Nick Pequignot Build thread/introduction

[nickpequignot95]

i just bought a 2000 xlt explorer off my parents. kinda a spur of the moment thing to replace my 96 jeep grand cherokee that i have had for the past year and a half. has new tires,new kenwood head unit and thats about it. In my jeep i have a fairly decent sound system consisting of ken wood speakers, ken wood head unit and a ken wood 4ch amp, and a jensen 4ch amp powering my 2 kicker comp 10s. not the biggest and loudest system but its nice for a daily driver. hopefully tomorrow night me and my girlfreind are going to start taking everything out of the jeep and moving it to the explorer. i bought a audiopipe fuse holder and 4gauge wiring to put in. im going to make a bracket to mount the fuse holder on between the battery and the fender on the driver side. i havnt looked yet but i assume there is somewhere on the driver side to run extra wires through. mine has the 4.0 SOCH by the way. if you guys can give any insight let me know. ill update tomorrow night about this time with pics of the system and the install.

Nick,

 

[pbnj22]

nice! I wish my gf would get dirty! she is more of a stand there text and occasionally grab a tool i ask for if she knows what it is called! lookin forward to the pics! i have a sub mono amp and deck but i think i want to downside and go more for sound quality... right now its just a 15 with 2000 watts rms.. and some pioneer speakers running off deck...
and as for running wire down driver side there is a hole and grommet under the brake pedal if im not mistaken... but i had to drill another bigger hole right next to it since i have 0 gauge wire and it was too big.. your 4 gauge should be fine...
any plans to do "big 3"? just to help a little with your stock electrical??

 

[1996BLKBauer]

Like mentioned above, there is a grommet, it is white in color, or at least it is on my Explorer.. you should easily be able to get a run of 4 gauge, although you could probably get 2 runs of 1/0 gauge through it. It is located on the firewall to the left of the brake pedal, it will be easier to push the wire through from the inside, then grab it in the engine bay. I used a screw driver to poke a hole in the grommet, and a piece of cloths hanger attached to the wire to poke though it. I will come out right below the brake booster. Just make sure to keep it away from the exhaust and you should be just fine.

 

[nickpequignot95]

thanks guys. there is a possibility that i might do the big 3 later this summer if i ever go with bigger amps and such. and yeah its kinda nice having a girl friend that is willing to learn what i love doing. i got my dad to drive his truck tonight to work so i will have the jeep to gut and the explorer to move everything to. will post pics for sure.

another question does "explorerforum.com" support any mobile forum app for iphone? i do the majority of my stuff on my phone and its kinda difficult to always get on the pc to update

 

[pbnj22]

Like mentioned above, there is a grommet, it is white in color, or at least it is on my Explorer.. you should easily be able to get a run of 4 gauge, although you could probably get 2 runs of 1/0 gauge through it. It is located on the firewall to the left of the brake pedal, it will be easier to push the wire through from the inside, then grab it in the engine bay. I used a screw driver to poke a hole in the grommet, and a piece of cloths hanger attached to the wire to poke though it. I will come out right below the brake booster. Just make sure to keep it away from the exhaust and you should be just fine.

interesting that yours was white.. i thought mine was black..

 

[nickpequignot95]

so im about half way through now. the longest part was getting 4 gauge wire through the fire wall. ended up going through the grommet that the hood release goes through. after that it has went pretty fast. power wire ran. up next is rcas and then speaker wires to the front doors. how do you guys get speaker wire through that plastic thing on the driver side?

 

[nickpequignot95]

its basically done. other than grounds. ill figure those out next weekend if i have time. but i have a problem. pretty sure the break booster isnt working. it worked fine last night before i pulled it in the shop. but this morning when i pulled it out of the shop. nothing. super stiff break pedal. power steering works fine, everything else is fine. could it just be that the pcm needs to re adjust its self since it had been off the battery all night? i hope thats it. ill go out and try it again here in a while and see if they work. anyone know what the problem could be?

 

[pbnj22]

so im about half way through now. the longest part was getting 4 gauge wire through the fire wall. ended up going through the grommet that the hood release goes through. after that it has went pretty fast. power wire ran. up next is rcas and then speaker wires to the front doors. how do you guys get speaker wire through that plastic thing on the driver side?

the plastic rubber things in the door? that wires are ran through?
i believe i pried that hose lookin thing off ran wire through it then just re attached it... other than that i do not know what plastic thing on drivers side your talking about... the plastic thing on the floor where the door meets the floor is where i ran my rcas and remote turn on.. that just pries up with a flat head screw driver.. you would probably have room to run your power wire in there to but you would want to run power wire on opposite side of car if you can or at least 18 inches away and if you have to cross them do so at a 90 degree angle this is to avoid "engine noise" or "alternator wine"(you probably already know this)

and for ground.. where is your amp going to be mounted?
some good spots would be under one of the middle bolts for the back seats.. if you can take the seat out and grind down the paint or with back seat out and carpet pealed forward there are a few empty holes with grommets that lead straight down to the frame where you could ground to.


and to your brake booster problem, I have zero advice lol hopefully someone else can chime in

 

[nickpequignot95]

on the drivers door it looks like there is a plastic barrel type thing that the wires go into after the rubber boot. the passenger side dosnt have it i dont think. and my amps are mounted to the top of my sub box. i did run my two runs of rca,my rem, and my power all along the same side. i did the same in my old jeep and never had any issues.i am probably going to end up going to the frame for the ground. and the break booster has me confused. i never touched the break system, there is no leaks in the vacuum system as far as i know. ill have to look into it more.

 

[pbnj22]

Well i hope you dont get engine noise then... i did when i tried doing my 4 channel amp for my speakers.. i couldnt get it go away for the life of me... but congrats if yours works out good... is your brake fluid good? and full? the brake booster runs off vacuum from the engine so the battery shouldnt have anything to do with it.. maybe you do have a vacuum leak somewhere?

 

[nickpequignot95]

if i get engine noise ill just move the rcas to the other side. not a huge deal. and on the breaks, me and my dad think it might be a switch of some sort because when you turn the key on the pedal dosnt release like it should. he is going to look into it more tomorrow while im at school. i pulled the vac. line off the break booster, it has vacuum there so i dont think thats the issue. i feel like i may have bumped into something when running the wires and knocked something loose. the harness that plugs into the break switch is in good,already tried that. we will see i guess.

 

[tenny]

there is NO "brake booster switch"......you have a vacuum leak......
OR, you have compromised the master cylinder seal.....

it can only be one or the other......its probley (and more than likely)
a vacuum leak....not onthe booster side (because, its usally a barbed
fittingat the booster to hold the vac. line in place, and difficult to pull
off).....its probley on the otherside of the booster line......

this is just mho.....and hope this helps you find the problem...

 

[nickpequignot95]

So in my tired state while I was working I had tried to drill a hole in the fire wall. Well guess what was on the other side. Yeah you guessed it. Break booster. 87$ later and the breaks are good to go.

 

[pbnj22]

ouch.. but glad to know its fixed!

 

[nickpequignot95]

ouch.. but glad to know its fixed!

Yes sir. Glad I get to drive it to school tomorrow. Still no subs yet. Need some ring terminals and to do the ground. I don't think I'm going to mess with the door speakers quite yet. If I get a better amp and speakers I will. But I just don't feel like running wire to the doors at the moment

 

[pbnj22]

installing speakers and the speaker wire was pretty easy... make ture to take off the door panels carefully cus i broke a few clips and figured oh no big deal it will still hold but it kept rattling and making noise so i had to buy new ones...

 

[nickpequignot95]

Finally found some 4ga ring terminals local. Finishing the power wire tonight. I forgot to get more than I needed so the ground is going to have to wait

 

[nickpequignot95]

What size are the front door speakers? Got a little extra spending money and I might buy a decent set of 2ways for the front door

 

[pbnj22]

What size are the front door speakers? Got a little extra spending money and I might buy a decent set of 2ways for the front door

i believe they are 6x8 i think the front and back are both that.. and super shallow.. i have 6x9 speakers that dont fit so im thinking about making some kind of adapter bracket... go to crutchfield.com and enter your vehicle and it will tell you speaker size..

 

[nickpequignot95]

I did end up going on crutch field. They said 5 1/4