Hi guys. I just had a 0/1 gauge wire kit professionally installed.. but the power cable input to the amp is only big enough for 8 gauge... or 4 gauge trimmed down heavily.

So there is 0/1 gauge going to the dist. block.. then 8 gauge for about 15cm from the dist. block to the amp power input.

The problem is: is that, that 8 gauge wire REALLY heats up when I'm sucking LOTS of juice from the amp.. the amp in question is a Kicker 500si.. which has an internal fuse of 120amps.. so the amplifier has guts.. but it sucks so much current through the little wee 8 gauge that it leaves me wondering if the wires heating up is an issue. Both positive and negative: ( 8 gauge also.. since its the same scenario as the positive) heat up a fair bit after a fair bit of really loud music.

So my questions are
A)will this be harmful to the amp?
B)is this normal at all?

like a long time ago.. I was just using this amp with 8 gauge wiring entirely. The connecting portion that went into the power terminal for the positive: heated up SO much that it melted that whole area. so the plastic around the postive power input melted and warped.. now the set-screw doesn't work so I had to use a metric bolt for the terminal. I'm worried this is going to happen again and I'm going to either ruin the amp or create a fire.

So I need some help... thanks to all that help..

very much appreciated.
and

[ July 25, 2005, 10:35 PM: Message edited by: the Limo driver ]

odd that an amp made by kicker, puts out a lot of power, and only has 8awg inputs....

my only suggestion is to make the 8awg shorter. keep it as short as humanly possible. 5cm even...

ya, the best way too solve it is get the 8 as short as posable. REALLY SHORT.

Why not just use a 0 to 4 awg adapter that was machined to size.
I think almost any decent machine shop could turn one down for you.

Worst case scenario you could always just have a machine shop make one for you out of some brass bar stock.

Just my .02 cents

check ebay... tons of reducers out there.

the input for the power wire on that amp is 4 guage.it's a tight fit but it will go in [img]graemlins/thumb.gif[/img]

You can also get adaptors or eveen make em that will convert the bigass wire down to a usable size....I've got 2 of em on my RipRock....
Doing this you can then go to a 0ga or even 1/0 ground...

Just a thought..

Many people consider machined reducers a bad idea.

Thanks guys.. I'll pick up some scrap chunks of 4 gauge today at the place that I had the amp installed... and go from there.. Thanks for all your help.. greatly appreciated.

Just because you pay them money doesnt make them a pro [img]graemlins/dunno.gif[/img]

almost worth popping the top of the amp and trying to go 4awg directly to the board if the terminals are alreay melted... used to work on old school amps that where wired internally instead of jumpered.

x 2 [img]graemlins/thumb.gif[/img] they are just a band-aid, to 'fix' the problem, but in no means the solution.

Mark

[ August 04, 2005, 05:14 PM: Message edited by: SQ Civic ]