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my deck outputs 8 volts, one of my amps accepts upto 12volts rms and the other takes 5volts rms, so simple question, will the 5volt in amp be automatically clipped since its getting a signal too hot to handle?

 
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remember my son, you will only see 8 volts playing a sine wave at full volume with most eq settings turned all the way up, and, a slight amount (very very very slight) of clipping can sometimes be desirable.

what i mean to say is, set your gain correctly (only using 3/4 volume or something comparable) and you will be fine

worst case scenario you can buy or build an attenuator like so:
http://www.thezeb.com/detail.aspx?ID=1698 - 3 db
http://www.thezeb.com/detail.aspx?ID=1698 - 6 db
http://www.thezeb.com/detail.aspx?ID=1698 - 12 db

http://www.davidnavone.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=N-22V
this one has a **** for variable attenuation

david navone has a buncha cool products on his site for little installation issues like that : www.davidnavone.com

 
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can i use a multimeter to test output voltage from the deck while playing regular music? would it be as easy as me touching the leads to the ends of the rca's going to the amp and seeing what the meter shows?

with a 3db attenuator, how much will the voltage be attenuated?

 
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i believe, dont quote me, that 3 db's attenuates it by half so it would drop it to 4 volts. personally id go with the **** one. then you could even mount it in dash and use it as a remote gain.

as to the multimeter, for this application id use an analog multimeter unless your has a max/min function (my 20 dollar radio shack one doesnt, my 100+ dollar fluke one has it) where you just plug it in and in diplays max voltage because otherwise the fast fluctuations in music will make it so you wont really be able to keep up with the numbers. this is the same reason i prefer analog voltage gauges for cars with systems. but yeh, just hit the leads with it and set it for ac

 
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cool, thanks a lot man (my multimeter has a min/max function luckily)