installing car audio amp

[QueBert]

I haven't done much car audio installs, years ago I did some but my mind slips. I picked up a 4 channel amp to push my components and 5x7's. All my wiring from my previous amp is still in the car - which should make it a breeze. But, the problem there is I didn't do the wiring originally and without a lot of ripping up shit and hassle I can't really trace to see what's what.

I know the 2 gauge wire is for the battery that's simple. Now when my last amp was stolen I had put electrical tape over the live wires until I was able to get my wrench to remove the power cable from my battery so I wouldn't short shit out. I have 2 wires taped up, a blue one and a black one. I'm assuming the black one would be my ground and blue remote but is there any way to tell? Black = ground in everything else, but I don't want to fuck my car up.

any experts want to help me out? I really don't want to pay a stereo shop 74 bucks to hook up 2 cables, everything else is already connected. I'm just a little iffy about getting the ground/remote wires backwards

 

[Soundmanred]

Shpouldn't your ground be orders of magnitude bigger than your remote wire? You are using 2GA ground wire too right, not just 2GA power wire?

 

[QueBert]

I thought that would be so, but my power wire is HUGE and the ground/remote look to be almost the same size, both very very thin. As thin as my speaker wire.

 

[Soundmanred]

If that's the case, I suggest you not hook it up! The power needs to go in a complete cycle from power to ground, and they need to be at least the same size, with as short of a ground as possible.

 

[heymrdj]

You should have a 2Ga power wire, and mount your amp somewhere you can get a 0/1 or 2Ga wire for ground to bare metal on your car very near by. The remote wire is just normally very very thin, as little as 20GA just because it carries a 12V signal to kick the relay in the amp to start the big power feed. If you need 2GA power wire to feed the amp...you shouldn't have speaker wire that thin..

Model No. of equipment?

 

[QueBert]

I had the system in for years prior to it being stolen, it was installed by one of the best installers in my town. The ground has always been a lot smaller than the power, and I had no problems with my system for the 3 years I had it working.

new amp is a Hifonic Brutus 4x125 amp, nothing fancy, not even sure of the model #. Will be pushing Polk Momo Components & Infinity Reference 5x7, the deck is a Panasonic umm 9800? a few years old now.

Upon inspecting the wires it looks like when they stole the old amp the ripped up the wires, the remote wire isn't connected to anything on the other end, not sure where it's supposed to go. My ground wire is short, maybe 1 foot, but it's nowhere the gauge of the power. I'm not good at estimating actual size, but it's gotta be 4x smaller than the power. Like I said, my system ran for years with 2 amps, 2 sets of speakers and a big sub with no problems. I will put some larger ground wire in tomorrow, I haven't hooked it up yet, and won't be until I figure out where the remote wire needs to be going, I'm confused there

 

[heymrdj]

Aftermarket radios have a remote lead on them. The remote lead triggers your amp to turn on when you turn on your radio, and turn off when you turn off the radio. Many amplifiers however have done away with the need for this wire by incorporating sensing into RCA audio cables you run from the head unit to the amp to provide signal. When these wires become hot, it triggers the amp to turn on, and vice versa to turn off.

 

[olds]

Do you have an ohm meter?

 

[jtvang125]

2g is overkill for this setup but since it's already laid out it will do. If asethetics is important to you or planning on getting a high power sub amp later on, go buy about 2ft of power cable of same gauge. If not, even 8g will do. If you can't locate a point to attach this cable to get a good ground you'll have to drill one. Make sure you scape the paint around the hole to get good contact. Try to make this as short as possible.

Usually a blue wire is used as the remote turn on wire but double check first. Trace it back to where it's connect to at the headunit side. If it's not connected then locate the Remote wire on your headunit and connect this wire to that. On the other end of this wire connect it to the Remote input of the amp. If the RCA cables are still there connect these to the inputs of the amp. Make note of the correct Rear L and R, Front L and R or your balance and fader settings on the headunit will be all off. Rest is pretty self explanitory - power cable to (+) and ground to (-) on amp and adjust gain, crossover settings, bass boost...ect. Also check your power wire to see if there's a fuse shortly after the battery. If not, go buy a fuse holder and a fuse with about 60amp rating and install it inline about 12 to 18 inches from the battery.

 

[QueBert]

actually the place that originally installed my 1st setup couldn't get rid of engine whine, even when the stereo was off, so they installed a kill switch that cut off the power to the radio and amp, so even if the amp doesn't have the sensor to know to shut off the power to it, I should be good using my manual switch. It sounds like the Remote wire isn't 100% needed with the exception of turning off the amp so the battery doesn't drain.

to jtvang125 I have a fuse running from my battery, well I did and it's been unhooked but after I wire the amp today I'll re attach the fuse there, I'm smart enough to know not to mess with wiring an amp with live power running to it
and I can just spend an hour or so adjusting my high/low/crossover settings, this amp has a ton. But I should be able to get pretty decent sound out of these Polks Momo's with some tweeking.

thanks for the help everyone.