Frustation level at DEFCON 1

[Lewshus]

For the last 2 weeks I have been doing my install i have had no music in my car and its really getting to me.
So yesterday I finish up connecting everything, connect the power wire to the battery, and turn on the car, ready for my ears to be flooded with joyous sound.

Instead, i got nothing. I checked the fuses, and none are blown, checked all the connections and everything seems in place and tight. Here is my setup

Pioneer avh-p1400dvd
hifonics 1200.1D mono amp
MB quart onx4.125

I have a 4 awg power wire going to power dist block and splitting into 2 8 awg wires. In the block I have 2 60 amp fuses.

When the car turns on the letters on "HIFONICS" light up, but the power light doesnt. Neither does the power light on the MB Quart. I bought the light up fuses and they aren't lighting up either.

Anyone have any words of wisdom as Im losing my mind with this install?


Thanks

 

[kert0307]

Did you check your "remote" amp turn on wire?

 

[Lewshus]

yes, it was connected tightly. I ran a daisy chain between the two amps with the remote wire.

 

[kert0307]

Do you have a multi-meter (volt meter)? Checking "tightness" of connections is kind of futile if you can't check the wiring itself...

 

[Lewshus]

yes i do. what am i looking for?

 

[kert0307]

12 to 14.5 volts at the power wire and remote turn on. If the voltage check out you can check the amp operation If you have a headphone jack to rca wire you can plug an mp3 player directly to the inputs on the amps if you get music then the problem is probably in the wireing to the amps or with the head-unit.

I am assuming the amp outputs have been turned on in your head-unit... some brands have them set at zero from the factory and you have to turn them up...

 

[Lewshus]

I also installed a parking brake bypass that connected with
the ground, the parking brake, and the remote wire.
Would that be an issue?

 

[Lewshus]

I just changed the 2 8 gauge wires to 4 gauge. Tested with mulitmeter and got 14.3 to the ground, and 14.3 to remote wire. However, i received 0 when testing the power. that was all with the car off.

When the car is on, the ground and remote wire drop down to under 1 and still no reading from the power.

Man, this is really confusing.

 

[kert0307]

Thats backwords from what it should be for the remote.... remote should be zero when the trucks off and 14 when the headunit is on...

Main power wire should always be hot.

 

[Lewshus]

I thought that those numbers seemed weird. Any idea why thats happening

 

[kert0307]

Does your power wire have a fuse in it? Sounds to me like it's not getting any power and the remote wire is what is lighting the amps up.

 

[Lewshus]

there is a 150 amp fuse by the battery. And the power wire goes into the distributor block that has 2 60 amp fuses in it. Another odd thing is when i pull the fuses out the distributor block, i get 11.71 on power wire at the amp. When i put them back in, it drops back down to 0.

 

[Lewshus]

I realized i was using the multimeter incorrectly. I was putting the negative on the distributor block. Now im putting it one the area i sanded off on the metal where i put the ground wire.

so now im getting different numbers.

With the car on i checked the power wire at the battery, before and after fuse. both numbers were around 14.4 volts. then i tested the power wire at the amp and it was around 6 volts and so was the remote wire.

does this mean i need a new power wire?

 

[tainted]

you may need to add remote turn on relay. you can type jumping from batt+ at amp to remote to test if it turns on. If is does then remote is problem

 

[Lewshus]

I wanted to thank you everyone for the suggestions. the problem was the ground wire was grounded in bad spot. After regrounding to a bolt that holds the back seat to floor, everything is working now.


thanks again