Need amp bypass for '98!

[Gonzo]

Yes, I did a bunch of searching, but everyone says that the stock amp for 98+ is built into the head unit. Well, in my 98 it is not built into the HU. I took off the side panel, and to my surprise, there is an external amp. I need help figuring out how to disable it. I am putting an aftermarket amp in that place. I understand that there is some kind of wire harness or something for the first gen. ex. Is there anything like that for the 98?

 

[Creelove]

Here's what you can do to see if an amp bypass is available: go to www.crutchfield.com and go shopping for car audio. Enter the make/model/year/options of your car. Then go grab any head unit and add it to your shopping cart. Then it should come up with a question asking if you want to use the factory amplifier or bypass it. If you pick the bypass option, it will add the bypass kit to your cart. Once you know the part number of that, you can buy it seperately from crutchfield (or maybe find it cheaper somewhere else online). If they don't have it, just call crutchfield and tell them you're going to buy a HU and you have a factory amp and they'll probably know something.

 

[Heath]

If the one from my 96 will fit your 98 I have one I'll sell you... I ordered a wirekit and didn't need the bypass kit...

 

[Gonzo]

I don't know if it would fit. I have premium sound, so my amp is above the rear passenger wheel well. Do you have premium sound? I believe the one I need has like 10 or 12 ft. of wire. One end plugs in to the reciever, and the other into the amp. Do you have a picture? I am seriously thinking of just putting in new wire from the HU to the speakers.

 

[Heath]

The one that I have goes from the plug by the amp in the rear of the truck, back up to the front of the truck to the new deck...

 

[jazz_master221]

just spilice the wires at the amp using the harness from crutchfield one side will plug in the out side you'll have to splice see my post on amp by pass wiring diagram to find you setup....you'll have to cut the plug on the speaker side off then just spice the by pass harness to it using wire nuts...piece of cakeleave a couple of inches on the side you cut off in case you want to reuse it

 

[Gonzo]

Hey jazz_master221, could you put a link to your post showing all that splicing stuff? That would be really helpful.
Heath, does your bypass kit look like This? How much do you want for it?
I tried going to the car audio place in town, but they couldn't seem to understand how bypassing the amp would get better sound . They tried to convince me that it wasn't going to sound any better, which made me feel really stupid, so I just played dumb and left and pretended like they were right. One more thing, since I'm putting in FatMat and a thunderform, I'm going to have all the interior out. Would it be any easier to just route some new speaker wire (what gauge?) directly from the HU to the speakers and avoid all this hassle with the bypass kit stuff? I would like to yank the stock amp anyway because that's where I want to put the amp for the sub (unless there is a better place that is hidden).

 

[hinkle_e]

I recently had the same problem. I assumed there was no external amp, but to my suprise...there it was! I was going to splice the two harnesses together, but decided to just run some good speaker wire instead.

I'd suggest just running new wire...you can't tap the harness for power, anyway, so you'll be pulling an amp power line and probably some RCAs...why not do it the right way and re-run everything? The best part about keeping all the stock crap in-place but unused is that you can return to the factory set-up in a matter of minutes, not days.

 

[Heath]

Nope, looks totally different... I'll see if I can get you a pic later tonight or tomorrow...

 

[Gonzo]

Would 16 Gauge wire be good enough for running the door speakers off a pioneer HU?