custom fix for corroded or broken amp wire terminals

[moetpoppin]

I'm not sure if anyone else has had this problem, but on old amplifiers I have had problems with stripped screws or even just old/corroded terminal tabs. So what I have done several times is disassembling the amplifiers and creating new solid connections. When I have access to the main board, I de-solder the 12V+, GND, and REM tabs from the board. After this, I take a length of 8 AWG wire, strip the ends off, and solder them in the place of where the old terminals were. Then I use a smaller gauge wire (14-16 AWG speaker wire) for the REM.

Just like on laptops, where the DC input is soldered directly to the board, these solder tab connections can sometimes crack breaking the circuit. I have done this to two amplifiers and I have been very happy with them since. The first time I did it was because the solder connection cracked and would have needed to be re-soldered regardless in order to keep the amp in use.

Yesterday, I did it to my second amp because when taking the screw off for the GND terminal, I stripped the threads. I spent about 20 mins trying to get it back in and then realized that I could try to do my direct wire thing again.

I disassembled my old amplifier and de-soldered my terminals from the board. I hooked up the 8 gauge wire and soldered it through and then on to the main board in the old spots. I have about 5 feet of power and ground wire hooked up that way if I ever use this amp in a car set up again, I can trim the wire as needed to reach ground or either distribution block. I use distribution blocks in all of my installs weather or not there is only one wire being used since you can get them fused for extra protection and easily add more equipment without having to run to the store or wait for a new distribution block come in the mail.

The REM wire is about 6 inches long with a Male Bullet Crimp so that a switched power source can be easily connected and disconnected. I chose male since when it is disconnected, there would not be a charge and nothing would happen if it accidentally touched ground. Also, it requires the positive switch wire to be a female bullet which prevents it from shorting out on a ground source since it is protected. I love these bullet connectors. I ordered hundreds of them online. I like them more than the spade shaped quick disconnects since you can twist them to disconnect which gives you more leverage and makes it easier.

Please check out the pictures I provided. Anyone who has any feedback let me know.

These are the original terminals. The ground terminal screw stripped and I couldn't start the screw again

This is the old terminal block desoldered and removed from the board

Then I drilled holes through the plastic terminal block and ran the 8 gauge wire through new holes

This is the wire on the board

These are the 12V+ wire and then all three new wires soldered to the board

This is the view of the 3 wires soldered from the top of the board.

After this I reassembled the amplifier and hooked it up to a car battery in my room. It is louder than my old Mitsubishi home theater receiver

By the way, the amp is an old Pioneer GM-X574

Let me know what you think

Thanks

TY

[knowledge]

very nice

[Beanz]

yeah man great jobl.THast how they use to have them back in them days is direct connect

[moetpoppin]

Thanks guys. This is the second amp I've had to do this to. The first amp I did this to was a 2channel amp so I went ahead and did the same with all four speaker wires to the main board. I had bullet crimps on those too for easy connect/disconnect. I want/wanted to do the same with the speaker wires for this amplifier but there are eight on this amplifier since it is a 4channel amp and I didnt feel like wasting the time. Eventually I may go back and finish the job, but I was out of desolder wick and it would have been tough for the 8 terminals to release from the board simultaneously. Perhaps when I plan to use this amp with a thicker wire gauge I'll get around to it and post some pictures.

Whether it be laptops with normal wear and tear, or car amplifiers in very destructive environments, designers need to stop making hard connections to the boards because the risk of the connection cracking. Also, screws get stripped, I have another amplifier that needs this to be done since the allen wrench head screws have stripped, so I needed to solder the wires directly to the terminal. It is in a marine setting, so I didn't feel like doing this and taking all the proper precautions to seal it up at the end so its still on the to do list. It would be my third amp with this set up.

If you think about it, you could permanently bridge an amplifier by doing something like this. By only soldering the wires required for a bridge set up, thus requiring you to only use that kind of set up. I don't see any practical reason for that though

TY