Hey Guys,

I recently purchased a new sub and amp (specs will follow). Got the amp and Scosche enclosure and loaded it with a Infinity Reference 1250w. Fabbed up a mount for the amp in the rear and routed speaker level inputs to amp, outputs to my enclosure.

So far so good...

I'm sure you gurus have done this before. My REAL problems are:

1. Finding a route for main power wire to route to battery, whatever path would be easiest and cleanest. If there is not a path that is easy, what is a difficult path? My biggest concern is how to get from cabin throught firewall, preferrably somewhere on passenger side.
2. My amp has an onboard fuse rated at 40A. It is a Kenwood KAC-8103D; 300W RMS at a 4ohm load. The instructions state that the main power connection wire should have an inline 40A or larger fuse. It does not state the specific wire gauge that should be used. What would you recommend?
3. There is a "power on" connection that they say should be hooked up to a power source that is switched on when you want amp power (such as the radio power connection) or can be connected to a remote switch. I am leaning on the remote switch just so I can turn off the sub when sitting at a light next to a cop and still listen to tunes. If this would be used, what would recommended wire size be and should it also need be fused? My thinking is it would be low current draw so would not need more than a 15A or so. Does this sound right?

Thanks for any replies. I would love to get this project compteted this weekend. If anybody can help me get this darn wire through the firewall, I would really appreciate it!

Update:
Since posting, I removed my battery and batterry tray and found that there is an orange wire that runs directly through the firewall, right under battery and upper area of passenger floor. It is my intention to drill an additional hole there for my wire. I have a mini grip tight connector that I can mount on the exterior side so it should be watertight and put me in the general area I need to be.

I would still appreciate responses to the wire diameter for power and fusing questions.

 

On your passenger side of the car is a rubber gromet,you can cut a hole in it and run your wire to a fuse block for the amp, there is also a rubber gromet on the driver side. just remember to keep your power wires and your rca wires running separate,other words don't run the power wire and rca wires together.The instructions to your amps should have the size recamendation for the size of power wire to use. LOL on your install

 

As James said, there is a rubber grommet on the passengerside that you can run your wire thru to the battery. For your amp, you could use 8 guage wire however if I were you, I'd run 4 guage so that you have plenty of capacity incase you want to upgrade later. Make sure you install the inline fuse for your amp somewhere within 18" of the battery.

Are you installing this to the factory radio or an aftermarket radio?

Some pix: note I made my main connection at the distribution point for the factory fuses instead of the battery:

 

1. Use the passenger side firewall grommet as posted. Run your power wires along the passenger side. I ran my audio cables down the middle under the center console.

2. There is a "Power Cable Calculator" here:
http://www.partsexpress.com/resource...calculator.cfm

8AWG should be enough but if you want to add more amps later or a bigger one you'd probably need 4AWG. Be sure to place a fuse that is rated equal to your amps up close to the battery.

3. For the power-on you can use any single pole switch. I wouldn't think there'd be more than an 1 amp across it. You can probably use 14AWG wire. You would hook one side of the switch to a wire running to a switched 12V accessory fuse/wire and the other to your amp turn-on. That way if you leave the switch on, the amp will still turn off with the key.

 

Thanks guys.

Got it in and running. I ended up using a small flip switch from O'Reillys for power on button. I placed it near the cup holder. Pretty cool with a green LED that lights up when on. I appreciate the location of the grommet. Mine had the sound deading material over it so much, could not see it. The pics helped a lot. I went with 4 AWG but it sure is a pain to work when connecting to small terminals of the amp. Makes me wonder what Kenwood had in mind when making a terminal strip so small...

Kudos to all who responded!

 

Great, sounds like it went smooth for you. Feel free to post up some pics. One thing you could do is get a 4AWG power distribution block and install close to the amp(s). That would terminate the 4AWG and let you plug up to 4 other slightly smaller gauge wires into it.

 

Nice install....and cam covers....vortech....shaker.....

 

Took words right out of my mouth about distrobution box.( notice the distrobution boxs between the amps,one is for positve and the other for negative)This is really the best way to connect your amp with the 4AWG wire. This a picture of the old set up,the car is at the audio installers,having a complete custom audio system being done to it. Will post pictures in about 3 weeks.

 

Thanks!