So i was hooking up my amplifier. It is a 400 watt clarion with a 30amp fuse in the amp.

So when i connected the power wire to it, i saw a spark. I then checked the fuse holder for the power wire near the front of the car and it was blow. This has a 80amp fuse in it.

I would have thought the 80amp fuse was enough. Is there any reasons why this happened or just bad luck?

 

Wrongly wired. Shorted to ground somewhere. Or bad amp!

 

What he said. I think it's a wire or short.

I'd take the whole thing out and reinstall, being mindful of what is doing what.

 

Yes I believe it was "operator error". You imposed a direct short on that power wire. I dont think the amp is at fault as it would have blown its own smaller fuse.

 

I reviewed my steps and i think its because i had my battery fully connected when i put the power wire in place to the amp. I should have had it all hooked up and the last thing i should have done was put the negative terminal back on.

Is that why my fuse blew? Haha i feel so stupid if it was that.

 

No, that shouldn't have caused the fuse to blow. It wouldn't have been out of the question to get a small current draw when hooking up the amp, but if you blew an *80-amp* fuse, then either your power wire is shorted to ground somewhere along its length, or more likely, there's something wrong with the amplifier itself that's causing the +12V input to short to ground internally. (Or, I guess you could have had a faulty fuse, but that's a much less likely scenario).

 

I used to have a problem like that. then I found my bubble gum had a foil wrapper. Wrapped the foil around the fuse and no more blown fuse!
I did have to deal with a fire elsewhere though...

j/k



To blow an 80 amp fuse you had to have a direct short somewhere. I bet that was a pretty big spark you saw.

 

motormouth,

how the hell did you think of that idea. So you wrapped the bubble gum foil (dont they have paper on one side and foil on the other), you wrapped it around the fuse, and put it in the holder? Isnt it a tight fit as is?

And in general. Where are common shorts located? Because when i had all the power wires in place, before plugging into the amp i used a multi meter to test if the circuit worked and it worked fine. But When i plugged it into the amp thats where it went bad.

 

If you're sure the wiring is correct, and the 80A fuse blew then it is the amp itself that is bad.

 

Check to ensure power and ground are not swapped! Do it immediately!
Other than a bad amp that is the only thing I have ever seen that will do it.

 

you still didn't say how big the spark was

 

Haha it was noticable. With like a 3 inch line of smoke. But it was when I connected it to the amp that happened. When I connected the power wire to the multimeter and to the ground wire it was fine

 

Bad amp, then. Since you have a multimeter, see what the resistance is between the amp's power connection and the car's chassis.

Even if it's not a short-circuit anymore, it might have been when you connected up the power wire the first time and blew the 80-amp fuse. (Remember, short circuits tend to turn into open circuits when you apply voltage - )