sparks fly whne amp is hooked up

[drummerboy827]

i just got a new amp for my speakers, and i had it hooked up and it worked perfectly. I just repositiond it on the seat and made the install look alittle neater, and went to hook up the power lead, and sparks went everywhere. I figured that the wire definatly isnt grounding out on anything and the amp is causing the short circuit. Is it broken... i hooope not, my kappas never sounded so good.

PS when the volume was turned up reaaaly loud the amp would shut off for a couple seconds then come back on.

[bgred619]

that is why you pull fuses when wiring up an amp, and shutin off at peak volume could be a safety shut down so the amp push it self to hard and fry

[drummerboy827]

man i dont know how it could have blown, i had the gains turned only half way up (its a 4 cha), and my spekers were underrated for the power

annyways i guess my question is. what would cause all these sparks from just hooking up ground and + to the amp. (everything else has been unhooked).

[crazyoldcougar]

is your battery disconected or your main inline out when you tried to hook up these wires.......if not that will cause sparks everytime...always hook up your grounds first too....with your gains at half way the amp is pretty much pushing out its rated power.....past half and your getting into clipping and i am not even going to try to go there..search for that!

if your power wires are not thick enough for your amp then there may be some sort of thremal protection kicking in when you call for more power by turning up the volume..to stop the amp from over heating...

also if you have a bad ground or loose ground from moving the amp this would also cause it to shut off...if your speakers are wired incorectly as to create too heavy a load on the amp it will also cause the amp to shut off..if you are running any other devices off your remote wire like fans or neons without a relay the reduced current to the amp will cause it to shut off too..

i have even seen what can only be called residual power held inthe amps capacitors cause sparks when hooking up the power wire with main fuses out...do you have a stiffening cap on the amp, that will hold power and cause sparks if not disconected and discharged before install..

also look for frayed wires at the amps terminal block, make sure your ground isnt touching the remote or 12+

could be anything that i have mentioned and iam sure it could be other things too...just make sure the neg or pos terminal is off the battery whenever hookin up any electrical devices to your car...

[tad]

it's gonna spark if it's shorting out
the ground must be touching positive or vice versa