Well, as you may or may not know, I have a somewhat modified car audio system in my truck. However, recently my amplifier died. What a jerk!
Anyway, I pulled the amp out of my truck to see if I could figure out why it wouldn’t turn on, and possibly fix it. This is the tale of that saga. (Mostly in pictures.)
To start with, here’s my amp. Just an old one that my step-dad gave me. It’s an oldie, but a goodie, and has served me well in the past. Also, free is better than having to pay for a new one. YAY FIXING STUFF!
Here’s the amp with the cover off so you can see the circuit board. This was taken after I fixed it, but I’ll show you the broken part (that I found) in a minute.
As you can see, it contains many electrical components. Shiny…
Here’s the blown resistor I found and subsequently replaced.
That resistor was the only visibly broken part, unfortunately, electrically it wasn’t. I believe that there is a transistor in there that is still broken, but using my “mad skillz” (Yes, thats skills with a z), I worked around that. The amp uses a line from the stereo that says, when there is power on this line, turn on. Unfortunately, it wasn’t reading that. So I bypassed that whole process and disconnected the shutdown circuitry that keeps the amp off when the remote line is off. So now, if there’s power to the amp, it’s on. I’ll just have to install a switch.
Perhaps the manufacturer should have added a little bit of this dietary supplement to help out that poor little resistor.
