Stereo wiring.....

figure while I'm asking wiring questions, I might as well ask another. I've got a small amplifier in the car going to the sub in the back, and everything worked fine for awhile and then one day the car wouldn't start, disconnected the amp from the battery, waited abotu 10 minutes and it worked fine, now everytime I hook it up it work let the car start. Where do I need to hook the main power up for the amp at so this shit doesnt' keep happening? Main power coming from the battery, and the remote power is coming from the radio.

 

Ive never heard of this I hook mine stright to the battery no problems at all. What about the wire that turns the amp on from the stereo it should be seperate from the main power wire. One thing i will tell you dont run a system very long at all without running the engine even a small amp will kill a battery. Ive got a 1000 watt rockford and if im rocking with out the car running 5mins no more than 10 and my optima is almost dead..I would check the amp. I hope this helps

 

two different amps have done this, I had a 300 watt, now there just a 200 watt on it and it's still doign it. No problems when the amps not hooked up to the battery, but when it's hooked up the damn thing won't start.

 

Ok since i have done a few amp installs in my short life i'll throw my hat into the ring.

Ground..... you need to go through your car and make sure all the grounds are perfect. This is what i would recomend.

go to your local car stereo wire supplier. Buy a small peice of 4 gauge wire(long enough to run from your battery to your engine block. and also get a large peice of 8 gauge wire(enough length to go from your egl(engine ground location) to frame, egl to firewall, amp to body ground.)

Make sure you get some correctly fitting ring terminals and some dielectric grease(probably local radioshack or like store)

When you are ready to attach your wires to ground. Make sure that your connector is touching bare metal with no rust, paint or other. To cut down on rust in the future use the grease at all these locations.

Hope this helps. If it dosen't let me know...

Garth

 

Hey Switch....you gotta points type distributor in your car? Got a ballast resistor in the coil [run] circuit? I had a problem similar to yours and it turned out, the ballast bypass wire wasn't hooked up. This meant when my battery would get just a little low, the current for the coil would go through the ballast resistor, reducing the volatge and there wouldn't be enough current to allow a hot spark at the plugs. There's supposed to be a wire going from the small terminal on the starter solenoid [opposite the "start" terminal] directly to the + terninal of the coil. This wire will only carry current [a full 12 volts] to the coil on engine start-up. When the engine starts, the "start" circuit is de-activated and the current now runs through the ballast again. Something to look at.
I'd suggest you completely re-wire your car. You've described several electrical problems of your car in the past that tell me your wiring was done incorrectly and hurridly, plus it sounds like it's been cut into and spliced on several occasions.
Buy a good hot-rod wiring book. DeSoto, [Skip Readio] here on the HAMB has authored a fine book on the subject and it goes by the name, Tex Smith's "How to do Electrical Systems". I wouldn't be without it. It's sold through Motorbooks International and you can prolly still get it at a Borders bookstore. Get it and read it. Then, you'll be answering these kinda questions instead of asking them. Good luck...

 

NOt sure on the ballast resistor, don't think so. WHen this problem pops up the starter solenoid won't even click so I don't tink it has anythign to do with the distributor.