too much power melt a terminal?

[Lil Poot 5,000+ posts]

i'm thinkin no way... but it happened to me. the amp was in close proximity to the terminal, maybe even with a corner touching the the top, plastic part of the terminal. i hear a couple of just slight variation in the normal bass pattern of a common song i play, so i turned it down, didnt hear anything out of the ordinary, so i went full tilt again, and a few seconds later the bass cuts out. i'd been bumping hard for maybe 10 minutes. i pull over, smell something burning, but not exactly like a blown amp, all kinds of smoke coming out of my box... this is what i find.

anyone ever seen this before? i was only running about 4.5kw through it, with 8 gauge power wire on both sides being used as speaker wire, so it wasnt the wire itself heating from too much current. pretty sure the wires didnt touch inside the box, as my amp wasnt in protect when i pulled over. subs still read 1 ohm and amp still outputs ac voltage like normal. the male tab connection on the inside of the terminal was broken off, and the wire's female connector on that side was slightly blackened, but not melted or burned.

Click to read more...

 

[pr-festiva 10+ year member]

those types of terminals are not ment for that type of power

 

[Lil Poot 5,000+ posts]

what man, its just a lil piddly ol' memphis 4k //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/naughty.gif.94359f346c0f1259df8038d60b41863e.gif

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

i was only running about 4.5kw through it,

Only //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/hilarious.gif.02a037aad04aa96f19982b298a3d70a8.gif

 

[pr-festiva 10+ year member]

what man, its just a lil piddly ol' memphis 4k //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/naughty.gif.94359f346c0f1259df8038d60b41863e.gif

lol

 

[fbi90909 5,000+ posts]

nah, loose connection causing arching and having the terminal heat up.

i had the same issue with home made terminals

burned my box.

issue was fixed when i replaced it and tightened my connections better.

 

[Lil Poot 5,000+ posts]

nah, loose connection causing arching and having the terminal heat up.i had the same issue with home made terminals

burned my box.

issue was fixed when i replaced it and tightened my connections better.

you mean arcing as in one of the terminal connections coming lose, detaching and reattaching inside the box, or arcing between the 2 terminals. the first would have been possible, especially since its somewhat in the path of my port, but between the terminals i dont see being possible. even if it was physically possible, i'd think it would have immedietely sent my amp into protect. only odd thing about it having been one loose connection is that the burning seems to be pretty uniform across the whole surface of it, not really centered on one terminal or the other.

 

[Linkz 10+ year member]

Try this terminal. It is sure to handle all the power you would want to throw at it...

 

[fbi90909 5,000+ posts]

you mean arcing as in one of the terminal connections coming lose, detaching and reattaching inside the box, or arcing between the 2 terminals. the first would have been possible, especially since its somewhat in the path of my port, but between the terminals i dont see being possible. only odd thing about it having been one loose connection is that the burning seems to be pretty uniform across the whole surface of it, not really centered on one terminal or the other.

i ment by a loose connection within the line. not between each other. if you notice it was his NEG that was most likely loose and caused the arching.

 

[Lil Poot 5,000+ posts]

actually, looking at it a little closer, the melting of the thing seems uniform, but on the side where the male terminal plug had snapped off, it is melted a little more, that screw/bolt sags a little more on that side, and the plastic surrounding it is a little more melted. if anything is loose, its probably the female connection on the end of the wire inside the box, it was a little too big for the male side and i had to bend it inward a bit to get a tighter fit. maybe it wasnt as tight as i thought.

 

[Lil Poot 5,000+ posts]

i ment by a loose connection within the line. not between each other. if you notice it was his NEG that was most likely loose and caused the arching.

yep, thats what it looks like. you can see a pretty good angle on the neg connection on the outside.

 

[fbi90909 5,000+ posts]

yep, thats what it looks like. you can see a pretty good angle on the neg connection on the outside.

i had the same issue with mine though mine was the POS. the connection where it was pictured was not tight enough and had the ring terminal bouncing around. the bolt looks like someone took a hacksaw to it, along with that it the burn had increased the initial hole that was drilled. on top of that i was only running 3k on 2 saz1500d's strapped.

 

[phantom240 5,000+ posts]

Derp.