I was in a car accident a few weeks ago. When the accident occured (at 35 mph on my front end), my amplifier turned off.
I assumed it was a blown fuse.
However, today I checked for power at the amplifier and I was seeing 12 volts at the "Battery" 12v constant power terminal and 12 volts at the "Remote" terminal. For kicks, I checked the fuses on the amplifer anyway, and they both had continuity.

I'm certain it is a power issue, though (that the amplifier isn't turning on) because the light that displays when the amplifier is powering up is not turning on and, of course, the subs aren't playing.

Any ideas about what could have happened and how I can troubleshoot?

BTW: The amplifier is a Kenwood KAC-829 600w 2 channel

 

ground the power cable for a second at the amp, tap +12v against the gnd and make sure you get lots of sparks. the amp contains capacitors that could hold 12v even if the source wasnt supplying.

 

...done.

The inline fuse is good. When I probe the power cable or remote cable and ground cable, there's 12v.

 

did you probe it when it was not connected to the amp?

after that disconnect the radio turn on lead and run a wire from +12v to remote on and see if it turns on.

 

I tested the wires when they were disconnected from amplifier.

I've already bridged the 12v and remote terminals (I took the amplifier out of the car and bench tested it in the house) and it still did not power up.

I'm 100% positive that the amplifier does not power up when it receives 12v to 12v constant and 12v remote. There is no problem with power getting to the amplifier. It is just that it does not power up despite receiving power.

What could have happened on the board; in other words, what would have blown between the 12v terminals and the "power up light" that I'm going to be able to test?

 

Seems simple enough to me...your amp is fucked. Are you trying to repair the amp yourself or what?

 

Yes. I assumed somebody in this section is an expert of sorts and would be able to assist me in troubleshooting. I also thought somebody might have some insight on what could have possibly happened during the accident that caused the amp to get "f*cked."

 

Probably not, if you've ever opened up an amp, you'd find a large circuit board filled with all different size transistors, resistors, capacitors, etc.. Number one, it'd be rather difficult to pinpoint the problem considering you usually cannot just "see" a problem in a circuit board, especially without having the technical schematics of the amp to reference. And number two, once the problem was found, there's a good chance you're not even going to be able to find the exact replacement part.

 

 

No sh*t!

Perhaps I should have titled the thread, "My Amp is F*cked." It would have gotten straight to the point and expedited the process of learning no one here (who's willing to post) knows sh*t about repairing amplifiers.