basic amplifier wiring

amplifier wiring


This is a simple diagram on how an amplifier is to be wired.

  • The power wire should be run under the carpet on the driver's side and fed thru the firewall, then safely routed to the positive terminal on the battery. Always fuse the power wire at the battery.
  • The ground must be securely fastened to raw metal and be no more than 24" in length. The shorter, the better. Make sure this wire is the same thickness(GA), or thicker, as the power wire. This connection is quite often the source for all sorts of problems.
  • The RCA jacks and the remote wire should be run under the carpet on the passenger side and routed safely to the radio.
  • Speaker wire is not as crucial, but a 12GA wire works well in most applications.

Troubleshooting

A good technique for troubleshooting is, assume nothing! Test everything. Start with fuses, all of them.

Amplifier does not turn on.

You need a test light or a meter.

  1. Test the power wire at the amplifier by grounding your measuring device to a solid paint-free ground.
  2. If power is good, then ground your measuring device to the amp and test again.
  3. If power is good, this means your power and ground wires are good.
    • If in either step you do not get power then that item is bad.
  4. Assuming all is good so far and amp is still not coming on, use a piece of wire to jump the power wire to the remote wire.
    • By this point your amp should come on, or you have a bad amplifier.
    • If your amp came on, this means your remote wire connection to the radio is not valid.

I hear engine noise in my speakers as I accellerate.

Noise suppressors DO NOT work very well, but if you must use one get one from PAC. Focus on a clean installation with quality products.

  • You have a low quality or faulty amplifier.
  • The ground is not sufficient.
  • Low quality RCA's ran along with the power wire.
  • Low quality or faulty head unit.

Installing a remote wire with a factory head unit.

Thanks to technological advances, devices are available that use your speaker output as a power source to create a remote wire application. If you don't want to spend the money, connect the wire to the back of the radio to a switched source (the wire that turns on with the key).

Amplifier gets very hot and shuts off

  • Poor ground connection at the battery
  • Poor ground connection at the amplifier
  • Speakers are wired with a resistance lower than the stable resistance of amplifier.
  • Your amplifier is a high current amplifier and the power wire is too small.

Amplifier goes into 'protect' mode

  • Check to make sure your ground and power wires are not spilling onto each other.
  • Check your speaker outputs by isolating from the speakers and apply an output source (speaker) to each connection on the amplifier, one at a time.
    • If there are no speakers connected and amplifier still goes into 'protect' mode, your amplifier may have a bad output(it's toast).