To determine if the Kenwood amplifier is drawing current overnight and draining my battery I’m installing a Quantum Audio QA-4160 and an Alpine 12″ ported box sub-woofer system.

I know I can use a multimeter in series to see if there is a leak but i wanted to give this a try too. As far as bass thump, the seat of the pants feeling is the two 10″ sub-woofers provide more of a sharper thump. I really haven’t pushed the mono sub today but will give it a whirl tomorrow. I do like the idea that i’m able remove the ported box easily whereas the dual 10″ sub box is way more heavier.

In the end I may end up upgrading my stock CS130 105 amp alternator for a CS144 140 amp alternator and upgrade the battery cables and battery itself. I’ve spoken to a car audio specialist and they don’t use the capacitor route but rather upgrading the electrical system itself. It makes total sense to me.

Back in the Eightys I used to mess around with car audio. I had cars with four 10″ inch subs with high power amplifiers. I think I lost most of my hearing during this stage of my life.

Well, talk about regression. I have an 80’s car and some fairly serious thump in the trunk.

I pulled the four stock Bose speakers from their stock locations and installed Fosgates. Added a 10″ inch dual sub woofer speakers in a custom made box. The subs are being driven by a Kenwood 800W amplifier.

Last night I thought I’d give the Vette a start for warm up. After a few minutes of idling I tried to turn the key into the “off” position and the damn this was stuck solid.

So here’s the Vette in the garage getting hotter and smelling up the garage with exhaust even while the door was opened. The only way I could cut off the engine was to pull the ignition coil wire. Once that killed the engine I was able to disconnect the battery and kill all the power

In order to replace the ignition key tumbler you have to remove the entire steering wheel and either disable VATS or get a key that has the compatible VATS code. All it is a resistor with a particular value that’s within the range of 15 possibilities.

I was about to slam some 18″ chrome Porsche twist on my 986 but I had an opportunity to pickup a 1989 Corvette Coupe. Long story short I won’t be installing the 18’s on anything now.

I met the seller at Manteca on the parking lot of that new Bass Store. I checked it out and the Vette’ didn’t have to much obvious work needed. 

I figured whatever work required to get it into a reliable running shape daily driver I would be doing the labor myself. The seller had excellent documentation as far as the original manual and service manuals. I think the owner before him was a wrench and did the work himself. The owner I bought it from didn’t seem to be the mechanic type that tinkered in the garage. At least that’s the first impression I got.