Car Stereos: my amp and sub, rca jacks, watt amp

Question
so i got a scosche 300 watt amp and a pioneer 600 watt sub. i have a rca converter because my stereo deck doesnt have rca jacks on the back or front. i took my left back (+/-) wires and my right back (+/-) wires and connected them to the converter then an rca cable from the converter to the amp. i ran the converters wires straight to the back speakers, and i still have the wire from the deck to my back speakers.i did not run the converters wire on the back of the deck then splice it. now i know my ground cable is solid and my hotwire is fine. my amp turns on and stays green for about a second then goes straight to the "protect" mode. so im wondering why its doing this?? and even when it is green my sub wont hit.. so if this makes any sense to you please tell me what im doin wrong.

Answer
Hi James,

The amp going into protect mode is usually a result of there being a short or too little resistance out its speaker outputs to the subwoofer.

Disconnect the subwoofer entirely and turn the amp on.  See if it stays on.  If it does, you'll know either your subwoofer, its connection, or the speaker wire is your culprit.

If it still goes into protect, turn the gain all the way down, and set all the settings to their lowest on the amp and see if it stays on.  If it doesn't, you might be dealing with a dead amp.

Also get a multimeter and test your car's electrical system.  Ensure it is outputting the right voltage (at least 11.5V or so.)