.4

 

[Deon1818]

so I ran all the tests. no voltage drop after the fuse, took it apart and retightened everything down. no breaks in the wire. i used a 12v power probe and ran the remote wire to the positive, still had voltage drop. do amps automatically recognize speaker impedance? alternator max output is 70amps alternator is 40-70 and the amplifier needs 501-750 watts which is 62.5 amps, if my math is right. didn't hook the amp up directly yet. if I hook up the amp directly and it still doesn't work what would that mean? if it does work but I can't measure any voltage drop on the main power wires could it be losing voltage at the head unit? had remote jumped and was putting 4-6 volts but couldn't find voltage drop on the main power plugs. was 14.40 before remote at amp even with everything unplugged. gunna check the terminals over tonight and get a DC amp clamp meter most likely. took a video of startup with probes connected dropped to 11.5 than right back up to 14.4

Okay.
Unplug the speaker wires from the amp. worry about that later
Unplug the RCA's
Don't worry about the alternator. you don't even have to have the car running.
Don't worry about the head unit. Don't even turn it on.
A DC clamp meter would only show you how much amperage the amp is pulling. that doesn't matter right now, don't worry about it.

Your focus right now is to get good power and ground to the amp.
Jump the rem from +positive to rem like you did earlier. This will make the amp attempt to turn on, and your voltage will fall.
Leave it like that.
You've got 6 volts at the amp and 12 volts at the battery right?
Try running a cable directly from the battery - negative to the amp - negative I don't care if it's speaker wire or welding cable.

Does your voltage at the amp increase? If yes. theres your problem
If no, run a new cable from positive battery to positive amp.

Does voltage increase? if yes, that's your problem
if no. I'm an idiot.

 

[mikewashere_]

What style fuse are you running under the hood? I've seen AGU style fuses cause this issue. Test for power before and after the fuse holder under the hood

 

[Litoffsnozzberry]

Okay.
Unplug the speaker wires from the amp. worry about that later
Unplug the RCA's
Don't worry about the alternator. you don't even have to have the car running.
Don't worry about the head unit. Don't even turn it on.
A DC clamp meter would only show you how much amperage the amp is pulling. that doesn't matter right now, don't worry about it.

Your focus right now is to get good power and ground to the amp.
Jump the rem from +positive to rem like you did earlier. This will make the amp attempt to turn on, and your voltage will fall.
Leave it like that.
You've got 6 volts at the amp and 12 volts at the battery right?
Try running a cable directly from the battery - negative to the amp - negative I don't care if it's speaker wire or welding cable.

Does your voltage at the amp increase? If yes. theres your problem
If no, run a new cable from positive battery to positive amp.

Does voltage increase? if yes, that's your problem
if no. I'm an idiot.

so it seems my fuse has rattled loose. my inline fuse is absolute garbage and I need a new one. that is the problem I'm assuming. literally jumped my amp at work and was flashing came home unplugged the remote wire ran a jumper, reconnected battery realized my fuse cap was loose, not the actual fuse or wires, and twisted the cap on amd it fired up. so than we slowly added things and checked impedance at speakers. first was rcas than speakers. everything worked fine. but what is weird is I connected my amp it works but for a split second on startup it flashes red than goes green. maybe cause the radio has a one second delay from ignition?

 

[Litoffsnozzberry]

What style fuse are you running under the hood? I've seen AGU style fuses cause this issue. Test for power before and after the fuse holder under the hood

it was weird cause it had power gunna see if there's any difference in amperage after fuse. it's weird cause it's 100 amp fuse but my amp is reading 2 amps lol and max output is 62.5 amps. why the 100 amp fuse? lol shitty company is what I'm leaning on. it's working but I'm defineatly need recommendations on a good fuse holder and should I run a 50amp fuse to be safe? thank you everybody for your help!

 

[Deon1818]

so it seems my fuse has rattled loose. my inline fuse is absolute garbage and I need a new one. that is the problem I'm assuming. literally jumped my amp at work and was flashing came home unplugged the remote wire ran a jumper, reconnected battery realized my fuse cap was loose, not the actual fuse or wires, and twisted the cap on amd it fired up. so than we slowly added things and checked impedance at speakers. first was rcas than speakers. everything worked fine. but what is weird is I connected my amp it works but for a split second on startup it flashes red than goes green. maybe cause the radio has a one second delay from ignition?

Could be normal for that amp. Hard to say. Keep an eye on it.

 

[Deon1818]

it was weird cause it had power gunna see if there's any difference in amperage after fuse. it's weird cause it's 100 amp fuse but my amp is reading 2 amps lol and max output is 62.5 amps. why the 100 amp fuse? lol shitty company is what I'm leaning on. it's working but I'm defineatly need recommendations on a good fuse holder and should I run a 50amp fuse to be safe? thank you everybody for your help!

Your amp won't pull shiz until it's playing music at high volume.
100 amp fuse is fine. The fuse is only to protect your amp if it Shorts out. You want to be able to reach top power output without blowing a fuse.

 

[Deon1818]

Comment #4 and #9 solved this mystery a long time ago

 

[Deiimos]

In the event you do buy a new fuse holder, this style below works well. This allows you to get solid contact to the fuse and it won't come loose. There are a few slightly different cover designs of this particular type, only feature I really highly recommend is that it uses ring terminals like the one shown / linked. They make them with set screws (probably like what you have), and while those work too, you can get a better connection crimping / bolting directly to the ring terminals, but you must be able to properly crimp the size ring terminals you need. Then of course secure it properly so it isn't bouncing around under the hood.

So you would buy the fuse holder, correct fuse size for your wire, and a pair of ring terminals.

Not necessarily this one specifically, I mainly chose to link it as it gives a good view. I'm sure it would work fine though, I have a similar pair in one of my cars for the past 6 years and no issues.

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5335951755&icep_item=124566121761