mb499

I have my old JL 500/1 amp that I'm trying to hook up, but it doesn't work. It worked fine in my old tib till the time I took it out. I've tried wiring it in both cars but I can't even get the power light to come on. I changed the fuse in the wiring just in case, and I've checked all the connections and everything. What else is left to check ?

gophins349

amp may have blown up...as in the ground inside the amp i had this problem before. solved it by buying a new amp

DTN

1. Make sure all the wires are connected correctly (power, ground, remote). Check for frayed wiring at the amplifier which is causing a bad connection or possiblly touching ground.

2. Check the fuse by touching a ohm meter to both sides of the fuse. If a fuse pops by bearly reaching the maximum current, the fracture can be microscopic and you won't notice it with the naked eye.

3. Using some short wires, ground the amplifier ground terminal to the battery ground. Then touch the power and the remote to the positve terminal. It's possible that you may not have the correct power comming the amplifier. Alot of times you may think a wire is good, but it is actually broken somewhere.

4. If the fuse and the wiring is good, then the problem is inside the unit

Possible internal problems:
1. light burned out
2. internal fuse blown
3. burned out components
4. bad connections on boad.

The problem with people today is they will throw away stuff before they even try to fix it.

mb499

Don't worry I don't throw anything away smile.gif

I did hook it up to the battery in my other tib directly, light didn't turn on. It doesn't need the remote wire hooked up to turn on does it? That might be the problem.

An ohm meter, is that basically the same thing as a volt meter? I tried finding something to measure voltage at wal mart but didn't see anything. Gonna check at auto store tommorrow.

Where would the fuse inside the amp be? I took off a few parts and looked inside but I didn't see a fuse anywhere.

It is possible the light is just burned out, since when I hooked it up to try the subs, they weren't wired up right inside the box (which I wasn't aware of).


And one more question~ I want to hook up two subs to work with a mono amp, what would be the correct way to do this? Right now I just have both wires hooked up (from the subs) to the terminal on the box. Is there anything special I need to do/use to have equal current go to both? My other subs are done like this (not by me) and they work just fine.

DTN

Yes, you need Power, Ground and Remote hooked up. Remote is the on/off signal. Without 12V to that line it won't turn on.

Most modern companies make cheap stuff and don't bother with internal or redundant fuses anymore. I don't believe I've ever seen one on an amplifier. it's always worth a check though. IF you can open a device and see an internal fuse blown, it's the first thing to replace after checking for touching wires.

You probly won't need to do this but usually bad components heat up, you can physically feel heat or see scarred components which have overheated. Alot of the time they are the bad parts.

Hook up your remote wire before you go any further. LOL.

Oh, yeah.. Multimeters will have ohm capabilities. The ohm settings look like this:Ω

tibbymat

you may not need the remote line on the JL amp if you have rca's plugged into it because JL amps are signal sensing. (once a signal is detected on the RCA's it will turn on) but hook it up anyways if you are having this problem

mb499

Ok thanks for all the replies. I'm gonna go out now and hook it all up, just put the remote to the battery though because I'm not sure if remote and rca are hooked up to stereo. I know it got hot as hell, but the inside looks pristine.

Ericy321

Just take a short wire and cross from the big power wire to the remote spot. Easy way to test without doing much

mb499

I got it working now by hooking power/ground/remote directly to battery. I don't think the remote is hooked up to stereo though so that's probably the problem.

Thanks for all the help laugh.gif

cham

If you leave the remote wire hooked up to battery with no switch youre amp is always gonig to be on even when the cars off and kill youre battery, any 12v accesory that turns on when you turn the car will work to wire youre remote too as long as it turns on and off when you turn the car on nd off. but youre deck sohuld have it if not just use the red wire comnig off the deck and split it it's the ignition wire, but most aftermarket decks come with a blue wire which is remote.