Is the amp not getting power at all? Is there a power indicator LED light on it to let you know it has power? If it’s not getting power, it’s one of two things - your power wire isn’t bringing power from the battery or your ground connection is not good. Do you have a fuse block or a capacitor on the power lead? Check them if so. Where does your ground wire go? It should be a shorter wire from the amp to the chassis somewhere near the amp. Make sure it’s a good clean ground - remove any rust, paint, or dirt/grime before you tighten the screw/bolt to hold the wire down.

If you have power but no sound, it’s either speaker wire issues, bad RCA cables, bad RCA inputs on the amp, bad pre-outs on the head unit, or bad speakers. Is there an option in the settings on the head unit to “turn on” the sub pre-outs?

Hope this helps. I’m no stereo guru, but I know just enough to be dangerous!

 

Yo Nathan,
All I can offer is the Ford 90 Bronco wiring diagram.

 

Do you have a remote wire terminal on the amp?

There should be a wire going from the head unit to the amps “remote” terminal, this wire sends a signal to the amp when the head unit is powered on and allows the amp to power on. Its basically a powered switch.

Also be sure the fuses are inserted in the amp and the fuse is installed in the main power cable near the battery

 

The amp is getting power, and I took a 180 grit sandpaper to the floor where I put the ground. The indicator light on the amp isn't turning on at all like its not getting power from the remote out put from the headunit but I can't seem to figure out why.

 

Main power for the amp should be separate, the wire for remote/antenna/amp on should be just a sense wire.

 

What model kenwood head unit?

 

It's the kenwood KDC-BT340U

 

^^yeah, you DID run a power wire directly to the battery (with a fuse) also, right? Should be three wires: battery, switch, and ground.

 

The blue/white wire from your head unit should be going to the amps “remote” terminal

 

Blue white wire is sometimes labeled as power antenna. This is direct from the aftermarket radio pigtail, not the ford factory one.

You need 5 total wires going to any remote powered amp. Power from battery, ground, remote turn-on, and the two RCAs (or speaker wire).

Fuse should be at least a 50 or 60 amp for the main power.

Is this for subs or normal speakers?

 

It's for 2 12" Subs. I have the main power from the battery going from the engine bay down the back of the plastic wheel well, up through the rubber plug in the passenger side floor to the channel underneath the passenger side door trim to the amp, the remoter line goes from the headunit out underneath the passenger side door trim and back to the amp. the RCA's have a rather long cord that is partially free floating right now because I haven't gotten it to work yet. And the ground wire is screwed into the floor in the back behind the passenger side rear wheel well. I used 180 grit sand paper and sanded away the paint on the floor to expose bare metal before I screwed it in.

 

Make sure the RCAs are in the subwoofer outputs, which I'm sure you have. Then turn the radio on and scroll through the menus. They usually have a selection for turning the subwoofer pre-outs on and off.

Otherwise it has to be the amp turn-on wire improperly hooked up or a faulty amp/head unit.

Run the RCAs down a seperate area than the power supply wire. It can cause interference. Either the driver door sill or under the carpet in the center would be good.

I also always get a subwoofer volume knob that hooks directly into the amp. It allows adjustment of bass level from the driver seat without going through the stereo menus.

 

I agree with @BigBlue 94 with running the wires separately. If you run them together, the engine noise you will get in the speakers is the most annoying thing ever. There’s a wiring harness in the drivers door sill too, so I would run it under the carpet in the center if I were you.

Let me ask a question, and don’t take offense to this: you did hook the main power lead to the POSITIVE battery terminal and not the ground terminal, right? If so, you’re just going to have to trace it all the way back with a testing light or multimeter. Have you tested the amp end of the power lead to see if it’s hot?

 

Also not sure where you have your amp mounted but i use the bolt for the rear seat spring on the drivers side for my ground. Fits nicelt through the spring and its a good size bolt so there is plenty to secure it in place, just a thought.

 

I did run it from the positive on the battery, I used the bolt that you tighten the terminal on with. I have the RCA's running through the center right now away from the power cable. I do have the setting in the headunit on for the rear sub output. I used the wire off of the back of the headunit for the amp turn on that is blue/white. which is why I am frustrated with this whole process because I have installed these subs before but they were in a 2005 ford focus before. everything worked properly and went without a hitch the first time around but now I can't even get the amp to turn on. I checked the fuse in the powerline to see if it was good tested it and it was fine.

 

You could run a jumper wire from the turn on lead spot to the main power at the amp, would at least tell you if the amp will come on. Yes this would make it on all the time, also the voltage is higher then it needs to be, so I would only do this for very short time troubleshooting.
You can also run any signal into an amp as long as you use rca cables, for example a cell phone 3.5mm jack to rca adapter to your phone. Easy way to check amp and speakers are good.

 

Some amps have fuses on themselves, and sometimes they are inside the case.

It seems you know what you're doing, so I'm pretty stumped as well. It's not rocket science after all.

Were there multiple blue wires on the head unit pigtail?

 

Have you checked the positive power wire at the connection to the amp for voltage? It’s a brand new amp right? For the little light on the amp to not come on is puzzling.

 

What brand and model amp is it?

May be a defective amp.

Also did you match your amp to your speakers? Are your subs dvc or svc and what ohm rating? Is your amp a two channel or mono?

 

Does anyone by chance have the measurements for the space in-between the rear wheel wells? I'm designing a box for my subs. I have the 12" Audiobauns mentioned above and was given two 10" boss CXX 10s and want to put them in.

 

There is 48" between the wheel wells, you can lay a sheet of 4'x8' plywood flat in the bed (but it will stick out the tailgate).

 

Thannk you!

 

Also id highly reccomend duratex coating for your box, i used it on my box i just built and that stuff is awesome, theres pics of it in my box build thread that i just posted in.

Heres the website you can get it from
https://www.acrytech.com/product-category/speaker-cabinet-coatings/

 

I'll definitely check it out!

I went and tried jumping my power cable to the remote to see if I could get the amp to at least turn on and I got nothing out of it. No lights nothing. Checked my fuses all good I will be testing my power line probably tomorrow to see if there is anything going through.. Its an 8 gauge wire so it should be providing enough power but not sure what is causing the issue yet..

 

Should be able to use a volt meter or test light on both the power wire and remote wire to ensure they are getting power.

Depending on the output of your amp that 8 gauge will not efficiently support more than 350 watts rms at 13.8v with a 13-16 ft cable length.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cr...utchfield.com/ISEO-rgbtcspd/amp/learn/learningcenter/car/cable_gauge_chart.html

 

I went and tested the line today, strange thing I ran into. I have current when I connect the leads from the power line to the negative on the battery but when I connect the leads from the power line to any ground on the chassis there is no current going through. Any ideas?? Maybe the wrong kind tester? I recently fried my voltmeter so all I have is a current tester with a positive and negative leads. The current running through is what powers the tester.

 

Do you have a ground wire going from your batt to the fender? The main ground should go to the engine block, there should also be another going to the inner pass fender

 

If the body ground is bad, that could be the issue, since the amp is grounded to it.

I said it earlier, and some else recently did. The amp itself could be faulty. Don't count it out. It's unlikely, but anything can happen.

 

This is also possible, 99% of audio electronics are made in china, anything is possible, it is possible that one wire didnt get soldered on the circuit board properly and causing a issue.