well i got pissed at it so i just took it out of the box. turns out one of the terminal wires was kinda rusty and wasn't connecting. long story short i got it to work although its not screwed into the box that great. i had some problems with that but its in the car working for the moment. now if i can just get my deck to stop skipping we will be great.

 

Good.

I had a feeling the problem was the wiring.

 

well i had to make new holes when i drilled the sub in. is there anyway to seal the sub up a little better? the box is kinda old.

 

yea "drilling" a sub in kinda scares me.

It sounds like you stripped a couple of screw holes? get some elmers glue or wood glue and some tooth picks. Stick as many glue covered tooth picks in the holes and let then dry and cut off the excess. Use some self tapping wood screws to remount them and you should be ok.

Having a bad seal on a sub can cause it to blow a little easier when there is no back pressure to help control it.

 

yeah. i got to take it out again anyway because the connection is still kind of bad. i soldered the connection but it didn't work to great and sometimes the sub cuts out.

 

common problem when soldering is not using enough heat. Tin the end of the wire that you are giong to connect with a enough solder to make it silver and shiney. Touch the iron to the terminal and hold it for a few seconds till the existing solder on the terminal heats up and if you have some desoldering braid use it, otherwise try to get as much of the old solder off as possible, you can use a spare piece of wire as well. Once you get that off, again hold the iron to the terminal for 3-5 seconds, then add a drop of solder and continue to hold the iron on the terminal until the solder becomes smooth and shiney(1-2 secs). While still holding the iron on the terminal now touch your wire that you tinned to the terminal and continue holding the iron on the teminal for another 2-3 seconds until the solder on your wire heats up and mixes with the solder on the terminal and again becomes smooth and shiney. To do it right you need to have everything ready and and in arms reach and if you do you should not hold the iron on the terminal for more then 8-10 secs. Once you remove the iron hold the wire for a few more seconds and blow on the connection to cool it.