In another thread, CLICK HERE, I explained that I replaced my small, shoddy American Legacy Amp with a Kenwood 1000w amp from ebay, and was making my sub suck basically, and would beat like a heart regardless if there was music or not playing. I'll have a video when I get home from Christmas Break of what the sub is doing, but for now my question is if anyone knows of websites outlining the procedure for "rebuilding" an amplifier, whatever that entails. I have access to a soldering iron, and many techy computer people at my college. Do any websites come to mind?
Thanks.
All I want is for the Rockford Fosgate sub to reach it's full potential, which it hasn't yet.

Also, watch out for another thread in about two weeks, and I'll get a video of how my sub is reacting to Channel 1, Channel 2, and being bridged.

 

I don't know of any sites that give steps to rebuilding. Also unless you have done it before I would not recommend you doing it on your own. I think you should have saved a little more money to get a different/better amp. If this is what you have and WANT to work with it, good luck. I would personally take it somewhere that specializes in rebuilding amplifiers.

 

pay the seventy or so dollars and have it fixed. If you dont know what your doing itll cost more in the long run when you start popping mosfets for no particular reason,,,that you can see.

Rich@757-420-5206 will set you up, and even double your output if you talk nice to him.

 

If I can't get this working, I will definately look into having it rebuilt. Thanks for the number.

 

no doubt, hes a cool guy. Also ask for pics of his car when you talk to him 160~dbs with two twelves

 

Just wondering, whos rich?

I have a large 2000w RMS eclipse amp, thats not turning on. Needs repair =(

 

local competitor with a repair shop in va. He does alot of specialty work IE power upgrades on amps, as well as one of the sickest cars in va (Creativity wise), and uber lowd.

 

local competitor with a repair shop in va. He does alot of specialty work IE power upgrades on amps, as well as one of the sickest cars in va (Creativity wise), and uber lowd. He usually does his bulk of work by farming out slots on ebay Prepaid repairs etc. Quick turn around and great work.

 

Bump - My amp didn't start working. I switched my RocFos Punch 10" DVC to run at a 8 ohm setup (running in series) and the amp would do the same old shiz with the extending and retracting. I'm fed up with this amp, and feel like the price I purchased for was too expensive due to my lack of patience on ebay (I could've waited longer...should have waited longer to rebid to keep the price as low as possible). I understand your suggestions of taking the amp somewhere to be rebuilt, however, I'm still looking for sites, or books rebuilding amps to get an idea whether or not I can tackle this task or have a friend who knows his way around computers (not uncommon at my college) do it for me. I'm just fed up using my American Legacy POS, and would love this amp to work, however it has caused me so much stress that I don't want to spend a lot of money on it. Who knows, I might/probably will break down and send the amp in, but for now I'd like to do some research. Someone's thread rebuilding his bose speaker's amp has given me hope and showed me how cheap it possibly could be. Thanks.

 

And I just tried to call that number, and I have no idea what was going on - Very hard to understand the girl I spoke with and they said they only deal with dealerships...
Does anyone know of a reasonably priced amp rebuilding shop in either CT or upstate NY?
And I still would like to know how to rebuild the amp though, if that is possible.

 

How would a guy w/ computers be able to help you? Comps and amps are two completely different things.

 

if they have gone to exclusive status of only working with dealers, thats news to me.

That is correct. $65 for the repair. Ship to:

Michael Smith
244 Cobblestone Lane
McDonough, GA 30252

This is another alternative, but rich is my preferred guy.

 

Just that they would have dealt with soldering small things together and such, which is why I would need a step by step guide. I know they're two completely different things.

 

Amplifier Repair

Fosgate Amp Repair

Hopefully one of these can set you up

 

Well, I'll try the phone number again sometime. Would these guys pay for shipping back, or is that something I have to cover as well?

FINALLY, are you guys absolutely sure that using 8 guage wiring for the ground and power wires on an amp that should have at least 4 guage wouldn't create the problem I'm having? I reused my old amp wiring which supports 275 watts rms IIRC and the power and ground wires are 8 guage with a 40 amp inline fuse.

 

mosfets arent that hard to replace if that is the case, but some of the items on those boards can get to MINISCULE. If its a burnt resistor or something Id say go for it, Open it up and see if you can identify the problem.

CHeck along the rails and look for burnt connections on the mosfets, also check the resistors and see if the foil is burnt off any of them, that can help you troubleshoot, but id STILL just get it fixed

 

I tried an ebay search without luck. I will probably go with the 2 channel amp repair one. Thanks for the links. But bump for the 8 ga. wiring question. I want to be sure that my problem isn't that simple.

I'll open the amp up and see if anything is noticably burned. Thanks for the help. I'm still wondering about that wiring issue though...would starving the amp of power possibly create this problem?

After I open up the amp and if I find anything burned, I will post pics close up to show.

 

It's not the wires unless theres a short in the wiring. That amp will not be putting out anywhere near the rated output, dont worry.

 

I still like candy.

 

Well, at least I know now. I'll have the amp opened up later on today and will post pics of any noticable burn spots or anything that looks out of place. Thanks very much for the help.

 

Ok, only one burn spot that I see. It looks to be a small resistor.
Here are the pics:

 

Would something THAT small cause such a huge problem? Or are there likely other problems?
If that's the only thing, I can't imagine spending 70 bucks on hit. I can have someone, or even myself, solder in another part. Where do I go about buying something like that? Radioshack? Sorry for the audio noob questions, but I'm trying to learn.
The board looks burned too. Will that cause a problem?

 

Of course it would. You're working with an electronic circuit here, one part goes bad, so does the rest.

 

Would you say that fixing that problem will fix the amp too? I thank you for your patience, as I admittedly know almost nothing about amps. Is that a resistor, too? How do I find the resistance of that part? Do I call kenwood? And would soldering in a new part fix this?

What about the board being burned?

 

not a good thing to see a burn in the board, at all. if its a double sided board like the zapco stuff is you can have major issues. If it didnt burn any serious parts then they can probably make something work. BUt that thing wouldnt go in my car...Just me...

You would need to buy the resistor with the exact same band pattern IE COLOR, and COLOR of bands going around it. Looks like 113 and 112 and whatever is under the board is affected. Hook that amp to a speaker you dont love, dont risk something you treasure if you do fix it.

 

I had an oppurtunity to pick up one of the HUGE 4 foot 2000 watt US AMPS surfboards, upon calling them he said they can fix anything short of a physical hole in the board.
Personally if you have to replace the board, Get a new amp, cut your losses and go from there. I come across stuff all the time and im sure you can as well.

 

Its probably not worth fixing that. It probably COULD be fixed but most likely not worth it.

 

Again, sorry for the noob question, but what potentially could happen if I fix that resistor and the board was burned? Man I'm sorry that I don't have the technological knowledge behind amps and I have to keep asking these questions.

 

not a problem, @ least you arent asking about Y pipe gains, and what would a CAI do for you I dont even post in the other forums much, this is the only interesting one to me.

It may work. You would want to check on the rear of the board and see exactly what 113 and 112 are connected to and see if they burned through. You can try removing that single resistor if they are still intact connections just replacing it, may work may not, may catch fire may not (Though I doubt it), may blow the speaker may not. Without proper test equipment it would really be difficult to tell if there is any change in the outpt of the amp, and harder to judge HOW Long itll last.

 

my recommendation, if your limited on funds and just need something to push your speaker Hifonics 600 or Kicker Zr, Zx, Xs, etc these will provide you with enough power and are pretty durable/low cost alternatives.

 

There may be hope still!
I took out the literally 50 bolts holding the board to the amp, and when I lifted it up and out, this is what I saw. There is definately not a whole in the board, and only a slight discoloration on the opposite side. The problem is this: I can't tell what color the resistor is that burned (is what I'm referring to as a resistor actually a resistor? I want to call it by true name...), because it is burned. Anyways, here's the pics of the back of the board, and sorry for this pic - I don't know what happened when i uploaded them.


And it's not that I need something to push my sub, it's that I am wanting more power, but I didn't want to spend a lot. This is what I get, and the best solution for me, if possible, is finding some way of dealing with this amp. Right now I still have a 4 channel, American Legacy 4x440 watt amp that works...it just doesn't work the sub to it's potential.

 

If you get the resistor out and clean off the carbon buildup, you should be able to read the colors. Or get it out and have an electronics place look at it real quick maybe test it and see what the resistance is.

BTW, it is a resistor.

 

the two i listed are well under 200 bucks, and RED is selling a MONSTER 1000+ watt kicker zr in the fs forum now for 150. Youll spend more than that on the headache here imo.

 

That kicker is a great buy, I've been pondering it myself, but don't really need it since I got my Arc.

 

I appreciate both yours and nismo's help greatly, and I'm not just brushing off your suggestions - believe me. Before spending more money, I'd like to exhaust my options with my current amp. If I get this resistor out, test it to find the resistance, and get another one, put it in and the amp still doesn't work, then I'm not going to deal with this amp anymore. Right now, this can serve as a learning experience for soldering, etc. How much can a resistor cost, worst case scenario? Honestly, that's all I'm going to spend on this amp. I've got all the time in the world, and like you said, I'll be able to find deals all over the place. Again, thank you both for your help through this, and with any luck this amp will work after replacing this resistor. When I get back to school and have time to take a soldering iron to the resistor, I'll update this thread.

 

The resistor should be like $.50. I would also clean as much of the carbon buildup thats on there out of there.

 

lol gotcha good luck

 

Fixing things like this is what I do everyday in the military and i'm damn good at my job. I promise you that someone can fix this. It shouldn't be too much and if it it, the person is probably an a-hole. Whatever you do, don't throw it out. The resister and the board can be fixed.

 

Just to set things straight: comps have everything to do with fixing amps. That is part of their job if you have the right equipment. The computers troubleshoot the circuits for you so you dont have to test each and every componet on the circuit card. And by the way, I am not putting any down bc there is plenty of stuff that I still have to learn about some electronics, I'm just saying that I know my job extremely well.

 

Sorry to tell you, it the resistor looks like that, all black, it is fried and there should be no way in hell to find out what size resis it is.

Also, whatever you do, don't throw it away. All you need is a new resistor and some board work, and possible new runs. Maybe a total of a couple of dollars in supplies.