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Hooking up extra line to cap instead of tearing up car to add line?

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Old 08-17-2002, 04:30 PM
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Hooking up extra line to cap instead of tearing up car to add line?

Hey guys,
I bought a new Orion amp to compliment my ten inch Orions, and was thinking about using the old weaker Orion amp to power my 6x9's. But I really dont feel like tearing up the left side of the car's panels to run a stupid power line. I have a .5 Farad Cap for the amps and it does its job, but can I buy an extra connector and run that to the amp from the capacitor, or will I kill or detonate my capacitor? I dont want to run too many lines from my battery because its already jammed with foglight, head unit, and amp wires and won't have any more room for more wires. The battery has a warranty, let that rot out of my car for all I care. The alternator is good, I am just wondering if I can run a separate line from this cap, thanks. Also, can I mount my amp in the space under the locking side compartment in the trunk, or will it overheat or not be able to secure to the car? thanks.
Old 08-17-2002, 08:57 PM
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a .5 farad capacitor will support up to 500watts(peak) of power, so as long as you do not exceed that limit you will be ok.
Old 08-18-2002, 12:10 AM
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Really, if you have a good enough power wire coming from the battery (4 gauge or better), hook up a relay before the cap and split it to each amp. You're definitely not going to need the cap for the 6x9s, so don't even bother with it; let it just run the sub amp.
Old 08-18-2002, 11:05 AM
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I know I won't need that much power to run the 6x9's, but I was thinking of using the cap as an easy way in. I guess I'll just have to run a new wire.
Old 08-27-2002, 01:21 PM
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Just put in a power distribution block before the cap, then you can run as many components as you want. As long as the gauge of the existing power wire is sufficient, you shouldn't have a problem.
Old 08-27-2002, 10:56 PM
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Here's a thought. If you have anything smaller than 8 AWG from your battery to amps rip it out and put in a single shot of 4 AWG. 8 AWG might do okay but 4 would be better. Get a distribution block to split the single 4 AWG into 2 8 AWG leads. Run one to the weak amp and the other to the cap and then out to the new amp. No need to run multiple leads off of the battery for each amp.
Old 08-28-2002, 01:01 PM
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Okay I rigged up each amp w/ their own power wire straight outta the battery, the big amp has its own cap. One of these days I will make my installs not-so-ghetto and get some good 4 guage wire w/ distribution block and then run them clean, instead of a ghetto wiring job. Thanks for ur advice.
Old 08-30-2002, 03:01 PM
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Don't follow in my footsteps... you might want to check out heavier gauge wire. I had two 8 gauge lines once, finally ripped 'em out, and threw 4 gauge in with a dist block. When I add the amp in my room, I'll need to go to 1/0 gauge. 'Course, I've had that amp and the dist block and power terminals (all Lightening Audio platinum) in my house for 2 years, BUT, it drives me nuts to know that I paid for that 4 gauge run. What a pain. I'm not looking forward to pulling those panels again. (sigh)
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