which wire?

Amps are turning on because I can see the lights coming on but pushing little power and the lights are dim.

Multimeter shows 13.5V at remote, 3.3 on power for both amps. Is the power wire junk? Fuses are all good

 

What guage is the wire (thickness)?

What is the power wire connected to (battery, fuse, etc)?

 

Remote should only read around 12V. And is the engine running or not when you test the power leads at the amps? Most amps wouldn't even turn on with that low a voltage. There may be a short on the power wire somewhere. I would follow it back to the battery, and check all connections at fuse blocks and such.

 

You definitely need the correct wire size, but that won't affect reading 12 volts at the amp. Bad connections maybe.

 

You shouldn't use the remote wire to power more than one amp. They are very low amps and some companies (Pioneer) had issues for years with the remote wire on the HU burning out due to that.

I'd suggest to use a Relay to supply the remote power to your amps. 3.3v is too low and it should be around 12v. If the remote wire on the HU is bad just find something that turns on and off with the truck and use a relay.

 

check the voltage at the load side of the power fuse, sometimes fuses look good and have continuity but have failed in some way and will only let a small amount of power through, it happened to me before. that is what I would check first, if that has the 3.5 volts there check for clean tight connections and replace the fuse. if none of that works disconnect the power wire from the amp and battery insulate one end and check for continuity to ground at the non insulated end. if you have a connection to ground then you need a new wire or at least repair the one you have. I would suggest a continuity test from end to end of the power wire, but any voltage arriving to the amp at all tells me you probably would have continuity there even if its a bad connection inside the wire. However, to try make things clearer, even if you don't find a short to ground the power wire probably does have an internal break somewhere. hope this helped more than it confused

 

he has problems with his power wire not the remote wire

 

I read that backwards. My bad.

 

Looks like it's the power wire. I ran a test wire last night from the battery right to the amps and they both fired right up with no issues. Previously the amps weren't even staying on all the way, the power lights were dim but had something. They would also cut out if you tried to apply any real volume.

I'll try replacing the fuse on the power wire first though I suspect that isn't going to be the ultimate fix.

I'm running 2 amps, MTX 200 and Jensen 600. Not sure of the amperage draw but I use 4 gauge power wire with a 50 amp fuse a foot from the battery connection. I did use the multimeter on the power wire and was pulling enough power before the fuseholder but after it is where I'm grabbing about 3.5 at the amp, so the issue is somewhere in the middle.

 

this information makes me think its your fuse even more. assuming that 200 and 600 are rms watts your system is under-fused, basic ohms law states watts divided by volts equals amps. 800/12=66.6 so basically your amplifiers could potentially draw 66 amps under normal operation.

 

Come to think of it, the 200 I believe is RMS but the 600 I would guess is peak. I'll try the fuse though, certainly can't hurt just to throw another one in but if the fuse was the issue would it still draw the 3.5 or so volts it is grabbing now?

 

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarA...e_Comparison&gclid=CLC5lrqS_L0CFe07OgodWmMAmQ

assuming this is your amp and you have the sub wired at 2 ohms you could still do 55 amps under normal operation

 

it would have the same voltage as the battery if the fuse is the problem

 

Right but I mean as it stands right now if the fuse is junk..with that fuse in there why would it draw any power?

I did inspect the fuse and fuse connections and seems fine but I agree a visual isn't always conclusive

 

I don't know you would think its on or off with these things but I have seen a continuity test work on a bad fuse

 

Agreed, very little black and white even though one would expect there should be. I got a kit from my supplier so I can just try that or maybe just a jumper wire to bypass the fuse and see if it comes up

 

as long as its just a temporary jumper that would make for a very effective test

 

That's all I'm thinking or just play it safe and swap fuses..might even have a spare in the console

The good part is at least I've got it isolated down to that small part. Oddly I've been doing this kind of stuff for over 20 yrs but never really had this type of issue where I've had to chase down wiring. It's always been "oh the fuse popped" or "whoops the wire fell off the speaker"..worst case an amp has croaked and needs replacing

 

I always believed that fuses were black and white, blow'd or not blow'd and I learned that lesson in the most stressful way I can imagine. On a robot vfd drive with a billionaire looking over my shoulder concerned why his experimental logistics system was down.

 

Well it seems they "can" be..IE if it's obviously snapped you know that's the issue. But sounds like that's one piece of the whole versus what I always learned 25 yrs ago when I started messing with cars, which is black and white.

Goodness, I'd love to hear the story of that