Stereo Build Thread

[billy mild]

I was curious how people ran amp wires in these cars? Do you do it along the sides or under the car maybe through the center of the car under the carpet?

[kfray]

In side the car under the carpet, down the passengers side of the car. I found it was better to pull the passengers seat out.
Good luck

[Cocacolakidd]

I ran mine down both sides - On the passengers side I ran the front and rear speakers forward along with the rear sub/amp forward. Then on the drivers side I ran the front and rear speaker wires - all wires were on the outside edge under the carpet.

[Dougs951]

I ran mine on either side of the torque tube tunnel.

[944sracer]

The ideal way depends on what type of amp you are wanting. I.e. Sub or speaker amp. If it's a sub only, I would run the power inside the car down the passenger side. Doesn't matter on which side of the seat. This allows for maximum wire for you to have when mounting your amp. Nothing is worse than running all your wires only to find that your short 6". You need the inline fuse at the battery not the amp. You can run all the wires down the same side. (power, remote, and rca). This is because the emf put off from the power wire will be filtered out by the sub when you tune the amp. Sub crossover frequency should be 80Hz or lower.

If you are installing a 4-channel for your speakers the power and remote need to be on the passenger and the signal (RCA) need to be on the driver. Otherwise you get alternator whine. This means that the emf that is given off by the high voltage/amperage power wire will bleed over and corrupt your low voltage signal wire coming from the deck to the amp. (12v for power wire and 2-4 volts for your RCA signal wire). Since the speakers will be playing at all frequency levels high and low. Speaker wire can be run down either but I would run it down the power side as it is amplified and will not suffer from the emf.

No matter what you must use high quality wire (not from wal-mart) and run it on the inside of the car.

Sorry for the long answer but now you know the why behind the what.

[Pete R]

It's best to follow racers advise, but if you must run RCA's and power together, they do make shielded rca and power cables, also good short amp grounds help too

[billy mild]

I am installing a sub. KLA industries box. Little 117 RMS watt amp. I am just coming up with ways to run the wires. Been a long time since I installed an amp kit in these cars. I just want to make sure its a nice setup.

[Cocacolakidd]

Don't forget a 4wag (4 guage wire) for the power to the sub amp and a 12awg (12 gauge wire) wire for the remote turn on for the sub amp also. Then it's best if you run the Sub Signal from the left side of the head unit (The left side is usually the pre amp side to run the signal to a remote amp - left or right it's the pre amp side). Then the signal wire is usually a 12 gauge wire for the signal back to the sub amp.

[944sracer]

Coca,

Shouldn't it be the rear/sub pre-out of the deck? If I remember correctly it is, unless the deck has a dedicated sub pre-out.

12awg wire is probably a bit excessive for the remote turn on but anything as small as 18awg should work fine.

A decent amp kit from a reputable supplier (Rockford,monster, kicker) should have the quality of wiring you need.

[Cocacolakidd]

Shouldn't it be the rear/sub pre-out of the deck? If I remember correctly it is, unless the deck has a dedicated sub pre-out.

.

That's what I was talking about - Non amplified signal of 3 V. to 9 V. to the rear sub signal. + & - in or with a RCA plug dual wire.

12awg wire is probably a bit excessive for the remote turn on but anything as small as 18awg should work fine.

You are probably correct in that for the distance I usually go for overkill on the single wire that it is.