Sub wiring question

[Magicfan25]

I have a 98 Explorer Sport with the premium sound system (no factory sub or cd changer). This summer I had 4 new speakers put in along with a 10" MTX is a stealth box. I still have the stock head unit, but now I'm adding an amp for the speakers (factory head unit just doesnt push enough) and a Clarion equalizer.

My question is, on the back of the head unit there are two of the black connectors. One has all the wiring for speakers, ground etc.... The second connector has just one wire, a grey/black (maybe its black/grey). Would this be the wire to my sub? I wanna be able to adjust the subwoofer volume with my EQ, not the bass control on the head unit. As it is now the bass control on the head unit controls the bass of the speakers and the sub.

 

[Brian's98XLT]

If I remember correct that wire is for the vehicle speed pulse sensor. It tells the radio how fast your car is going for the automatic volume control.

 

[Magicfan25]

Pretty sure I dont have that featuer as there is no way to set how sensitive it is like on moms GM or grandmas Suburban

 

[M.Scott]

Not sure what this single wire is either. My truck has only the 16 pin power/speaker connector and the 20 pin rear seat control connector. But more importantly I really doubt anyone that installed the thunderform used any wires at the head unit to feed the signal. They did the easy thing and tapped into the rear speaker leads.
Most likely you equalizer requires low level(RCA type) inputs. That means you need to convert your head unit speaker leads to RCA jacks (use line level converter) which disables the head unit amp and then feed your new equalizer. To have your sub with separate volume control from the other speakers your equalizer will need at least 2 sets of RCA coming out. One for full range, one for sub only. Feed your thunderform the sub only output and your new amp the other one. I have used equalizers in the past to do this although not with my EX. But I am doing now what your want (4ch amp for 4 speakers, another amp for sub) but am utilizing an amp that has a remote "volume" knob next to my seat. Your thunderform most likely has it own amp (big $) so to do what you want the equalizer is a good way. The key to your setup is the equalizer. What model is it?

Also if your using the stock head you definately want a separate sub volume because the head unit rolls off the bass as the volume increases from about half way. Everytime you want it really loud youll need to increase sub volume. When you lower the volume again the bass gets too load proportionally to the other music. Not quite as inconvienient as it sounds but plan for a new head unit for the future.

 

[Magicfan25]

Ok, well that explains why we couldnt get the equalizer to do ANYTHING but turn on yesterday. Its a Clarion EQS750.

I'm not gonna buy a new head unit as I plan to sell this thing by Christmas at the latest. The equalizer is coming with me when I sell it, I'll leave the amp and everything else in there.

 

[M.Scott]

OK, with that EQ your in luck. It has line level (speaker wire) inputs and 6 chanel RCA outputs. My suggestion for setup is:

Cut into the stock 16 pin harness to get the 8 wires for the 4 speakers and feed to the EQ (if EQ only accpts 4 wires choose back or front and fade factory head unit all the way to back or front). From EQ send two pairs of RCAs cables (from full range front & rear jacks) to one 4 channel amp - this will power your 4 speakers. From EQ send one pair of RCA cables (from sub out jacks) to your thunderform amp that is a part of the enclosure.

With that EQ and this setup you will be able to control the sub "volume" (amp gain in reality) independantly from the other speakers.

And probablty set your head units treble and base to center positions and adjust from EQ.

If you don't want to cut the factory harness you can do what I did and use 2 metra harnesses 70-1771 and 71-1771. But that another$40.

And if your going to sell the Ex soon I would pull the amp and thunderform first. Rarely do you find someone willing to give you any more money for your $$$ sound components. Sell em here online.

 

[Magicfan25]

Dude, let me say, you are THE MAN!!!!!! Thanks soooo mch for all your help, I'm so stereo illiterate its not even funny. I'm starting to figure it out now a little bit though. I was gonna buy a line converter too lol. Well ,we already spliced the wires out of the headunit into the amp, but I see where we went wrong, god I hope those stereo wires are long enough to re-route.

As for selling the stuff in the car, I have a guy who if he hasnt sold his 2000 Silver Lightning by then he wants to sell it to me for 25000 (3k off book) give me 12,500 for the Explorer (high book even though its been hit). He has about 1500 in stuff in his truck (MTX sub, retractable hard cover and some other junk I cant remember.

 

[STiCKS]

is the black/grey wire small like the speaker wires or bigger??? I couldn't really see it as the sub wire because it's not attached to the speaker harness. It could be the antenna. The black/grey coloring is ackward because that used to be the color of one of the speaker wires in Fords.

 

[Magicfan25]

its small like the other wires.. the attena wire is big fat and orange. I dunno what it is, but I dont need it so it doesnt matter

 

[Magicfan25]

Ok, I'm not as smart as I thought I guess... see if you can help me with my stupidity......

It only has 4 wires for low level inputs (pos neg for two speakers). I think maybe I'm splicing this stuff wrong..
I used the front speakers to run to the EQ, so we'll use that for example.

Where the wires came out of the head unit, I cut them in two, then wrapped those two ends together along with the speaker wire I ran to the EQ...should I just be putting the speaker wire I added and the wire out of the head unit together?

Anyway, I never ran an RCA from the sub yet because I still cant get the EQ to do anything. I ran speaker wire (spliced behind head unit as described above
) and spliced them with the low level input wires on the eq. I ran the RCAs from the EQ to the Amp. The amp is working (it has a cheesy volt meeter) but the EQ still doesnt change anything....