Im installing my old system in my friend's 2003 ford explorer sport and i was wondering if anyone knew how i should run the power wire for the amp. And also one other thing: he has the stock subwoofer but on the amp there arent any RCA jacks and there are none on the head unit so how should i connect the amp to the head unit?
What do you mean how to run the power wire? Pull up carpet, drill hole thru firewall, run wire is how i always do it. Zip tie it to existing wiring in the engine bay.
To connect to the stock system you need a line out converter. Connect it to the stock sub wires.
You have to figure that out youself... find a spot down by the floor in front, with nothing on the other side of it in the engine bay and drill thru there. You may or may not have to take off dash panels.
Even if the stock sub is blown or whatever the case may be those are the wires you want to tap for the LOC. Unless your factory amp is broke or something like that...
it's where existing wiring goes thru the firewall.. i do NOT recommend doing that, just drill a hole, its not hard...
" how much clearance should i leave between the wire and the headers?"
As much as possible. lol. You definetly don't want to melt the jacket. I also recommend putting plastic wire loom around the wire in the engine bay, you can get it at harbor freight tools or any other hardware store (will cost more tho) or partsexpress.
" and will i need to seal it somehow? "
Use any silicone sealant, again hardware store.
" do i tap the wires before they go into the amp or between the amp and the sub? "
is the wire loom that like black ribbed tubing stuff that is cut down the middle to fit over the wire? i think i already have some. and if the LOC connection there doesnt work (the stock sub doesnt work at all) then is there another place i can tap for the LOC?
Yep thats wire loom. Just make sure what you have is big enough for heavy gauge power wire...
The stock system most likely has a crossover in it that sends low freq to the sub and everything else to the other speakers.. so you may be able to tap the wires going to one of the rear speakers, but i would bet on it not working well.
A low pass filter you mean. That is what is used for subs, lets the low freq pass thru and blocks the high. But the problem would be, the stock crossover is probably sending the low freq to the sub and blocking it from the other speakers.
And you tap between factory amp and sub b/c an LOC converts a high level signal to low level for an amp, that how it lets you connect to a factory system. Theres really no good way to know what the signal from the factory hu is before the amp...
Just remember everything i'm telling you is how it "generally" works, i can't know for sure without testing the vehicle...
yeah we hooked it up to the rear speaker and when you put your hand on the sub it was barely vibrating at all. so i think tomorrow well put the stock amp back in and try it on that. but the stock sub doesnt work so who knows if that will work
So why'd you bother asking all these questions if you werent going to listen... i could have told you theres now way it would work without the stock amp
ok here are some steps to do in a 2003 ford explorer...
follow your sterring wheel colum... when it intercepts with the firewall... there should be a rubber boot that covers the sterring wheel bar that goes trough the firewall( firewall is like the metal wall between your and the engine)
ok when you locate that rubber thing you can pick something sharp and make a small hole depending on your gauge wire.. when you did a lil hole or you can pass the cable trough the side.. of that rubber thing that is actualli a gromet..
ok pass the cable from inside the car using a flash light if you cant try from inside the hood. locate that hole and pass the cable trough that frommet thing make it lil aside but for better protection cut a small hole so the wire can pass tru
the hole must be small than the wire so that the wire will pass and expand the rubber thing and be tight and no air ca pass tru and actually aislate the engine noise and air from the engine..
lift the carpet alil bit.. you have to take the door pillars that holds the carpet...take them out and pass true the wire from the driver side and make it next to the door since you will see that if its less than 4 gauge or 4 gauge the wire can fit inside the metal molding that connects to the door pillars...
keep doin it until you reach the back..
the ground well you can make one easy
lift your rear seats find some sheet metal.. scrape paint of it until it looks like pure metal put your wire with the ring terminal and drill a hole and put a screw in it that fits..
another one is to take out the back seats and where the bolts of the backseat scrape the paint off and put the ring terminal inthere..
and stick the screw driver between the sheet metal of the door and the plastic door panel... try to pull carefully off... and when the door panel separates alil from the door.. find a flash light and flash it inside locate the plastic screw things.. and put the flat headed screw driver in there and pull from those screw..
you can find a door removal tool on murrays or pepboys for under 10 bucks and will make the job really simple..
try to run your rcas away from the power wire as possible.. since some noise could pass true the rcas and cause noises..
already got everything installed man but thanks a lot! i just drilled a hole in the firewall a little bit left of the steering column to get as far away as i could from the headers. and i tucked it under the carpet and plastic pieces all the way to the rear left corner of the car where it comes up. and my RCA's are coming from the right side of the car so theyre plenty far from the power wire.
as for the line out converter, its a sport so i had to tak off the whole side panel inside the car to get to all that stuff. i hooked it up to the rear speaker but because it has a stock subwoofer, i believe its crossed over at the head unit so its not sending any bass to the rear speakers. so in a little while im gunna try to connect it to the stock amp