good place for a ground

[hamburglar]

Hey,
I am trying to hook up my sub amp and the fuses keep blowing out on it. I want to make sure that I have a very good ground for my amp and I was wondering where you guys have put yours?
I was using the bolts on the top of the shock tower and want to make sure that its a good spot...
thanks

 

[SHOspazz92]

Ground it to the negative terminal on your battery.

-Sam

 

[jmpSHO2nd]

You want the ground to be close to the amp so where ever you place the amp just sand down a little spot near it and drill a hole and you should be good to go.

If you are blowing fuses I highly doubt it has anything to do with your ground on your amp.

I usially keep my ground wires about 12inches long.

 

[lowc]

i use the bolts off the fuel cut off and in both sho's ive never had an issue with lossing the ground or poping fuses.
im with jmpsho on this one doubt you have a ground itself issue you may want to look at where you ran the power wire sounds like its gotta a split in there some where causing it to short to ground

 

[JST4SHO1]

Back seat bolt.

 

[SuperHO]

it's unlikely your ground is causing your fuses to blow. most likely causes are too small of a fuse or the amp's bridged too low.

 

[hamburglar]

i got the amp checked...
it must be my ground. i'll try another ground point

 

[K-Dawg]

A bad ground will keep current from flowing, not allow too much current. Look elsewhere.

 

[Eric VerValin]

Agreed. Not the ground.

 

[hawkeye18]

ITT: People ask questions, then ignore the correct answer when it's not the one they want to hear.

I've had both my amps, at 750wRMS for the both of them, grounded to the rear strut mount bolts for years, with 0 problems.

 

[hamburglar]

well i got the amp checked and it was fine.
I did redo the ground and nothing changed....
I seriously have no idea what it could be
the car at the car audio place told me to check the ground

 

[trainguy1989]

well i got the amp checked and it was fine.
I did redo the ground and nothing changed....
I seriously have no idea what it could be
the car at the car audio place told me to check the ground

Well the car was wrong. Listen to the people on this form. Something else is wrong.

 

[hawkeye18]

Six cents says you neglected to disconnect the stock amp when hooking aftermarket amp up to the speakers.

A few more details would be helpful. What is hooked up to the amp? What kind of amp is it (if you say Pyramid, imma smack you)? What gauge power wire are you running to it? What gauge ground wire? How is the input to the amp hooked up?

We need to know this sorta stuff if we're gonna help you.

 

[jmpSHO2nd]

Hey,
I am trying to hook up my sub amp and the fuses keep blowing out on it. I want to make sure that I have a very good ground for my amp and I was wondering where you guys have put yours?
I was using the bolts on the top of the shock tower and want to make sure that its a good spot...
thanks

What fuses are blowing, the radio fuses or amp fuse??

 

[hamburglar]

JVC head unit
JL 1800 watt amp (not sure model)
Massive 12 inch comp subwoofer
4 gauge wire for power and ground

What do you mean by input to the amp?


the amp fuse keeps blowing.
I'm going to look again tomorrow. I'm assuming the power cord is pinched and grounding out. The sub is from my old car (I haven't taken it out of the box) the wires could be touching in the box or on the woofer and this could caus the problem...
The audio place checked the AMP and it came out fine.
I'm listening to people on the FORM. All i wanted was a good place to ground. the amp worked great in my other car and they checked it out and it worked fine. It has nothing to do with the stock amp. Totally different system. I have done many installs and this has never happened to me, it must be something minor that I am overlooking. I grounded out the amp in the seat belt bolt for the backseat and sanded everything down, so that should be good.

 

[jmpSHO2nd]

Is it the fuse in the amp itself or the fuse on the wire that runs from the amp to the battery? What guage wire did you use from the battery to the amp? and what size is the fuse between the battery wire and amp?

Either way it's not a ground issue I would defeinately check to make sure the power wire isn't pinched some where, I myself have put screws right through power wires when reinstalling interior pieces.

 

[hamburglar]

Is it the fuse in the amp itself or the fuse on the wire that runs from the amp to the battery? What guage wire did you use from the battery to the amp? and what size is the fuse between the battery wire and amp?

Either way it's not a ground issue I would defeinately check to make sure the power wire isn't pinched some where, I myself have put screws right through power wires when reinstalling interior pieces.

its 4 gauge all around
its a 100 amp fuse
the fuse is blowing out on the amp power cable.
I haven't put the interior pieces back together, so I dont' think the power cable is pinched, but I will check again tomorrow.
I got tomorrow off so this is my big thing to get done. I want to get it done before I drive to wyoming and utah this weekend...

 

[jmpSHO2nd]

I have to say that's a weird issue. If it was me I would run another wire from the amp to the battery (don't go through the trouble of running it through the car, just run it outside the car) make sure you keep the fuse installed and see if the fuse blows again. That way you can eliminate the wire as the problem.

You mentioned that you had this installed in another vehicle, did you have the subs installed in the other vehicle as well?

 

[badcamelot]

If you want to swing by my place while in Utah (sandy specifically) I'll be happy to help do some trouble shooting. I have a couple of other amps we can test. I too have installed many audio systems, I dont think it is even possible to blow a fuse if your primary power is unmolested and correctly hooked up by touching a weak or strong ground, that you could make the fuse blow, espicially since you clearly stated the amp has been bench tested. My guess is your remote power wire (if, as you believe your 4 guage primary power wire is fine) is incorrectly connected. By I echo what everyone else is saying, where your ground is going is NOT why you are blowing fuses.
PM me if you want some help.

 

[hawkeye18]

If the fuse in the power wire itself is blowing, and the fuse in the amp isn't blowing, then it's 100% a short to ground before it gets to the amp. I guarantee you this. The easiest way to check this is to disconnect the power wire from the battery, then take a multimeter and check for resistance between the terminal of the cable that hooks up to the battery (not the positive side of the battery) and the negative post of the battery.

If the resistance reads below about 50 ohms, there is a short to ground in the cable. Theoretically, it should be reading open with the amp off. What I think you're going to find, though, is a reading of anywhere between 0.2 and 5 ohms.

Now comes the fun part - figuring out where it's shorted. You'll have to meticulously inspect every inch of that cable for cracked or missing insulation. Prime spots are in the engine bay while it winds its way through on the way to the grommet that lets it into the passenger compartment, and at the back seat where it passes into the trunk.

Good luck... also, if you can't replace the cable (which is what you should do), then several layers of electrical tape are your friends.