My amp turns on but gets dim on its own lights protect comes on and acts like the pos and neg are touching when tested the pos gets hot

If the battery is good you will need to follow flow. Test light is the easiest to use. First hook light to ground and touch pos terminal,lights good next touch pos battery cable end, lights good. Next follow pos cable to starter pos terminal,lights good. Next hook test light to bat pos teminal,touch neg terminal,lights good. Then touch engine block, lights good ground. Next move test light clamp back to ground/neg side and touch alt pos terminal,lights good.if all that tests good, if all good move inside and check for power at ign switch pos term if at any time you dont find power you have wiring issue that needs to be addressed. Let me know what you find. Russ

most commonly that means that somewhere there was an arc in the electrical either the pos or neg going into the amp or rcas or its the speaker wire from the amp to to the sub itself look especially for little wires touching opposit polarity wire (like a little +wire has moved and touched a - wire)

it depends on the amp what can it handle. will it do 2 4 or 8 ohm is it 1 ohm stable are the subs dual 2 ohms or dual 4 ohms. 1042s are dual 4 ohm subs so if you wire them both in paralel it will drop both subs into a 2 ohm load for each sub that is pos of one coil to pos of sec coil then pos to pos on amp and same with neg to neg to neg on amp. now if your amp is 1 ohm stable i would do both subs the same way you will get the most power out of the amp. but itll run a littl hot if you dont have adaquate power running to the amp. now i wanna think your alpine amp maybe only 4 ohm stable. i would run both subs like i had said pos to pos then neg to neg now both subs will be a 2 ohm load so what you do to bring it back up to 4 is you run the 2 bridged subs into a series which is pos from one sub to neg of the other sub the remaining pos and neg will run to the amps pos and neg. which will make it into a 4 ohm load. now the last scenereo is your amp is 4 ohm or 2 ohm stable. this is how to wire it to 2 ohms and not 1. take one sub go pos to neg then pos to pos on amp and neg to neg on amp this will make an 8 ohm load with one sub take other sub and do the same neg to pos on sub then pos to pos on amp and neg to neg on amp this will tell amp to run a 2 ohm load. 2 ohms is a good run for these subs if the amp can handle a 2 ohm load. now if you would have given the amp model number i could have looked it up to just give you what you needed but with this short info i gave all possibilities.

That would suggest a short between the pos and neg on the amp, it shouldn't get hot, if the surge light came on it must be a dead short, if you've got a multi-meter check the resistance on the voice coil make sure its not high (like above 1Mohm) or below 4 ohms, Normally the sub will have an impedance of 4 ohms. Have you got another speaker you could test on the amp, any should do, does it get hot with nothing connected? (that would suggest a fault on the amp) is it new?

sorry to say that you proably fried the amp. there is a way to check, find the air vent on the amp, and smell it, if you smell a burnt smell, its fried. you might get lucky and the amp might be under warrenty

I would try running the subs in parallel. Pos to Pos Dual Voice, Neg to Neg Dual Voice. Then Run + to + stereo - to - stereo on both channels.
So you have + and - running to one channel and + and - running to the other channel.
Also your LPF filter could be set too high.

http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/stereodetail/1981.html

above is link to wiring for 94 legacy , yet another source has a different layout , make sure the colors match your vehicle , 2 sources provided .

yellow/red = hot in on - fuse 17 -15amp
green = interior lights
blue/red = hot all times , fuse 25 - 10 amp
black = ground
yellow/blue = interior lights
black/green = power ant.
red/yellow = right fr neg
brown/white = left fr neg
white/red = left rear neg
blue/yellow = right rear neg
white/black = right fr pos
green - left fr pos
red/black = left rear pos
red/white = right rear pos

*** 91 park ave with delco bose =

black = ground
dark green = lights on input
grey = panel lights
pink = on input
yellow = power input
orange = battery power input

nca = shield ground
tan = left fr spkr +
orange/black = left & right spkr -neg
lite green = right fr spkr +

nca = shield ground
dark blue = right rear spkr +
dark green/yellow = right & left spkr - neg
brown = left rear spkr +

purple/white = display dim output
pink = vehicle speed input
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
**** 91 park ave without delco bose =

purple/white = display dim output
pink = vehicle speed input

grey = left front - neg
tan = left front + pos
dark green = right front - neg
light green = right front + pos

black = ground
dark green = display dim signal
grey = panel lights
pink = power antanna
yellow = ign input
orange = battery power
light blue = right rear - neg
dark blue = right rear + pos
yellow = left rear - neg
brown = left rear + pos .

there YA go

one wire to pos to amp plus to speaker one. now secound speker use neg. to neg. on amp. now take a speaker wire and hook up the remaining neg. post. on the spekers. This will run them in seris like my 4000watt rms amp at a 2 ohm load. Make sur your speakers can handel the rms load of amp. If not they will blow.

If the speaker wires touched and the protection circuit didn't engage quickly enough, the output transistors may have failed. This is the most common cause for an amplifier to go into protect mode.

If you disconnect the speaker wires from the amp and the B+ and remote voltage are above ~11 volts (place black meter lead on ground terminal of the amp when checking the voltage), and the protect light still comes on, the amplifier will need to be repaired.