I installed a ARC MPAK 1 on my 01 Ultra today. I was trying to adjust the gains and I thought I smelled something burning. No wires were hot and no smoke. I started hearing noise in the speakers. Mostly static/popping sound from the right speaker. The speaker quit working. All this happened in about 2 minutes.

I switched speaker wires on the amp from left to right. The left then would not work and I heard popping coming from the left side.

I started moving wires and thought I heard more static/popping when I moved the power wire harness coming from the battery to the amp.

I then noticed I did not connect the ground wire in in the speaker harness. The black ground wire in the amp speaker harness to the back of the radio like the instructions said. I connected the ground but it did not help.

I removed the amp, speaker wire harness and the power wire harness and re connected my speakers just from the radio. The right front speaker still did not work and I still hear the popping sound.

Any ideas what I may have messed up?

Thanks

 

are your speakers connected as such to the stock head unit only and using STOCK speakers. You CANNOT connect those MPAK speakers directly to that stock head unit. You'll toast the outputs of the head unit.

front left + white/orange
front left - light green/white
front right + grey/red
front right - light green/black

 

Yes. After I removed the amp and wire harnesses I connected my factory radio speaker wires to the new speakers that came with the kit. I did not have it on for long. But still the right side speaker did not work.

I was certain in the beginning that every thing was connected correctly. The speaker wires were striped using a quality stripper and there were no wires touching the amp case. It was a clean hook up. Although it was my first attempt at installing an amp.

 

one last test to confirm the head unit being the issue.

swap the speakers. If the problem stays on the right side then the head unit it toast. If the problem moves to the left side, then the speaker is bad.

 

I put it all back together. I need the bike to get to work during the week days. I won't use the radio until I can swap speakers this weekend.

Been thinking about a Sony HD radio and Bikertronics controller if the radio is toast.

I thought the MPAK's were compatible with the stock Harley radios. Didn't think the OHMs difference would make a difference after going through an amp.

Thanks for the help

 

the ohms of the speaker are fine with that amp. the problem comes in when you hook those mpak speakers directly to the stock head unit

 

I put the stock speakers back in just now and both left and right sides work. Also the popping sound is gone.

I had the radio turned off all week going back an forth to work. Even though the power was off I still had a popping sound in the right speaker every now and then. Weird.

I still wonder If not connecting the speaker ground wire from the amp to the radio caused this to start with.

I was not sure if my stock radio was toast or not so I did order a new Sony this week.

Thanks for your help UltraNutZ, I may still have more questions soon.