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View Full Version : Installing new Radio dhart_70 07-05-1999, 08:26 PM Somebody please help me. I thought I was pretty knowledgeable about installing radios' until today. I have a '93 Explorer and wanted to upgrade the factory deck to a decent CD unit. Power is fine but I can't get the speakers to work! I cut the plug and tried to wire to what I thought were the speaker wires, but no. Any advice would be deeply appreciated. JTang 07-06-1999, 03:27 PM Which wires did you cut? Along with the radio, you need to purchase a radio harness for about 15 dollars. This will allow the wire harness that comes with the radio to be connected to the 15 dollar harness; the 15 dollar harness has it's own plastic connection so that you shouldn't have had to cut any wires in the back of the original Ford wiring. It just should have made it easier without having to ID stock wiring. You can still do it the way you did it, but you'll have to make sure you ID the wires correctly. Since you've done it before, there is prolly small chance you made any errors, but you can double check in the back of the electric schematics in the back of the Haynes Ford Explorer manual just to make sure. Because you cut the original harness, I can only guess that maybe the remote lead to the external amplifier located in the rear right half of the car may not have been connected. So basically, the head unit is on, and you probably wired the speakers correctly, but the speakers are not playing, because the amp is not on. If you didn't know there was an amp, which some people don't, then that would prolly be the cure. If you've done this before, I'm sure it's just something small we're missing here. Good luck! Jon Maniak 07-06-1999, 03:44 PM If your system is like the one in my 92 you have an amp behind the panel in the back right hand side of your truck. You need to buy a stereo wire kit from an autoparts store (I got mine from autozone). It comes in 2 parts. The first part connects to the plastic harness behind the head unit so you don't need to splice wires and the more important part is the amp bypass. You can't use your amp with a head unit that puts out speaker level output (which yours should have). You need to pull the side panel away from the side of the truck and remove the 2 plugs that are connected to your amp. Now plug this new harness between the 2 plugs and all should be fine. Mark ------------------ Mark mark@legendz.com http://mark.legendz.com Off-Road and Motorcycle Information, Pictures and Movies dhart_70 07-06-1999, 06:08 PM No, it's the amp. I didn't even know that there was an amp. That should solve the problem. Thanks for everyone's help. Dave JTang 07-06-1999, 11:37 PM I was able to just plug my powered speaker outputs to the amp input wiring, without a bypass. It will really depend on how much power your new headunit puts out RMS. My current head unit only puts out like 7-12 watts RMS, and everything is fine. I have heard someone say that they had spliced the RCAs into the stock wiring, but I haven't heard of anyone else doing this. As long as the stock amp isn't clipping or overworked, I'd guess everything would be fine. Jon dhart_70 07-07-1999, 11:12 AM It's 40 watts per channel. I ended up just wiring the speakers directly and completely bypassed the amp. They sound great and I'm happy with it overall. Thanks for everyones' input. Dave Bird283 07-07-1999, 10:47 PM Just for future info, your head unit is probably not outputting 40watts. If thats what it says on the faceplate its problay its peak power. RMS is the continuous power sent to the speakers, its problay between 14 and 22. 40x4 is the power it can handle during short bursts of extreme power. Even the best headunits don't output 40w RMS. That might help in the future. Maniak 07-08-1999, 12:24 PM Just an FYI.. There is an easy rule of thumb you can follow to find out how many watts something really puts out. This rule is really more for amplifiers than head units but it gives you the same idea. Most Amplifiers are between 70% and 80% efficient. Lets say your Amplifier has a 10 amp fuse. Take the 10 amps and multiply it by 12 volts.. you get 120 watts .. now multiply that by .7 and this will give you how much power it is really making (on the low side of course). If you get an AMP that says its a 500 watt amp but you only see a 10 amp fuse you know they are talking about peak power (for a few milliseconds). My Sony 350 watt amp has a 40 amp fuse. If I figure it out I have 40 * 12 which is 480. Multiply that by .7 and I get 336. This means that if the amp is slightly better than 70% efficient that I am really getting 350 watts. This of course if a very simplified explanation... I hope this helps clear things up a little. Mark ------------------ Mark mark@legendz.com http://mark.legendz.com Off-Road and Motorcycle Information, Pictures and Movies |