My New Sound System: Part 2 Speakers

[SVXRide]

Originally Posted by Johnybeas

Ya I was doing really well takin pictures before and will continue but just didn't take any the other night, but don't worry it's still torn up I'll take pictures if i can figure that garbage out lol. tryin to finish my calc class so haven't had a chance to do any work but plan to soon.

Calc class? Why didn't you say so? So, threading speaker wire is very similar to taking the triple integral...
-Bill

[Johnybeas]

Originally Posted by SVXRide

Calc class? Why didn't you say so? So, threading speaker wire is very similar to taking the triple integral...
-Bill

oh god shoot me please...

[Johnybeas]

ok so here's the update, speakers are in and they sound AWESOME!
here is the written portion pictures have been taken but need to be resized and uploaded before i can post them.

My Sound System: Part 2 Speakers and Amps
Step one: Teardown
First things first I pulled basically the entire interior out, including the whole dash area center console door covers with the switches and all, back seats and side panels in the back and the back deck in order to get the stock speakers out and put the new ones in.

Step two: Amp Positions
after pulling almost everything out I deturmined what would and would not work for positioning my amps. The rear amp for the subs is still a rough position. as far as how I'm going to mount it is the hard part that I am still working out.

The speaker amp is inverted under the passenger foot area secured up just past the glove box high enough up there that people won't kick it. (I'm sure I'll get flack for this one.) The best way I found to secure it was really thick adjustable zip ties. This is very solid and won't move.

The sub amp will also be inverted and mounted just below the rear speakers on the ceiling of the trunk tunnel area. only problem with this is mounting it securly so it doesn't fall. I am planning to run long bolts through the thin carpeted cardboard or whatever it is that makes the shape that you see in the trunk up to the metal deck where the speakers are mounted. The problem with this is that there are several things mounted there as well, such as the motor for the rear wiper and other modules controlling things in the rear of the car. This is something I'm still working on and will update later.

Step three: Wiring
for my wiring I used a 4 gauge dual amplifier kit made by Rockford Fosgate model number RFK4D on top of this kit I needed one extra signal cable and another pack of 30 ft 16 gauge speaker wire all of this was Rockford Fosgate stuff I got from Best Buy(my work)

Power
I ran my power cables to both amps from the battery directly in 4 gauge wire into a distributor that sent 8 gauge wire to the amp for the speakers and 4 gauge back to the sub amp. the power wire comes in the cabin where the wires for nss and other wires come in a hole I expanded for my clutch master slave for my 5spd. It from there runs in the back of the center console where the stereo and such are.

From there it runs under all the wires for the stereo and cigarette lighter then under the carpet down the sides of the center hump and just behind the spools of seatbelts, I have it go into the distribution block and out to the two separate wires for the amps.

After the wires are distributed their separate ways, the 8 gauge wire runs back up the same side of the hump up back through and out with the rest of the wires to the amp out the furthermost part of the passenger side of the center console back by the bottom of the glove compartment out to the amp.

The 4 gauge wire goes back under with my gps antenna wire and the wire for the back up camera lead under the carpet and in the area where the backseat covers and then up one of the little holes that goes into the trunk on the passenger side that's covered by a leather flap. from here it runs up under the carpeted cardboard to the amp where it will eventually be mounted.

Grounds
following the advice of the head installer at my work I grounded both amps as close to the amp as possible.

The ground wire for the speaker amp is run into the area where the wires go through into the door on a body piece that I drilled a hole in and sanded down to the bare metal around so that it can ground well and then used a spare bolt I had kicking around from the 5spd conversion. That's hidden along with all the other wires behind a plastic piece covered with carpet that you can easily pull off with a little force, but be gentle about it or you might break some of the clips.

The ground for the sub amp is run behind the side carpeted board and run to the back right corner near the tail light and put on an existing bolt that had the paint stripped off around the hole for a good solid ground.

Signal Cables

The signal cables are the cables that look like RCA cables and they run from the back of your deck (in my case the AVIC F900BT) to the back of the amp.

I have the cables for front and back speakers going from the deck through where I ran the power cable to the back of the speaker amp.

The cable for the subs comes back through the center where the power cables ran back to the distribution block then run under the carpet under the back seat and routed the same way to the amp.

Remote lead

The remote lead is the small 18 gauge wire that tells the amp when to turn on. you need one to each amp.

I took the one from the kit and ran it to the back amp following the same path as the power and signal cable and then cut it there and used the remainder to connect to the second amp.Then I spliced it into the other cable which was attached to the cable in the decks wiring harness that is for this purpose(refer to the manual for your deck, in my case it was blue with a white stripe and the same gauge.)

Speaker wire

The rear wires were pretty easy they just followed the right side of the car under the carpet and step panel then spliced with the connector wires that came with the speakers and on the other end connected to the amp.

The front on the other hand is the hard part. These were the worst of all to run, after asking a million questions on here and trying for hours, I asked the head installer at my work. He suggested that I use either a hollow piece from an arrow if I had a friend who did archery, or I go to the plumbing department at the hardware store and get silver pipe for toilets and use that. Well I did the latter and it was cake!

Only problem I ran into was getting through the end of the elbow where they added an extra sleeve inside the door end. The way I got around this was to pull it down as far as I could then sliding a flathead screwdriver in the sleeve and prying it out far enough that I could cut it off! be sure you don't cut the part that actually holds it in the door, just cut the extra part that's not on the other end.

Then just put the wire inside the pipe to the end then gently but with constant force work the pipe through the elbow trying to keep it as straight as possible. once through pull the wire through further and slide the pipe back through the way it came and off the other end of your wire.

After getting it through these ridiculous elbow sleeves I ran the wire on the drivers side with a coat hanger through the back of the center console (up by the pedals) and to the amp, once testing the length with the amp where it will be mounted I cut that wire. The wire I used for the right side was the left over from running the back speakers up to the amp. It was a perfect length. Then I just spliced the speaker wire with the connectors for the speakers.

The rest of the speaker wire will be used to wire my subs.

Step four: Mounting speakers

The front speakers I had to use the bracket thing that came with the speakers but once mounted on there I was able to bolt the speakers right up.
Back speakers just bolt right in place. I didn't use the covers as the SVX doesn't really make this a possibility so I just mounted them the way the old ones were, faceplate less and then the doors and back deck will cover them. This is good for security reasons.

Step five: replugging in the stereo

after all this was completed I replugged in my deck and put most of the dash pieces around it (i.e. ashtray hvac) and turn it on and test it out!

YAY! sounds awesome!! woot!!

[Johnybeas]

ok so it's been way too long and I've been too busy to put anything up, but while I collect my thoughts today before I jump back onto my alarm install I'm going to upload all the pics and start posting.

[simboglide]

which color wire to the power antenna..i swapped out radios,,,didn't like it,,put mine back in and now antenna will not operate,, i'm sure i missed a wire.

[Johnybeas]

it should say in your manual for the deck. I will look at mine, if you have a pioneer deck it will prob be the same. however on the SVX side I just used the plug in harness from SVXdc and soldered the wires to the corresponding ones. not sure which colors were which but after I read the manual and look at the pics of the finished thing I can tell ya. If you don't have the harness from him I'd definitely recommend it. It makes like a hell of a lot easier.

[SVXdc]

I think he's asking about the car's factory wire colors.

SVX radio harness pin-out is here

[processengr]

Originally Posted by 1986nate

Heres what I just did in mine. It takes about 5 min a side.

Pull the conduit from out of both the car frame and the door, then gently but firmly pull on the wires coming from the car and there will be 2 connectors(both on pass and dr side, just the dr side has 2 larger ones, while the pass side has 1 large and a small 2 wire connector). Disconnect the connectors and pully the conduit down so that only those connectors are visible and a small amount of wire. This gives plenty of slack in the wires to bunch up the conduit, slide a hanger through the conduit, stick the hanger in between the individual wires about an inch from where the speaker wire has been split(or the end if its new wire), fold the hanger over itself and pull it back through. then run the wires, push the conduit back up to its originaly position relative to the wires running through it, reconnect the plastic connections and then finally push the conduit back into place in the frame and door. This may sound confusing but hopefully you get the gist of it.

Wiring front speakers

Big thanks to Nate for this 3 year old post, found with the search function.
This worked like a charm!
Installing some Infinity 6030CS component front speakers. This low priced Infinity speakers are shallow and come with a usable adapter that fits the SVX. They are very high efficiency so will work reasonably well without an amp.

[1986nate]

Originally Posted by processengr

Wiring front speakers

Big thanks to Nate for this 3 year old post, found with the search function.
This worked like a charm!
Installing some Infinity 6030CS component front speakers. This low priced Infinity speakers are shallow and come with a usable adapter that fits the SVX. They are very high efficiency so will work reasonably well without an amp.

Glad I could be of help, even if there was a giant run-on sentence