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stereo sound not working

Zeppelin97

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April 24, 2004
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City, State
Scotch Plains, NJ
Year, Model & Trim Level
1997 Explorer XLT
i just hooked up my new alpine stereo, i have all the proper wires connected to the harness. there are 2 harnesses, power and speaker harness. i am not using an amp and i am using the factory speakers. i am able to get power on the stereo but no sound.
now there is one wire that is not connected, that is the black wire that says amp ground, but since i dont have an amp i left that one loose. am i going to need an amp for this? and what would be a better solution, returning the stereo or buying a cheap amp?

any help is appreciated
 



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Well if you are looking for a good amp, I have an Alpine V-12 series 4/3/2 Channel amp for sell that is more than a very reasonably priced amp. It would work great with any Alpine Head Unit. Let me know if you are interested. Sorry can't help you in any other way, Never hooked up an aftermarket straight to the speakers without an amp. Someone else here will know.

What Alpine headunit are you using?
 






BBQ_HotDogs said:
Well if you are looking for a good amp, I have an Alpine V-12 series 4/3/2 Channel amp for sell that is more than a very reasonably priced amp. It would work great with any Alpine Head Unit. Let me know if you are interested. Sorry can't help you in any other way, Never hooked up an aftermarket straight to the speakers without an amp. Someone else here will know.

What Alpine headunit are you using?

i'm using the Alpine CDA-9827 that i ordered from crutchfield. i dont know if i will be able to return it because i have already crimped the wires and tampered with the stereo. it is clearly not in new condition. and it is not worth it for me to get an amp because i am using the factory speakers and not looking to do a huge sound upgrade. just a stereo replacement.
 






Zeppelin97 said:
i'm using the Alpine CDA-9827 that i ordered from crutchfield. i dont know if i will be able to return it because i have already crimped the wires and tampered with the stereo. it is clearly not in new condition. and it is not worth it for me to get an amp because i am using the factory speakers and not looking to do a huge sound upgrade. just a stereo replacement.

your Explorer is the same year as mine, and if they are the same there is an amp in the back behind the pannel that has to be bypassed in order to get sound out of an aftermarket HU. you could either (A): get an aftermarket amp and connect the bypassed wires to that or (B): you could run wires from the bypass to the HU, or even (C): you could run individual wires from each speaker to the HU.

and also whats going to suck is you need an antenna extension to run from the antenna plug in the back all the way to the front(a 12ft extenstion is more than enough), or there is a simpler less professional solution (which saves money) you could go to an auto store(kragen, auto zone) and get a small antenna wire and cut that in half, strip it and only use the core(not the outer stranded part, but the single middle wire) of the wire and crimp it or twist it to the wire labeled antenna (that is on the harness). and that should work.
 






You either need to connect the power and ground up behind the HU that runs to the factory amp, or bypass it. I'd recommend bypassing it, as you will get better sound. You will need to emove the rear cargo panel to bypass the factory amp. Does your truck have a factory subwoofer? I don't understand what Saleen_SR71 is talking about with the antenna cable? I've installed 2 complete systems in Explorer's and didn't need any antenna cables.
 






my explorer had the antena cable running all the way to the amp in the back. and the harness i got had an antena wire so i had to some how either convert the wire to an antena plug (so that i could plug in to my stereo antenna)or run an antena wire from the back to the front. i had taken it to a stereo shop and they didnt even really know what to do, i take it that they didnt deal with many premium JBL systems.
 






Hey, I know this is a very old thread, but you guys seem to have the knowledge I need. I have a 96 explorer with the JBL system in it. I had to replace the sub in it two times. Shortly after installing the second sub, the sub amp took a dump. You guys comment about wireing around it. How do I go about doing this? Do I have to take it from the Head unit or can I just take it from somewhere here in the back?

Just to clarify a little, I have pulled the rear panel off and I see two "bricks". One of them looks like a heat sink, the other I assume is the amp as that is where the wires from the sub trace back to. Any guesses as to which of these two things failed?

Thanks!
 






You should have 2 amps behind the panel. One is for the sub, the other is for your door speakers. Most people bypass the door speaker amp when installing an aftermarket HU. You could always run a line out converter and an aftermarket amp.
 






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