Audio Systems: Jensen 460 amp, pontiac trans sport, rockford fostgate

Question
I have a 96 pontiac trans sport van and I am putting in a Sony CDX m-600 radio in it and a jensen 460 amp hooking upto a dual box with 12" rockford fostgate sub woofers, we have hooked up all the colors to the correct colors when we turn the radio on it plays through the normal car speakers, but the amp and the light on the amp come on then go right off what could be the problems? There is one yellow with white stripe that we are not 100% where it should hook up or if it even needs hooked up. Any possible help would be appreciated.

Answer
Are the impedances of the speakers a good match for the amp?

The Jensen amp should not have anything less than 2 ohms; should be alright unless the subs are wired in parallel and drop below that.  Check that out.

Check the 12v lines; make sure you are getting 12v to each of those connections.  (Assume you have a vom and can measure the voltage; if not, I like the little pocket vom at Walmart electric section for  $9.83).

The most often cause of the shut-down on the amps is a shorted wire between the output of the amp and a speaker.  Try this; disconnect the speaker wires from the amp and fire it up with no load.  If it seems okey without speakers, then connect a separate known-to-be-good speaker directly with a short piece of wire and check each amp output one by one.  That will verify the amp is working or not.

Hope this leads to your happy outcome.

PS: The left over wire must be accounted for. I don't see that color on the GM chart so until you know what it is put a tape over the end to keep it from accidentally shorting out against metal.