Wiring questions for the SHO + more.

[Piccolo]

Rickie Frat especially.
My friend is buying a whole system for his G/F's 89 SHO. He loves and respects the car, and her. wink I need info on the wiring for the system and various other things. The system is two 12's in a box, amplifier, new deck, and new wiring. Here goes...

1) How should we hook this all up?
a) Where to put the amp?
b) How to face the box?
c) How to install the deck?
2) Where should we stick the wires?
3) Is there anything that we have to take apart?
4) Where should we ground it out?
5) Can anyone tell me how to hook up the whole system?

Thanks a TON and I mean it. I really need this info quickly. Her B-day is May 4. The system is being bought this weekend. Thanks again! thumbs_u

<small>[ April 08, 2002, 11:09 PM: Message edited by: Piccolo ]</small>

 

[naval-avi8or]

The sub box should be mounted in the trunk in a manner that the subs fire against the rear seat it will help them load up better. Then you can mount the amp to the back of the box as well as any fusing and wiring blocks (don't forgett to put a fuse within about 12" of the battery as well). You can either run new wire for everything if your gungho or you can get adapters from this link that will allow you to use the facotry wiring. If you run new you can run it along/under either/both sides of the trim at the door openings.

http://www.scosche.com/scosche/connectors/ford-premium.asp

 

[ericwick19]

i would definatly run all new wires because your amp probably has too much power for the factory wires to handle (resistance) which can lead to disortion and excessive heat (fire..), be sure to run RCA cables from the deck to the amp instead of tapping into your rear speaker channels, this also helps with distortion, as for the box, personally i mounted my amp on top, with the subs facing to the rear of the car, this enables the sound to resonate througout the entire trunk, making it like one big speaker box, given you a lower bass, for the deck, adapter and bypassing harnesses are avaible at mosty any store (walmart). and just splice that into the harness that came with the deck with butt connectors, then the radio can just be snaped into the oem opening (dont forget to plug in your rca's and to splice a amp turn on wire into your harness, this is usally a blue or blue with white strip wire, or the power antenna wire, take the rca's and the turn on wire (about 15 feet) and neatly tie wrap or tape it into a nice harness, open the glove box and pull it all the way out, you will be able to acess behind the radio, route this harness behind the glove box into the kick panel, down the sill plates and tuck it into the seat cushion, then put your hand into the corner of the seat cushion and wriggle into the trunk (not hard at all) then shove you harness of rca's and turn on wire thru. As for the constant, i recommend 8 guage, conect to battery with a fuse inline at most 12 inches away, pull your carpet down a little by the brake pedal (assuming it is a ATX) there will be a gromet pop this out and slit it and pass the power cable through. route this the same way as the rca's and turn on BUT DO NOT ROUTE THE POWER ALONG WITH THE RCA'S OR YOU WILL GET ENGINE NOISE IN YOUR SUBS, AND THAT SUCKS. anyways get all that stuff into the trunk and tidy everything up, i recomment looming the cables, and making sure the fuse is removed from the power, hook everthing up, as for the ground( 8 guage), try to make sure the cable is less then 3 feet long, to promote little resistance, and ground it with a ring connector and a self tapper to somewher behind the carpet of the trunk sides, well i think thats about it im sorry if i wrote to much or this is all jumbled up to ya im typing this stuff kinda fast. its not hard at all i did my system in less then an hour and its very neat and sounds great.

 

[Piccolo]

IT's all there (I think) but it is a little confusing. I did get most of it. I don't understand what grounding out the wiring is, or how to do it though. I do get about putting most of the wiring. Does anyone have a wiring chart? Like what color is what? Thanks again, especially ericwick19 and naval-avi8or. Keep it coming, please.

P.S. This is our first time with something this major in stereo. And no, we will not take it somewhere.

 

[LOUDSHO92]

For grounding all you have to do is connect the negative connection on the amp (black) to a bare metal part of the car. I used the bolts holding in the strut mounts so I wouldnt have to drill a new hole. Try and find a bolt in the trunk that touches bare metal other wise you will need to drill a hole and expose the metal around it. Then put a bolt through it with the grounding wire. Sounds like you did not buy a 4 channel amp. If you didnt you can use the stock wiring for new speakers if you bought them. All you will have to do is hook up the RCA output to the oppropriate colors (red and white) and run it to the amp. Tap the battery for the amp (connect a red wire) and makre sure the fuse is close to the battery. As Eric said, you will need to connect the output signal to the amp. On a wire harness this is usually blue or purple. The instructions will tell you as well.

<small>[ April 09, 2002, 01:15 AM: Message edited by: LOUDSHO92 ]</small>

 

[naval-avi8or]

As far as grouding you really don't need to run additional wire from under the hood, the entire car, anything metal, is a ground. If you look around under/behind the trunk carpet you should be able to find a factory ground point. Unless you want to pay extra for 0-4 gage wire. As for running all new wire thats what I would do but the factory wire should not have any resistance threre isn't enough footage to make any. As for the subs one way to find out which way sounds better to you is place the box in both ways prior to securing it, just make sure you shut the trunk as for any opening will affect the db's, so you may find out later when you take it for a test drive that its not the same so treat it like you cruis'n down the road when you sound check it.

 

[ericwick19]

You stated that you would like the wire colors and what they mean, im not sure on the ford oem colors, but that doesnt really matter unless you are hard-wiring your deck's harness right into the factory wiring, other wise the appropriat harnesses will plug right into the factory connectors.

The after market harness colors are as follows:
yellow-----constant 12vdc
red--------ignition 12vdc
black------ground
orange-----illumination (not needed)
orang w/white stripe----dimmer (not needed)
blue----power antenna (also can be used as amp turn on
blue w/white---same as above
purple/black stripe---right rear (-)
purple----------------right rear (+)
green w/black stripe--left rear (-)
green-----------------left rear (+)
white w/black stripe--left front (-)
white-----------------left front (+)
grey w/black stripe---right front (-)
grey------------------right front (+)

some pioneer decks come with a brown and pink wires, and these are not needed

Again, i dont have a clue as to the ford oem colors right off hand, however if you need to know that can be figured out by probing with a multimeter or a digital probe for the powers and ground, and you can go trial and error to find the speaker locations by "popping" the speakers with a 9v battery, to do this make sure the radio is unplugged (9v will smoke the radio outputs) and take the suspected pair of speaker wires and touch the leads of a 9v to the pins in the plug, the speakers will make a popping sound (harmless) and you will be able to tell where that particular speaker is located. Another point of advice, some head units, such as my own, carry to much current for the oem power wires can handle, if this is the case, the black ground wire and the yellow constant wire will be a heavier guage then the rest, so the ground wire can be attached to a bolt under the dash (chassis ground) and the yellow wire can be scotch-locked to the thick yellow constant wire in the column harness, but you will only find this setup on high end systems. once you have everything hooked up, be sure to tune your amp and you head unit accordingly, the gain on the amp should be turn half way along with the bass eq on the deck, this is allways a good starting point, then tune according to your preference.
Just to let you know, i work at a auto electronics shop as a bench repair tech, so you can trust my advice. thumbs_u

PS- on grounding, follow loudsho and naval.'s advice, there should be a factory bolt (strut mt....) or the equivalent somewhere int the trunk, a factory bolt will provide a better ground, and will last longer then if you were to drill and use your own screw. Also once you get your sho bumpin, be sure you have your spare tire and jack, ect.. all tighted down securly, anlong with the license plate, the bass and cause these objects to rattle like **** if not properly tighten down.. OK I AM BLOWING THIS OUT OF PROPORTION I AM DONE FOR NOW IF YOU NEED ANYMORE ASSITANCE, ASK.

 

[Piccolo]

Thank you so much everyone! Especially ericwick19! After much talk with lemkea last night, I understand it fully. All planned out and printed. Buying it all this weekend, so it's gonna be a start. This will all be hooked up before May 4. This is her B-day. In fact, go to my website to take a look at her SHO. It's a bit of a sore sight, but she loves it still. www.geocities.com/mdhughes84084 Just go to Kira's SHO. And check mine too! hehe Thanks again!