No power to amp

Sounds like start wire is touching ground with would be frame motor or metal

Here are some simple things that you can check and look for.

Check the voltage at the amplifier power input terminals. You should have 12 to 14 volts there with the vehicle running and the radio turned on. Check the voltage between the positive terminal and the chassis ground. It should be 12 to 14 volts as well. Check for a fuse at the POSITIVE batery terminal on the line feeding your amp. There should be a large amperage fuse there. Make sure that it is not blown. Check that the vehicle ground wire (from the chassis to the battery NEGATIVE terminal) is corrosion free at both ends and is connected tightly.

Also check that there is no corrosion or loose connections on these high power cables. At 2500 watts output from your amplifier, you should probably have #4 or #000 wire runing to the amplifier. These cables (one for the positive line and one for the negative) should run directly from the battery to the amplifier.

Good luck.

The basic steps to set up a car amplifier are these: 1. Disconnect the car battery's negative terminal before doing ANY electrical work on your vehicle. Failing to do so can damage your equipment or cause injury to your person. 2. Determine where you are going to mount your amplifier. This can be in the trunk, on the back of a seat, under a seat, etc. Pick a place with good airflow, otherwise your amp may overheat while playing. 3. Run the ground wire from the mount location to a ground location. The ground location should be a location where you can securely connect the cable to the vehicle chassis, and the connection should be metal-to-metal, without any paint in between. 4. Run the speaker cables to the amp. This means any cables coming directly from subwoofers as well as RCA cables coming from the head unit. Don't forget the remote wire from the head unit. 5. Run the positive (live) power wire directly from the vehicle battery to the amp. You will most likely have to drill through the vehicle firewall in order to get the cable through. 6. Connect the ground wire to the ground location. 7. Connect the speaker wires and remote wire to the amp. Make sure these cables are connected on each end to the proper inputs. 8. Connect the ground wire to the amp. 9. Insert the fuse into the in-line fuse on the live power cable, within 2 feet (24 inches) of the positive terminal connection.If your cable didn't come with an in-line fuse, you will have to buy a fuse separately, strip the power cable, cut it, and insert the fuse in the specified location. 10. Connect the power wire to the amp first, and then to the battery. 11. Power up your system, and play some music!

Hi and welcome to FixYa, I am Kelly (Electrician since late 1960's)

Ground goes to the - pole. Hooking it up backwards can damage your alternator, wiring harnesses and fuse links. (Fuse link damage is a nightmare to sort out!) What you do by hooking up a battery backwards is turn your vehicle wiring harness into a giant heating element. (<-Very bad!) If you just changed the battery and then you hooked up the cables with the smoking cable result you certainly did connect the cables backwards. The ground cable... will connect to chassis and in most cases the engine body / transmission somewhere.
The positive cable will eventually connect to the starter. Follow the ground lead from the battery to the chassis or engine body connection. (metal to metal contact) Once your sure that is the ground cable; connect it to the - post of the battery AFTER connecting the positive post terminal.
If you have a newer audio system you will have lost your radio codes. We can not provide the codes for anti-theft reasons. Activation Codes must be from the car dealer or audio system retailer.
Thanks for choosing FixYa,
Kelly

Here are the steps you need to take:

• Connect the ground wire to the vehicle first(Chassis) (clean dirt and paint to bare metal). • Connect the remote on (blue wire). This wire will be on the back of your stereo • Connect the RCA cables • Connect the remote level controller with the supplied lead. • Connect the 12 volt (red wire) to the positive battery terminal. (Make sure to use a power wire that has an in-line fuse. • Check all connections.
If you need more help let me know

Hello goup1819,

There are some basic things that you can check without a volt-ohm-milliamp meter (VOM or multimeter), but having a meter really enhances the troubleshooting process.

I'd begin by checking the power and ground. Make sure that you have the appropriate gauge wire and that all of the terminals and connections are tight and solid. Particularly check the ground wire. It should be as short as possible and be connected to BARE METAL on the vehicle chassis or frame. Make sure that there is no primer, paint, undercoating or corrosion impeding the connection. Likewise, the power wire needs a firm connection, preferably using a ring terminal, and be a direct run from the positive battery terminal, through an appropriate fuse, to the amp power terminal, and be as short as possible to minimize voltage drop.

You can also check some of the vehicle wiring. Rusted and corroded connections can reduce the voltage going to your amp. You can loosen the connections and clean them off with a wire brush or sandpaper and then retighten them. Check and clean the connections on both battery cables at both ends, and also the cable coming from the alternator. Do this cleaning with the negative cable disconnected from the battery post.

You can test the amp directly by using a "spare" 12V battery or use the installed vehicle battery by bringing power to the amp using a good set of jumper cables and a couple of short pieces of 8gauge wire. Just be sure to keep exposed portions of the jumper cables away from any metallic surfaces and temporarily covered with plastic or other insulation. If the amp powers up properly with this direct power test, the problem is definitely in the vehicle electrical system or there's too much voltage drop in your amp wiring. If the amp still shows low voltage, then I'd suspect that the amp is defective.

Hope this helps.

You need to run RCA cables from the RCA output jacks on the back of the Sony to the input RCA jacks of the Jensen amp. Then you need to run a wire that connects to the blue wire of the wiring harness on the sony to the "remote" or "turn on" terminal of the jensen. That is the wire that turns the amp on when the radio is turned on. It should be on the power wire terminal of the jensen along with the +B (positive) and the GND (ground) terminals. Those are the only ones that go from the Sony to the Jensen. You also need to have the speakers connected to the speaker jacks of the amplifier, and the power wires connected to the power terminal of the amp. The positive power wire needs to go to the positive battery terminal and the ground should be connected to the chassis of the car close to the amplifier. make sure the ground is connected to a clean bare metal part to make sure it is good.

Thats all, but you also need the proper guage wire and make sure no bare wire is exposed to any metal areas or the chassis of the car. You can get all of those things at anyplace that installs car audio. They can tell you the proper guage wire and they have the RCA cables to.

If you are not experienced at this type of installation you really would be better off lettng a professioanl do it for you. It is easy to wire something wrong and damage the amp and/or the receiver.

The wires also need to be run in a place that they will not be damaged and are out of the way.

Ihope this helps you, and please be careful. Help is here if you need it.

If you found this information to be helpful a rating of "FixYa" would be appreciated. It is the only reward we get for the free help we offer.

Thanks,

Dave

If you are connecting the negative lead of the voltmeter to the chassis of the car, and then checking the voltage at the amp on the ground power input of the amplifier, then your amplifier is not grounded properly. The amp should also be grounded on the chassis of the car, so if you have 4 V DC on it, it can not possibly be grounded to the chassis. The chassis is the same potential at any point on the car.

Could it be that the 4 V DC is at the power terminals +B or positive voltage? That would not be an uncommon thing to have since the amplifier will hold some charge after it is turned off and that would be normal.

Since you have a voltage meter, you could check the current draw of the amplifier if your meter also have a setting for current or amps.

If so, connect the meter in series with the ground of the amplifier. That means to disconnect the ground wire at the amplifier, and use the meter to complete the ground connection by putting one lead of the meter on the ground wire that should be connected to the chassis of the car and the other lead to the ground terminal of the amplifier. It does not matter which lead you connect to the wire or the amplifier, that would only make your measurement i postive current or negative current, but the meter must be set up properly for current. Most of them have a diiferent jack to put the positive lead into for current. most have two different jacks. If yours does also, choose the lead with the larger amp rating. Most have 10A and 300mA, the lareger amp rating is 10A. That is 10 amps max and the 300mA means 300 milli-amps which is .3 amps max.
Do this with the amplifier turned off and the car off. If you measure any current at that point you do have a current draw with the amp off and the amp would need to be serviced by a professional. If you have no current draw there, the amp is not the source of your battery draining. This would find out for certain if the amplifier is really draining the battery.

If you have found this information help a rating of "FixYa" would be appreciated.
If you need more help just ask,

Dave

If you're talking about the amplifier's power terminals, the positive terminal is designed to be wired directly to the battery (be sure to fuse the amp power wire near the battery terminal). The negative terminal should be bolted to vehicle chassis metal for a ground connection. The only amplifier connections that go to the back of the head unit are the remote turn-on wire and the RCA cables.