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power wire heating up under big amp load.. advise needed.

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Old 07-25-2005, 09:33 PM
  #1  
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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 ]
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Old 07-25-2005, 10:15 PM
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Tzu
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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...
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Old 07-25-2005, 11:00 PM
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ya, the best way too solve it is get the 8 as short as posable. REALLY SHORT.
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Old 07-26-2005, 09:14 AM
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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
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Old 07-30-2005, 10:47 AM
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check ebay... tons of reducers out there.
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Old 08-03-2005, 12:08 AM
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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]
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Old 08-03-2005, 09:25 AM
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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..
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Old 08-04-2005, 10:30 AM
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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.
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Old 08-04-2005, 02:39 PM
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Just because you pay them money doesnt make them a pro [img]graemlins/dunno.gif[/img]
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