Negative terminals spark when trying to power subs?

[moose]

So...I've had subs hooked up with the original 307, no problem. I've had someone else swap in a 350. Went to hook my subs back up today and here's what happend...

Hooked up everything like it was before. I have a negative battery terminal disconect with a 15amp fuse so I won't lose radio settings when I disconect the battery to work on motor etc. I had blown the fuse because i forgot to turn the knob before trying to previously start the car. When i went to replace the fuse it sparked and instantly blew the fuse. I disconected the negative terminal, put in a new fuse, and turned the knob the connect the neg back to the battery...big spark, fuse blown. Looked at my capacitor and there were no power lights. However, i decided to see if the stereo still worked and it did...and the subs were working also. I turned off the stereo, disconnected the negative terminal on the capacitor and it powered up with 12 volts showing. I went to replace the fuse in the battery diconect terminal and it sparked and blew instantly. Capacitor power display went off. went to hook up the negative terminal on the capacitor and it sparked. So i dropped the cable to the trunk, and noticed that the capacitor power display was back on but only showed 8 volts. I disconnected the power cable from the fuse for the subs, connected the negative terminal to the capacitor and then reconnected the power fuse and the capictor display doesn't power up and the subs aren't working. WTF should I do to fix this...and no I didn't have any electrical problems (that i know of) before trying to hook up the subs. I'm at a loss...

 

[ATLMonte88]

i may be a little confused, but it sounds like you were trying to re-apply the ground/ negative while the positive wire was still connected to the battery? i'll see if i can help. disconnect the power cable from battery and remove the fuse on the power cable... connect all negative/ ground wires including the wires that run to and from the capacitor (capacitor should be grounded preferably seperate from the amp ground, some people ground the amp to the caps negative... next, you need to charge the capacitor properly using a resistor or small charging light bulb, this is a safety step to ensure you dont blow up your Cap, first step is reconnecting your power wire without the fuse in it.. (youtube or google instructions on charging and discharging caps!) after cap is charged (you should get around 11 or 12v with car off) reinsert the fuse in the power wire, and technically this should work. make sure all other fuses are in good condition, including the one that the remote wire is running off of (some people install remote wire on back of headunit which should have a fuse, i prefer to wrap it around the windshield wiper fuse) PM me if you have more issues or this doesnt help and i'll see what i can conjur up

 

[moose]

Thanks ATLMonte88, I got it working a few hours after posting the question. I'm not good with electrical stuff and had someone else install the subs in a different car years ago. When I moved everything into my Cutlass I just duplicated how everything was wired and it worked fine. The original installer did connect the neg terminal on the amp to the capacitor and used one ground wire. So I grounded each one seperately and connected the power fuse last. I thought you always make/break the connection with the negative wire like when using jumper cables. Guess I was wrong.