Trouble with my amp/subs/electric

[peteman70 10+ year member]

Hello everyone. I'm putting in two Audiobahn AW1006T subs in a ported box, and I have about 700 watts going to each, but I have a problem. I start with all my amp settings on the way down, and the subs barely move, but they are working. But whenever I turn the gain or bass boost settings up hardly any, the protection light on my amp comes on, and shuts off. I got my settings turned up as far as they would go (hardly any), and even then, my head unit will flicker on hits and my 6x9s will distort and make a noise like a record scratching, and the subs barely, barely make any noise even then. Anyone know what my problem is? I have a 2.5 farad capacitor (by the way, when the subs try to hit, the voltage as read by my cap goes from about 12.5 to 11.7), if that makes a difference. Think I need a new alternator? If so, what kind/how much power or what not? Thank you for any help.

Also, at the time I was testing, I only had one sub hooked up to one channel. 4 ohm DVC wired to 2 ohms.

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[peteman70 10+ year member]

Also, if I do indeed need a new alternator, are alternators car-specific? Or will any alternator fit into any car? If it helps, I have an 87 Camaro.

 

[Acidburn 5,000+ posts]

whats the size of your alt? what size wire do you have for power and ground? have you considered doing the Big 3?

 

[peteman70 10+ year member]

My alternator is 85 amps (at least, I think. It says 85A on it). My power and ground cables are 4 gauge. And, um....Big 3??

 

[Acidburn 5,000+ posts]

Search for the Big 3, it relates to upgrading wires under the hood

try running it without the cap

 

[peteman70 10+ year member]

So you think 85 amps is enough?

 

[Acidburn 5,000+ posts]

do the Big 3 and try it without the cap and see what the results are

 

[themainjam 10+ year member]

also try checking your wiring on your speakers. when i wire my two subs down the 4 ohms if i dont reverse pos and neg on one speaker then i dont get anything out of it //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/rftech/wiringwizard.asp

good luck

 

[munkeys4u]

i encounter a similar problem when i was trying different wiring techniques on my speakers. similar only because my radio and other speakers still worked just not my woofers. my speakers are dual voice and i wired the speakers wrong and the amp acted the same as yours. barely turn the gain up, my lights would dim really low as if it was pulling a lot of juice, but the speakers were barely moving. and if i turned it up too much it would shutdown. try your speaker wiring before you go buy more stuff.

 

[HeadBussa86 10+ year member]

If your + and - were opposite your subs would just be 180 degrees out of phase your HU would blink and your 6 x 9's wouldn't distort, I would do what AcidBurn said and do the Big 3 especially if you have a GM their power wire is synonomous for being too small of a gauge. Other than that it may be your amp, battery, or alt.

 

[peteman70 10+ year member]

Alright, so I was researching the big 3, and this is what I got out of it:

Replace the wire from alt. to the battery with 4 gauge (could I go lower than this, to 1/0)

Ground alt.

Ground battery to chasis (with good wire I suppose, 1/0 again?)

Do I have to do all of these? I'm not really sure how to ground my alternator, so could I skip it? Maybe a stupid question, but...

And should I replace my power/ground cable with 1/0 gauge? Also, my speaker wire is only 12 gauge...should that be better too?

Hehe. Sorry for all the questions. I have no idea about this kind of stuff...I appreciate everyones help though //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/thumbsup.gif.3287b36ca96645a13a43aff531f37f02.gif

 

[OLD_SCHOOL 10+ year member]

well i don't know guys it seems like something way more than that like he has a bunch of stuff not wired correctly.

my bud had the same car back in the day i think it was around 1990 before the big three and caps etc and we run 2 fostgate punch 45's and a big clarion amp off his stock 80 amp alt with no double and i will bet money one of those old punch 45's drew more then the a1006

unless you alt is on it's last leg i would look and make sure everything is wired right in the dash and the amps are hooked up right....

this seems like a wiring problem to me

what size power wire are you using and how are your grounds and are you positive that the headunit and all coenctions are wird right?

 

[peteman70 10+ year member]

I'm sure my headunuit is wired right. I had two different subs and a different amp in before, and everything worked fine. So if something is wired wrong (which it could possibly be), its from my amp or sub. My power/ground cable is 4 gauge. I was thinking, my ground might be a little suspcious. I couldn't find a good open piece of metal, so I drilled a screw through the floor into the metal of my chasis, and then wrapped my grounds around the screw (I use the same screw for both my cap and my amp...maybe that has something to do with it?).

Is 12 gauge speaker wire enough?

 

[peteman70 10+ year member]

Hey fellas, just wanted to let you know I think I got it figured out. My amp and capacitor were both grounded to the same bolt, and I guess that doesn't work. So I now have them going to two different bolts and it works! Thanks again everyone, and sorry for bugging you with my incompitence.

 

[OLD_SCHOOL 10+ year member]

sounds like to me you ground was just bad then. you should have no trouble grounding a cap and amp to same place... in fact allot of people recommend grounding everything to one point on the car to cut ground loops.

as i figured a wiring problem //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif