Need urgent help

myponyrocks

I have more billet on the Stang than most women ha
Apr 18, 2004
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Ok a few years back I had Best buy instal an amp and sub...

Amp died (or so I thought) a few months ago. I finally ponied up and got a new amp.

Well today a good friend was helping me diagnose an issue...

The sub moves to the music, but not enough to creat any noise

We checked the sub, we checked the amp, we checked the um relay thingy (small black box that taps into the rear amp harness that you connect to the aftermarket amp)

Any way nothing was wroking. We pinned it down to the "relay thingy" by connecting another head unit to the amp and it pushed major bass. So I went and bought a new thingy and while installing it we noted super crappy installation by Best Buy.

Well after replacing it, still didn't work.

So question 1:

Any one have a clue what could be wrong?

Question 2:

Ok on the factory amp rack there are 3 plugins, we assumed the center one was setup for the Mach 1000. That's also where this relay was tapped into. Using a voltometer or whatever nothing is coming from this, but still feeds the amp enough that the sub vibrates to the music, but doesn't create any noise. We're thinking there's something in that center plugin that is fried.



I'm gonna take it to a professional installer (read not Best Buy), but I'd like to try to fix it with major assistance from my friend first. Also I can take pics if need be.
 
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um k,

So when you hooked the amp up to another audio source you got bass?

That little black box is a Hi-lo convert taking a high level signal and converting it to a low level single (which is what your amp is designed to use for input signal).
When you hooked up the amp to the other radio source didi you use the same RCA that was used in your car? possible issue is your rca's. other issues that might be is if your hi-lo box is wired out of phase, are you running 1 sub or 2 ? single or dual voice coils. ? also there should be a gain control on that little box to increase the signal stregth to the amp.

What amp are you using ?


little more info and i should be able to get you playing again
 
Single coil 4 ohm sub, all the parts are correct. The RCAs we used the external head unit to check. They're fine.

It's whatever that center harness is for. I'm assuming that it's a signal booster for the Mach 1000 subs (I don't have them). The inverter thing was wired into that center harness by Best Buy and they didn't hook the 2 brown (ground?) wires up, just the 2 white and 2 gray. We're assuming that's what caused the issue.

I had a RF amp, the new amp is a Kenwood KAC-8152D

When we used the external head the only thing we did was wire it through the existing RCAs, so that narrowed it down to the inverter or the connection. We re-wired the connection and I bought a new inverter. Same issue from factory head.

We were thinking about wiring the inverter into the drivers side Harness (that was the Bass and the right was Treble). But it still concerns me that the center harness is not showing on the voltmeter yet enough signal is going to the amp for the sub to attempt to move to music.
 
The Brown wires on the box are not needed, they are to ground the box to help eliminate ground loop, which can cause engine whine, but this would not cause it to not work, just to make sure you are tagged in a good place i would just grab a signal from the rear spkr. no point running it to the front you just need to make sure you are grabbing signal after that amp and not the signal from before it goes into the amp. also i would hook the white/black and grey/black to the same, and the white and gray also to there own to make sure that you are not running into a phase issue.

white + grey = positive rear spkr wire
white/black + grey/black = negative rear spkr wire

you should be able to follow the wires from the amp into the rear 460 pod, be careful you are not grabbing the lines for the tweeter, if you grab those you will get no bass.

I am at work atm when i get home i can take a picture of the mach pod with wire colors and such. i have a 460 pod in my living room right now lol.
 
Well that's what I'm saying theres the passenger side and drivers side harnesses for the rear... Best Buy had it tapped into the center rear harness.

It worked for 3 years then just went bleah.

So is something fried on that center harness? If so is it important? Factory speakers work fine.

Also is it safe just to cover up the connections Best Buy made and tap into the Drivers side(bass controller) harness? (When I say harness I'm talking where they plug into the Mach amps)
Any pics would help, if I can have my friend re-wire it I'd be hapy not to pay another "pro" shop to do it)
 
k hopefully this helps.
that center harness is correct as long as you hook it up correctly

The red and black wires are the wires you need.

the red is your left the black is your right.
Red/whitestripe and black/whitestripe are the positive wires
solid red and solid black are you negative wires.

if those rear speakers are working this is no reason that your system shouldn't work unless you have something else that is wrong.
 

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