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| By: me100e on Sat, 4 Oct 03:42:35 -0500
| | The Hints List, Catching Beginners Mistakes for the DIYer
Abstract/Intro----------------------------
When installing car audio systems several overlooked mistakes can occur. The following is an article listing the possible errors occurred in my early install days. Hopefully the reader will learn from these mistakes when doing their first few installations. If the reader doesn’t pick up anything new, feel free to laugh and point fingers at mistakes that we’ve all done, but never had the courage to mention. Here goes my rendition of what and how I did things wrong.
NOTE, all manufacturers mentioned, are for reference to product categories only. I am neither encouraging nor discouraging the reader to purchase products from the mentioned manufacturers
Battle Plan--------------------
Before you start dishing out cash know what you’re getting into.
1-----------OVERALL
The best way to save time is to pre-plan everything, and figure out all aspects of the project. If given the opportunity, lay out all the parts on the floor, and figure out what gets hooked up to what, and where you are going to place everything, and work out a routing plan for the wires. Make sure you got enough wire to do the install.
2-----------DECK
If you’re installing a deck, know what you have to do to install the deck. Take apart your dash and pull out the stock radio before you even buy the new deck. It took me hours to figure out how to pull a 1990’s Ford Tape Deck without Ford Tool FJ872-228844-3378-dffefD-3343, which of course is made of un-obtanium.
Make a list of what is needed. Not only was I sitting there in -25degC weather trying to pull out a deck in the middle of winter, after I got it out, I didn’t know how to mount it. So let us start the list:
a) HOW TO DISSASSEMBLE THE DASH: This is half the battle, clips and dash parts which are easy to take apart, seem like they are welded together if you don’t know how to take it apart.
b) MOUNTING THE DECK: Can you use the metal sleeve, or do you need a mounting bracket kit? I found the Radio Shack metal mounting kit for CB radios to work extremely well.
c) ANTENNAE PLUG: Big or small, I did another deck last winter, everything went in, in about an hour, except I had to go back another day to hook up the antenna. The deck used the big plug, the car used the small plug.
d) DASH ROOM: Some vehicles have little room behind the deck, ie: 1991 Chevy Blazer, 2000 Grand AM. Be sure to have your wire’s neatly cut, and trimmed so you can maximize the pitiful space you have to cram the deck into
e) WIRING HARNESS: When you chop a factory deck harness, leave three to four inches of wire at the end of the harness butt so you can re-splice the factory deck with ease. I learned this the hard way, with the “I’ll never go stock again” mentality. It’ll help if your car gets written off and you have to do a reinstall in a hurry
f) TEMPERATURE: If you do it in the winter, have a good heater, lots of light, and if you can do some wire splicing inside the house, do it. The latter pertains to prepping a used wiring harness, from used decks, or reused decks.
g) POWER, GND, ACC: Before you start chopping like a madman, find a constant 12V, a good ground, and ACC power. Sometimes you have to source a new power source. In a BMW I recently wired, it had a 22 Gauge wire feeding ACC, and +12V. It took a while to fish and run a new 14AWG source
h) GND: Do a solid GND, it saves so many headaches. I once got lazy and used the GND in the factory harness, all was good till we started the vehicle, it was a switched ground (Normally Closed with Engine off), and wouldn’t work when the vehicle started.
i) DASH MODS: Measure everything. For a Grand AM I pre-disassembled the dash and modified the LEGO kit(1 ½ DIN slot kit) to fit the dash opening(rounded edges). It would have taken 2 hours if I didn’t plan that one, pretty crappy if you put the dash together to see that the LEGO kit blocks the dash from going back on.
j) WIRE/CRIMP ENDS/HEAT SHRINK/SOLDER: Stock up, what ever you think you’ll use, you’ll run short by one, never fails.
k) HEATSHRINK: Be sure that when you splice two wires together, and before you solder, that you put the heat shrink tubing on the wire before you solder the cable back together. It’s hard to slip on the tubing after you don’t have and open wire end. This sucks if you cut your wire too short.
l) WIRE ROUTING: Splicing and soldering wires is easy, doing it with all wires equal length, or so no wire bunches or tugs other wires is harder. Just be careful, measure twice, think three times, and cut once, think again, solder. When the wires are twisted around each other, cross over, tangle, and weave between other wires/objects, it looks really bad, and annoys the hell out of me. Think before you cut, and think before you join.
m) PREOUTS: If you’re running an amp, make sure that the preamp cables are long enough to reach. I’ve had a couple close calls where the cables don’t want to cooperate
n) SOLDERING/CRIMPING CLEARANCE: Plan, plan, plan. That’s all I have to say. This usually occurs when you’re soldering wires for your deck install. Solder the hardest wires you can get at before you start doing the easy ones. Nine out of ten times you’ll sit there cursing because you ran out of room. In some cases the deck won’t have a removable harness, and you’re stuck balancing a deck with your knee, holding a wire in air, and soldering that floating wire, all while trying not to melt something. Same applies to crimping wires. You can’t crimp a wire if your crimpers can’t reach your wire. Again, think before you cut, and think before you join.
o) THE FIRST CUT: I once thought that the pre-outs to the factory amp were the speaker wires, boy did it take some time finding the real speaker wires. Find out before hand if there is a factory amplifier.
Had a made a list the first time I installed a system, I wouldn’t have found myself driving back and forth to the local hardware shops with a car left in pieces.
3-----------------SUBS
Plan out what you want, and what type of enclosure. If you want a ported box, but when you put it in your trunk, and the ports are blocked, it kind of kills the mood.
My biggest mistake was the first box I made. On paper it WOULD FIT in the trunk, when I built it, it sounded awesome, not too boomy, nice and deep for a ten, and wasn’t overly huge. In actuality, I couldn’t get it in the trunk. When I removed the spare tire, and carpet, I got the box in, but couldn’t put the tire and carpet back in. Theoretically if I could get the enclosure through the trunks hell-mouth, the box would fit inside the trunk perfectly, four inches of free-play I said, yeah right. What I ended up doing is wasting money and had to build a new box, this was after two hours of trying to squeeze a pumpkin into a straw. Try building a cardboard box with similar dimensions, and stuffing that into the trunk.
My friend did the same thing to his Honda Accord. After building an enclosure for two 15s, he couldn’t get the box into his trunk by an inch (semi-planned box). He eventually got the box in, this was after the use of a persuasion (crow) bar. When his car got broken into, the thieves couldn’t get the box, but they got his 15s. After losing $6000 on his insurance claim, he gave up car audio, and had to cut his enclosure out using a jig saw.
Trouble Lights---------------------------
These puppies are hotter than you think, I melted a piece of my air vent with a trouble light once, like it mattered, it was in my beater car, but if it was a Bimmer, I would be cheesed. Watch where you hang one of these puppies, they’re pretty hot.
Pulling the Battery----------------------
Unless you get really good with working with hot wires, not recommended for high current applications, you may want to pull the battery. I admit I’m pretty good at doing a deck with the battery linked up, but I must have blown hundreds of fuses trying to get good at it. I still pull the battery for big items like amps, and other expensive equipment. For safety, and hassle free installs, just pull the battery, I’ve ran out of fuses a couple of times….More than a couple of times.
Testing with the Engine On--------------------------
So you’ve assembled the system, wired everything up, and mounted everything back together, sounds fine, and you got alternator whine. Here’s my story, a few years back, 1990 Celica GTS, hot summer day, dual amp system, 10 speakers, spliced into the factory deck. Imagine this, amp one magnificently installed on the rear folding seat, amp two hidden under the front passenger seat, everything is wired up, seats put back in place, the system is booming, sounds fine while the ignition is off. Start the car to move it off the driveway, and wheeeeee-wheeeeee-wheeee, alternator whine, what the hell, I was no where near crossing a signal wire (I’m not the best to write about alternator whine).
Here’s the mistake, when you install a system test it out with and without the engine running. In the above story, I must have taken out the front seat and put it back about 30 times in that one night, chasing myself in circles. Because I spliced into a factory deck with low-level outputs, the total install time before I discovered alternator whine was 7 hours plus. Be sure to have enough cable to tug around for movement in case you have alt-whine, I cut a couple wires too short because I though all was well.
Clean Your Vehicle ------------------------------
Fortunately my friends were very nice and they washed and vacuumed their vehicles when I did an install for them. In the winter on my own vehicle I wasn’t so lucky. Sand in your hair sucks.
Know What You Want -----------------------------
The mental grief of wondering whether or not your subs are balanced is crazy if you bought a pair of subs at two different times. If you know you want two tens, buy two tens. Then you don’t have to worry about getting a bigger amp (in some cases), getting a new enclosure, or stuffing the subs in your trunk. The anguish of wanting more bass after you install one sub is killer, it robs a huge amount of mental capacity.
If you know you’re going to buy the bigger amp, or the better deck, or a better EQ, wait out and buy the one you want. You’ll save money in the long run. Think of all the work you have to do if you bought two tens, and you actually wanted two twelve’s instead, new box, the hassle of stuffing all the gear in the trunk, and selling off the old parts.
Know your level of competition. Chances are, if you THINK you are going to compete, and you don’t end up doing it, you don’t need to wire your car with expensive everything. Same with sound deadening material, why use Dynamat, when you can use Brown Bread at a fraction of the cost. You don’t need the best if you’re not really going to use it. What’s the point of buying top grade wire, when you use low-grade products? Moral of the story, car audio is an expensive pissing contest.
Favourite Tools and Materials ---------------------
For Installs I have a specific set of tools used for doing a basic car audio install here’s what’s in my toolbox, it may be excessive, but I never have to run to the hardware store during an install anymore:
Paladin Ratchet Crimps
Manual Wire Crimper/Wire Stripper
Automatic Wire Stripper
Klein Tools High Leverage Cutting Pliers
Long Nose Pliers
Side Cutters
12” Long Nose Pliers (45 Degree Head)
Door Panel Upholstery Remover Tool
Vise-Grip Long Nose Pliers
12V Light Tester
Continuity Tester (Self Grounding)
10AWG, 12AWG, 14AWG, 20AWG Stranded Wire
Fluke 112 Digital Multi-meter
4 Different sized tie wraps (held together with a rubber band, looks like a stock of broccoli)
3 Different sizes of Heat Shrink Tubing
Soldering Gun (To be replaced with a Soldering Iron Station)
Solder
15, 20, 30 AMP ATC Fuses
30 AMP Circuit Breaker
Spare Fuse Link (For adding new connections)
Flat/Philips screwdrivers (very small, medium, long, hefty)
Electrical Tape
Craft kit full of Wire Ferrules/Crimps
BIC Lighter
Spare Battery Terminals
Battery Terminal Cleaner
Old radio speaker (Mapping Wires for Non-labelled harnesses)
Small Crescent Wrench
Sheet Metal Screws
Utility Knife
Alligator Clips
Nuts with matching Bolts
Wire Looms (Two Sizes)
Pencils with Avery Labels
Small Flash Light
9Volt Battery
Date: March 27, 2002
Written By: ectwo
Rev. 0
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