here's a little trick for you do it yourselfers. if you're installing a 4 channel amp for highs, you'll need the speaker outputs on the amp to go to each individual speaker in the vehicle, which can sometimes be a PITA because the best spot to catch all the speakers is behind the radio.
when installing in a vehicle with speakers in the rear deck, you can "loop" the front speaker wires to the rear and catch all four speakers in the trunk for a short little run to the amplifier:
simply pull out the radio, connect the front left positive speaker wire to the rear left positive, front left negative to rear left negative, front right positive to rear right positive, and front right negative to rear right negative. this will result in the OEM speaker wires to the rear speakers now being wired directly to the front speakers, which you can run to your amp. run new wire from the rear speakers to the amp, and you're done!
easy little time saving trick i thought i'd share.
-UK
Replies (10)
swez on 02/1/2007 10:32:45
Hey, that's an FAQ topic and if you would be so kind, add it also to the DIY tips.
What a good idea!!! CLAP
Swez
jamesp on 02/1/2007 13:00:57
I am having a hard time visualizing this. Are you connecting the speaker wires together directly behind the head unit, like using a jumper wire from front r to rear r before the first plug or connector, and all the wiring continues on as before to its speaker? I dont understand how the wires can continue on to the speakers if you tie them together in parallel where they exit the head unit would you not now have an 2ohm load, if your speakers were 4 ohm to begin with.
Also, do you now only have amp output speaker wires in the rear r and rear l terminal positions on the amp with nothing in the front speaker outputs?. In other words are there now only 2 pairs of speaker output wires from tha amp(4 conductors total) If so, wouldnt you just as well use a 2 channel amp?
I think Im missing something here and just cant see the overall picture.
ttocs on 02/1/2007 13:10:02
been one of my favorite tricks for over a deckade!
You don't wire them into the deck, you just connect the factory speaker wires, you would not use deck power in this trick.
jamesp on 02/1/2007 16:20:16
Isee now. You just make the connections behind the head unit, not from the wires coming out of it. The only thing I dont get now is when running the amp output to the rear speakers, do you just use the rear channels or bridge the amp?
cplkittle on 02/1/2007 17:08:38
rear speakers are wired directly to the amplifier (it's a short run, we use new wire here)
The front speaker output from the amp goes to the old factory wires in the rear, which travel back up behind the HU, and are jumped over to the front speaker wires from there.
jamesp on 02/1/2007 20:50:40
Thanks, I can be pretty dense sometimes.
UKinstaller on 02/1/2007 21:49:09
swez manG, it won't let me add as a DIY article. i can't add nuttin'. copy and paste it for me, will ya??
jamesp, i know this can be hard to visualize, but look at it like this:
your car has four speakers in it (most of the time) and the wire runs to all different parts of the car. finding them individually would be a task, so it's easiest to find all four of the speakers behind the radio in the factory wiring harness. this trick will NOT work on factory amplified systems.
by connecting the OEM wiring of the left speakers together, it makes a continous path from the front left speaker to the trunk, where it attaches at the rear speaker. disconnect those wires from the rear speaker, and the result is speaker wires running directly to your door / dash speaker, whatever is up front. from here, you can run those wires that are already in the trunk to the amp. to amplifiy the rear speakers, all you have to do is attach speaker wire to the new speakers and run it to the amp as well, along with the wires that you are catching going to the front speaker. this keeps you from having to run four sets of speaker wire from behind the radio to the trunk, which can get real bulky.
you can do it on cars where the speakers are not in the rear deck, too, it's just a little more difficult, so it's USUALLY more efficient and neater to just catch the speakers behind the radio. exceptions can be made though.
-UK
swez on 02/1/2007 22:40:27
I made this an FAQ for now. I think we have to submit DIY'ers to Walt and he adds them as noted. I don't think I have the full Admin access to do this at the moment. If I can figure out a way to do it, will do...
Swez
ShootuhMcBustaCap on 02/4/2007 01:44:54
Thats one hella smooth trick UK! I am assuming such a setup could be reversed when running power from a head unit to rear speakers too, which would be something I would be more likely to do.
swez on 02/4/2007 09:22:14
If you run the rear speakers off the HU, the best option is to run some new speaker lines from the amp used, back up to the HU harness and tap your amped front speakers there.
Tech Tip: When amping front speakers off the HU harness lines, we must not allow amped speaker voltages to be fed back to the HU amps. This means we bypass the HU outputs and only connect wiring to the speaker side of the OEM harness. Or, we use the aftermarket harness, but snip the Aftermarket speaker leads back to the HU and splice in at the Aftermarket leads, (Gray and White pairs)
Got all that?
Swez
when installing in a vehicle with speakers in the rear deck, you can "loop" the front speaker wires to the rear and catch all four speakers in the trunk for a short little run to the amplifier:
simply pull out the radio, connect the front left positive speaker wire to the rear left positive, front left negative to rear left negative, front right positive to rear right positive, and front right negative to rear right negative. this will result in the OEM speaker wires to the rear speakers now being wired directly to the front speakers, which you can run to your amp. run new wire from the rear speakers to the amp, and you're done!
easy little time saving trick i thought i'd share.
-UK
Replies (10)
swez on 02/1/2007 10:32:45
Hey, that's an FAQ topic and if you would be so kind, add it also to the DIY tips.
What a good idea!!! CLAP
Swez
jamesp on 02/1/2007 13:00:57
I am having a hard time visualizing this. Are you connecting the speaker wires together directly behind the head unit, like using a jumper wire from front r to rear r before the first plug or connector, and all the wiring continues on as before to its speaker? I dont understand how the wires can continue on to the speakers if you tie them together in parallel where they exit the head unit would you not now have an 2ohm load, if your speakers were 4 ohm to begin with.
Also, do you now only have amp output speaker wires in the rear r and rear l terminal positions on the amp with nothing in the front speaker outputs?. In other words are there now only 2 pairs of speaker output wires from tha amp(4 conductors total) If so, wouldnt you just as well use a 2 channel amp?
I think Im missing something here and just cant see the overall picture.
ttocs on 02/1/2007 13:10:02
been one of my favorite tricks for over a deckade!
You don't wire them into the deck, you just connect the factory speaker wires, you would not use deck power in this trick.
jamesp on 02/1/2007 16:20:16
Isee now. You just make the connections behind the head unit, not from the wires coming out of it. The only thing I dont get now is when running the amp output to the rear speakers, do you just use the rear channels or bridge the amp?
cplkittle on 02/1/2007 17:08:38
rear speakers are wired directly to the amplifier (it's a short run, we use new wire here)
The front speaker output from the amp goes to the old factory wires in the rear, which travel back up behind the HU, and are jumped over to the front speaker wires from there.
jamesp on 02/1/2007 20:50:40
Thanks, I can be pretty dense sometimes.
UKinstaller on 02/1/2007 21:49:09
swez manG, it won't let me add as a DIY article. i can't add nuttin'. copy and paste it for me, will ya??
jamesp, i know this can be hard to visualize, but look at it like this:
your car has four speakers in it (most of the time) and the wire runs to all different parts of the car. finding them individually would be a task, so it's easiest to find all four of the speakers behind the radio in the factory wiring harness. this trick will NOT work on factory amplified systems.
by connecting the OEM wiring of the left speakers together, it makes a continous path from the front left speaker to the trunk, where it attaches at the rear speaker. disconnect those wires from the rear speaker, and the result is speaker wires running directly to your door / dash speaker, whatever is up front. from here, you can run those wires that are already in the trunk to the amp. to amplifiy the rear speakers, all you have to do is attach speaker wire to the new speakers and run it to the amp as well, along with the wires that you are catching going to the front speaker. this keeps you from having to run four sets of speaker wire from behind the radio to the trunk, which can get real bulky.
you can do it on cars where the speakers are not in the rear deck, too, it's just a little more difficult, so it's USUALLY more efficient and neater to just catch the speakers behind the radio. exceptions can be made though.
-UK
swez on 02/1/2007 22:40:27
I made this an FAQ for now. I think we have to submit DIY'ers to Walt and he adds them as noted. I don't think I have the full Admin access to do this at the moment. If I can figure out a way to do it, will do...
Swez
ShootuhMcBustaCap on 02/4/2007 01:44:54
Thats one hella smooth trick UK! I am assuming such a setup could be reversed when running power from a head unit to rear speakers too, which would be something I would be more likely to do.
swez on 02/4/2007 09:22:14
If you run the rear speakers off the HU, the best option is to run some new speaker lines from the amp used, back up to the HU harness and tap your amped front speakers there.
Tech Tip: When amping front speakers off the HU harness lines, we must not allow amped speaker voltages to be fed back to the HU amps. This means we bypass the HU outputs and only connect wiring to the speaker side of the OEM harness. Or, we use the aftermarket harness, but snip the Aftermarket speaker leads back to the HU and splice in at the Aftermarket leads, (Gray and White pairs)
Got all that?
Swez
Copyright ClubKnowledge 2009 * All Rights Reserved
