stupid amp keeps blowing fuses.. please help.. (1 Viewer)

[Zane Johnson]

okay i have a Kenwood 400 watt amplifier (100x4@8,200x2@8)..which is not being used at the moment..it used to power my mains, but now i have a better amp to run my mains with but i still want to use the Kenwood to run a sub with... problem is it will power up for about 2 seconds then i hear a click and the fuse is blown... it started doing this about 6 months ago when me..the idiot, touched the positive and negative from the speaker outs together on accident...

has anyone ever seen this before? is it repairable? who should i send it off too? it's about 6-7 years old...

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

it started doing this about 6 months ago when me..the idiot, touched the positive and negative from the speaker outs together on accident...

Pretty strange. Typically this will only activate an internal protection relay or perhaps blow a fuse.
Your best bet is to get in touch with Kenwood and get them to recommend a repair facility in your nearest metropolitan area.
Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt
[Edited last by Wayne A. Pflughaupt on July 13, 2001 at 10:20 PM]

 

[Zane Johnson]

thanx

yeah it did blow the fuse when i touched em together for the first time, but then i would keep on blowing every other fuse i put in there...

 

[Todd Hochard]

Sounds like touching the leads together melted something in the output circuit- i.e. your inadvertant external short circuit created an internal one.
You'll have to have it serviced.
Todd

 

[Zane Johnson]

so your saying that what could have happened was, when i touched the + and - together it melted something on the speaker output circuits together, making it always touching positive and negative? i'm gonna go take it apart right now and have a look-see

 

[Allan Jayne]

Shorting together the speaker leads will often damage an amp. The damage is usually to an output transistor and is usually not visible even when looking inside.
Do not use slow blow fuses in an amp's output circuits. Unless the amp instructions say otherwise, get the "fastest blow" fuses you can, they help prevent amp damage even from shorted speaker outputs but are not quite 100% effective.
Also too low a speaker impedance is like a short circuit and can damage an amp. Connecting several speakers in parallel will do this.
A serviceman (or you yourself if you are an electronics whiz) will likely need some test equipment to diagnose the problem.
Video hints:http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm
[Edited last by Allan Jayne on July 14, 2001 at 03:57 PM]

 

[Timmy]

As Alan said; you probably shorted one of the output transistors... a collector to emiter short.. and it is drawing way too much current.
If you're not up to a DIY repair, a local shop should get you back going quickly.

 

[Mark Dubbelboer]

It's times like this your thankful you don't have a sony.
I did this and the cost for a capacitator, and two transistors was over a 100bucks.
I'm not sure why but sony parts always seem to be very very expensive
Hope you're still under warranty
------------------
Good... Bad... I'm the guy with the gun.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Actually, Mark, capacitors and transistors are cheap. It’s labor that’s expensive.
Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Zane Johnson]

me and a friend are going to Lewisville to audition home theater components for his system (the guy with the McIntosh) and i'm gonna bring my amp along with us and have somebody look at it...
hopefully i can get it repaired tommorow