amp protected??

okay, i know i did something stupid... pleae don't flame me.

all right so my amp doesnt work and the protected light just stays on. it is a cheap american legacy amp that i bought like 5 years ago, and hadnt used in like 4 years.

I got everything hooked up, but forgot to tighten the ground wire (to side of trunk). The ground fell off made a spark and the protected light came on. I reattached it to the side of the trunk and it set offa series of sparks, including some within the amp. Smoke filled the inside of the amp (translucent plastic casing) and the began to come out the vents. Now the protected light stays on. I have checked all the fuses and they are all still good.

So is my amp done for? Where did I screw up?

Thanks.

amp is fried...and it isnt worth fixing. the componets would cost more than another cheap legacy amp.

next time:
- battery disconnected (ground of the battery)
-Attagch wires to speaker and amp
-attach (+)
-attach REM on
-attach Ground (-)
-With fuse for the power wire out re conect the (-) of the battery
-with keys out of the ignition so the head unit will be off reconnect the fuse in the power line

it may sound drastic but ive done it every time and never fried and amp :)

however it also coul have just been a bad amp...and next time tighten all of your connections to at least 50 in/lbs (or untill you can yank on them and they dont disconnect if you dont feel like bother with a torque wrench) and for the Ground of the amp at the chassis make sure there is absolutely no play in the connection so no arcs or varied current flow can happen... the carcing is probably what killed your amp... electornic componets dont like that kind of stuff.

There's a reason why pretty much all of the service manuals for cars tell you to disonnect the negative term of the battery before fooling with any of the cars electronics - and you just found out why

The amp is repairable, but in all practical cases, its done for, once you let the smoke out of any electronics, they are done.