How Do I Do This?

[TMBackstrom]

Hi All!
I just got my '94 Explorer this past Friday, and I'm wanting to change out the head unit with a good Pioneer unit I have. I pulled the Ford HU (F37F-19B165-AD) and it looks like it has line level outputs going to an outboard amplifier. Where is this amplifier located so I can run the speaker wires back to the HU area?

 

[mdrut]

Behind the panel in the rear pass. side, just in front of the rear wheel well..Good Luck

 

[brent239]

If you buy the adapter kit that plugs right into your wiring harness and there is another piece that comes with it for the amp. I customized that and added rca's that plugged right into my new deck. It was well worth my time. It wasn't as loud as a deck hooked up straight to the speakers, but the sound quality from that 15w x 4 is well worth the volume difference. Now don't get me wrong it would still play loud just with no distortion. If you have any questions on how to run it just let me know. everybody here says to hook it up to the deck's amp but remember that deck has a little chip in it for the sound nothing special, where as the fact. amp is made alot better. remember it's all made by JBL

 

[TMBackstrom]

Where do I get one of these adapters?

 

[brent239]

You should be able to find them at any local store. If you cant, I work at circuit city, We have them there.
Just make sure the adapter kit has two pieces in there.
one for the amp and one for the power connections

 

[TMBackstrom]

Thanks, Brent.

 

[brent239]

No problem at all, just let me know if you need anything else.

 

[mrsteve]

I would bypass your stock amplifer. That's what I did and most people decide to do this as well. When I first installed my HU I had the stock speakers and had not bypassed the stock amp. I replaced the stock speakers w/o bypassing the amp about 3 months later. The sound was better but about 2 weeks later I bypassed the stock amp and the sound improved greatly. The amount of distortion coming from the stock amp is ridiculous. If you ever plan on replacing your stock speakers, bypass that amp. It's not hard to do and takes all of 20 mins at most.

Steve

 

[TMBackstrom]

Thanks for the advise, Steve. I ordered the head unit adapter and amplifier by-pass from Crutchfield this morning. The part # is 120705004 and both cost $11.00.

 

[brent239]

If you got alot of distortion you hooked it up wrong. You have to hook it up w/ the RCA jacks. You cant use a speaker-level adapter either, My stepbrother hooked it up like that to the speaker-level adapter and it sounded really bad. But we hooked it up using my adapter and w/ the factory speakers and extra tweeters up front his car sounds awesome W/ NO DIST%^&ION. I cant stand Dist^%$tion, I would never hook up any stereo w/ distortion

 

[TMBackstrom]

With the amp-bypass you're not using the Exporer's amplifier, though.

 

[brent239]

That's Correct, you would be using the deck's output. I have never heard a deck sound as good as any amp, be it a fact. amp or even those cheap a$$ ones you get at the fleamarket. Those are just my recommendations. And also remember with that amp-bypass you have to remove the rear-panel where the factory sub is. It takes about an hour to remove that panel. and that is where the bypass hooks up

 

[TMBackstrom]

I'll try it first with line level outputs, then. On a side note, how hard is it to hook up a sub-woofer? Does the factory amp have out put for it?

 

[brent239]

its not very hard to hook-up a subwoofer. You dont have one now. My factory amp which is just replaced along with the factory sub-amp did have a connection right into the 4-channel. I'm not sure how to hook that up though. I was paying attention while I was ripping it out

 

[92explorer_kid]

AMP, WOOFER???

I have a 92 xlt, and I didnt know that there was a factor amp hooked up to it. Do all the explorers have it? Where is it? I know that I dont have a sub, I just have the 4 door speakers which i replaced with polk and a primeir HU. If I do have an amp, is it better to hook the amp up to my speakers ratehr than the 22 watts rms X 4 from the HU, I do get distortion. does anyone have apicture of where the factory amp and sub are located cause i am almost positive taht i dont have either.

 

[TMBackstrom]

Did you connect your headunit to the speakers through a small rectangular connector that has 2 columns of 4 rows of connectors running into one wire? That's the line levels running back to the amplifier located in the rear passenger side right in front of the cargo net storage area (that's where the factory subwoofer goes).

 

[brent239]

hey tmbackstrom,
How did you hook it up? thru the preouts or bypass the amp? I guess as long as your happy thats all that matters

 

[TMBackstrom]

I haven't done anything yet. But, I just got the adapters from Crutchfield today, so I'll be installing my Pioneer HU this weekend. What I'll do 1st is to run the speaker levels down the line level wires, by-pass the factory amplifier to go directly to the speakers. But, I'm thinking of getting a 5-channel amplifier and a subwoofer to go in the factory position beside the amplifier. Let's see how things go this weekend before I decide on that, though.

 

[TheMattDaddy]

just wondering, what pioneer deck did ya get?

 

[TMBackstrom]

I have model KEH-P3750. It's an AM/FM Dolby cassette with a 6-disc CD changer. Bought it as a package a couple years back. I really liked the sound from it in a prior vehicle I had it installed in.