Getting wires from amp to door speakers?

[newbz]

What is the easiest way to get the speaker wires to the door speakers from the amp??? I'm really only looking how to for the front door speakers

 

[rock883]

Ok, you can do it a few ways but I will describe 2 ways I have done it. You can run them behind the weather stripping and then through the "accordian" things that hide wires. In the front, though, this is almost impossible to get them through there, so scratch this idea for the front. Here is another way. Run the wires behind the weather stripping, then drill a hole big enough for the wires to run through in the part that the weather stripping pushes onto. Oh yeah, drill the hole about directly next to that accordian thing. Then pull the accordian out of both the door and the body, and run the wire/s through it and to the speaker. You could try to get to the opening behind the kickpanels that goes through the accrodian, but, I have tried and let me be the first to tell you it is really hard. You might also want to use either an electricians fishing tape or something like that, or you could use a coat hanger to get the wires through the accordians. Hopefully I was able to describe the process good enough for you to understand, if not, I am sorry and if you have a question I will try to answer it.

 

[DasFrem]

I've never attempted this, but wouldn't it make sense to just run all the speaker wires to the center counsel behind the head unit and wire them in from there? Therefore you're only running all the wires to one place, you can get the diagram to which color wires go where at Dead Link Removed and this allows you not to have to run the wires through those annoying accordian thinggys.

 

[Tony91Sport]

The accordian things are no brain buster. Use a coat hanger. Otherwise..If youre using an aftermarket amp mounted in the cargo area you can cut the wires from the factory amp and wire them in there. No wires to run. I did this in some kids explorer (installed a whole system for him) and it worked great.

Tony
91 Sport 2WD

 

[Stephen S]

Good call DasFrem. That's just the way I have mine run. Man, that's a lot of trouble for each door with the accordians. I ran my speaker wires from my amp, up behind the dash, and behind the head unit and caught the factory wiring from there. No messing with the doors and all the wires are in one place.

 

[Jason J]

Hay Steve still trying to mess with that sterio.

 

[Stephen S]

Always Big J, always.
Still working on getting my second amp. Can't wait for that. Just need some more cash.

 

[Pemerling]

u say there is a factory amp. i have one set of preamps and they are controling my amp that goes to the sub. now i just put in two kenwood excelon speakers in the front doors about three months ago. i want to wire them to an amp..is there anyway i can do it >?

 

[Stephen S]

Pemerling, that depends on what kind of amp you have. I'm guessing you've got a good size 2 channel running those JL's, so if that's the only amp you've got, you probably won't be able to amp your front door speakers without sacrificing power to your subs. I wouldn't use the factory amp for anything. I ripped mine out when I out my system in.

 

[Pemerling]

actually its a four channel

 

[Stephen S]

Then your all set!! If your amp is powerful enough to carry the subs each on one channel, the wire them on the rear channels. Then put your front door speakers on the two front channels of the amp.
Now depending on the resistance rating of the subs and the stability of your amp, you may be able to wire the subs another way to get more power. Example: If your subs are 4 ohms each and your amp is 2 ohm stable, you can hook them up this way: Bridge the two rear channels of the amp and run that to one sub. Now take a piece of wire and hook the subs to one another. So one wire runs from the amp to a sub and one wire runs from sub to sub. They are now hooked in parallel. The amp now sees a 2 ohm load and pushes harder (more power). DO NOT attempt if your amp is not 2 ohm stable.
I'm pretty sure you can do something like this, but if I'm wrong, someone please tell me because this is how I plan to run my subs when I buy my new amp.

 

[gbishop]

I used to install for Best Buy and I just ran the speaker wire along the passenger side (along with RCA cables - power wire on driver's side) up behind the deck and hooked up a wire harness that matched up to either a Premium sound or non-premium sound system and just simply plugged the wire harness in and that made the connection to all 4 speakers.

Now, on the other hand, if you have an unlimited budget and dont' have to worry about time or materials, you can always...oh nevermind...I don't feel like going into this...did this with an old 86 s-10 blazer with 16 15" subs and a lot of the old Fosgate Power 1000's...those were the days...

anyway, hope this helps...

 

[Psyclopse]

Going back to the original question...

I am doing a theft recovery, so the wires at the head unit were butchered. I am going to just replace all wires that have to do with the stereo system, and the method I am going to use to get wires to the door speakers will work easily for you- IF AND ONLY IF you aren't wanting to keep the original factory wiring in place to facilitate returning the vehicle to stock later.

Anyway, I'm going to run the speaker wires along the door jams like a normal installation. On the passenger side, the amp power wires will run up the pillar and run up high to keep away from the speaker wires.

Now, down to getting the wire through the accordian boot- as I said, I am not keeping factory wiring, so if you plan to, this method won't work.

While running the speaker wires, leave enough wire at the speaker ends to be able to go up to the accordian boots, go through them, and reach the speakers. Once you have done that, cut the factory speaker wire behind the boot (on the pillar side) and leave enough wire hanging out of the hole for the boot to attach your new wires. Now, tape the old wire to the new wire. Tape it good, you don't want it coming apart mid-way through the boot. Next, get inside the door, grab the factory speaker wire and pull slowly. It will pull out the old wire while pulling through your new wire.

If you are planning to keep your factory wire intact, a cloths hanger is the only way I can think of, but be careful not to damage the insulation on the other wires running through there- a short caused by damaged wire casings inside the accordian boot will be next to imposible to locate later on down the line.

 

[Psyclopse]

I just thought of something-

If your truck is newer than mine, this might not work-

The wires are encased in (looks like) some sort of electrical tape from the factory. My Explorer is old enough that the "stickiness" of this wrapping has died down enough to let me pull the wires through like that. If you still have alot of "stickiness" it may not pull through.

If that is the case I thought of another method that may (or may not) work-

Inside the door, disconnect everything the harness connects to- the speakers, power window switch and motor, door locks, etc. Also, take off every tab that holds the harness to the door (you want the harness hanging loose). Then on the pillar side, start pulling the harness back (like you're gonna pull it out of the door) but just pull it back about a foot. Then, tape your new wire to the harness- with the end as close to the pillar as possible. Then, pull the harness back to wher it is supposed to be and it will bring the new speaker wire with it. All you have to do is hook all your stuff back up and untape your new wire. You can now pull as much new wire through as you need.

It might be a little extra work, but it looks much better than drilling, running the wire along the outside of the boot or any of the other hokey stuff I've seen. Also, drilling another hole is an open invitation to rust if you don't get it sealed properly.