Confused, Lost and Stumped! Please Assist!

[Trout]

Alright, so this is going to be a somewhat lengthy post, but I hope you will take the time to read through it and offer what advice you can.

I bought a new stereo system soon after christmas this year to take advantage of the good deals available, and got the head unit, the front and rear speakers. When I went to get it installed, I was quoted $235.95 for the install of two sets of speakers, and one head unit. I was outraged, and went elsewhere looking. Cheapest estimate I got was around $150.00 (US) . Being a student, I cant afford that kind of outrageous cost for something I am sure I can do, with a little bit of guidance.

I drive a 1986 Ford Thunderbird with the optional stereo system; this means that it is a factory amplified stereo system Hopefully some of you are familiar with this vehicle and its components (5x7/6x8s in the back and 3 1/2s in the front) with a factory amp (or so Im told) somewhere in the back.

At several of the shops, because of the nature of the system (being factory amplified and all) I was told that it would have to be completely rewired, and new wire pulled from front to back. This leads me to my first question.

How difficult is it to pull speaker wire, how is it done, and any other tips and tricks you can give me. Also, how much of the car's interior will need to be stripped down to do that, where would I find instructions on doing that, and how difficult is it to do?

Was also wondering if there was a different way to hook up the speakers and make the whole system work without having to pull all new wire. The old system has these weird tabs with connectors, mind I havn't seen many other ways of hooking it up... I know how to solder, so redoing the connections that way wont be a problem, but I would prefer an easier way, if one exists.

I havnt yet bought the wiring harness, because Crutchfield shows that there is a different one available. This is an excerpt from the Crutchfield info on my car:

---

Installation Details for your 1986 Thunderbird

» Your vehicle is factory-equipped with a special sound system. You can either use a free Crutchfield harness which will bypass your factory amplifier, or you can purchase an adapter that will allow you to continue to use your factory amplifier. If you use the free bypass harness, you will need to run the included wires from the location of your new receiver to the location of your factory amplifier, which is in the rear of the vehicle.

PAC OEM-2 $29.99

---

So, does anyone know where I can find this factory amp? I've never seen anything back there, and Im hesitant to start ripping out the lining of the trunk, because I dont know what I'm doing with it.

Also, I have had trouble following the wires in the trunk, except where they connect to the speakers themselves- It is all wrapped in copius amounts of black electrical tape. Perhaps this is why they were talking about totally rewiring the back of the car?

I think that unless someone who reads this lives in or near the Eugene/Springfield area in Oregon and is willing to offer a few hours of help, I will be doing this installation myself. What guage of wire should I be using with the installation, and approx how much am I going to need? This is for two front and two rear speakers from a head unit.

I need some pretty basic questions answered here, and havnt gotten much of a straight answer from anyone at the shops I've been to, and dont know anyone who can help me at this time. Every salesperson I've talked to has been trying to lead me in circles and get me to give in and let them do the installation FOR me.

Hopefully, some of you here can either point me to a site with all the basics, or an informitive post that I can use to figure out what I am doing.

The components I bought were:

Sony CDX-S2000 head unit

Infinity Referance series speakers; 3.5" 3002cf for the front, and 6802cf for the back.

Please feel free to point out anything I might've overlooked and anything I need to consider in doing this installation.

Thanks for any assitance you can provide!

Trout

Click to read more...

 

[sumone 10+ year member]

First answer this: Do you want to bypass the factory amp?

If you do, then you will most-likely WANT to run new wire. Believe me it's not that hard to do. It's just a matter of being able to access the different parts of your car. If you plan on doing any stereo work, you're gonna have to learn sooner or later how to pull the panels & such.

In order to figure out if you REALLY need to run new wire, you're gonna have to take your car apart (words may seem a bit drastic) to even trace how (and if) that factory amp is wired up.

So since either way it goes, if you decide to bypass the factory amp, you're gonna have to pull the car apart, you might as well run wire & be safe.

However, if you're not trying to bypass the factory amp...the speakers, just disconnect the old and connect the new ones. As for the HU however, if there's a way to find out how the existing stock radio connects to the factory amp....you'll probably have to wire the HU speaker wires to it & either find out how the factory amp is triggered. So really some more research is needed (I know it seems you've done a lot already...but a lot of it still has to come from first-hand experience...taking the radio out & seeing what's there already).

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

This vehicle is a mjor PITA to do a upgrade in. It is in your best interest to rewire all the speakers in the vehicle. Look in the rear deck area for the hidden amplifier. Take out the cd player and describe the color and shape of the plugs, how many wires and the colors in each one. Sometimes the factory amp can be used, but in this vehicle it is usually best to do the entire rewire. The estimate given to you seems to be inline with what a full install and amp bypass would run.

 

[goober82]

dear trout,

you do not have to buy a new wiring harness all you need to do is get about 50 ff. of speaker wire and run new wire from the new radio to the four speakers.

through th dash and under the side panels for the rears. and for the fronts sometimes you can find the wires in the kick panels that already run through the door boots if you can find them you can use them but if you cant you have to run the wire through the door boots. it is a difficult process but it can be done. that is why you got quoted that much. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[Trout]

Thank you for your helpful replies guys. I appreciate it a whole lot. I went out and talked to more people about it today. Its a pain in the rear getting a straight story with useful info from a shop...They all just want me to give them my money and let them do it, which is basically out of the question, with my budget.

Since reading the advice offered, I have been to the junkyard to pick through one of their old tbirds that was all but identical to mine, in hopes of learning where to take off panels and avoid causing damage to my vehicle.

Ideally, I would like to leave the factory amp in place because more power=better sound, correct? Or would that cause more problems later if I wanted to add subs and a bigger amp to the system?

Sumone:

I would ideally like to use the wiring that is there, to avoid the dissasembly of the car if at all possible. Crutchfield says that there is an adapter available to use to run it using the origional wiring, it says it is the PAC OEM-2 and that it would run me about 30$ for it. I dont know how to wire this in, and the instructions that I've seen that come with it seem pretty complicated to use. Right now I am thinking mostly about running new wires and taking the time to do it right that way.

forbidden:

I have had the stock HU out already, and saw enough wires of different colors to make me blanch at the sight. I will take my digital camera out there and get a picture to post of the back side of stock HU, however I am leaning towards rewiring it all myself. Seems much simpler than finding out which wire goes to what, since there would seem to be about twenty of them coming out of the stock HU. Have you done a rewire on this kind of car before? Perhaps you could give me some info that might help me with it, and things to be careful of when doing the wiring.

goober82:

With this vehicle, you dont need to go through the doors for the new speakers. It has two on the dash, and two in the very back. None in the doors. If I can figure out which wires are being used to run on the front speakers, can I just cut those and connect them into the new harness?

A few other concerns I had: While I was in the trunk looking at the speakers, I found that they had a giant rubber gasket/rubber band thingie holding them in place...no screws or anything. There are a few places that seem to be screw holes(keyhole shaped) , but when I was holding my speakers that I bought up to the opening, it didnt seem like they'd fit in there (how the screw holes in teh speakers wouldnt line up with the ones in the deck of the car). What guage wire to use in the rewire, and use crimps or solder it? Whats the differance in the connection quality?

Thanks for all your help guys, I appreciate it a whole lot.

Trout

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

Troutmasterflash, rewire the speakers is probably the best bet. There is not much point in using the built in power of a cd player to go into a output adaptor to go into another amp to go to the speakers. The front speakers are easy cheesy to rewire, the rear speakers take a little more time but it is worth it to do this. For the main harness at the stereo IIRC you will have two harness, one long and flat (grey) with the power / ground connections and the second may be a square type of connector (silver) which is the input wires to the amp. Have a look at http://www.installdr.com to see if your vehicle and plugs are listed there.

If it is the amplified system, rewire the speakers and purchase a Scosche FD08 harness (or similar brand) to plug into the main power / ground harness in the vehicle.