supergoat

ok. So from what I saw, I should remove the amps from the speakers? Why would they interfere? I have installed stereos in Mazdas before with factory amp'd speakers just fine. Why is the RX-7 so different. All you had to do was hook the power antenna wire from the deck to the amp power and all was well.

What am I missing?

hypntyz7

You cna either leave them there, or take them out either one. Theyre not all tht poewrful, about the same as the aftermarket system youre installing, so there's nothing to be gained by them being there, except possible distortion, but it depends on how you adjust the deck and how loud you listen. IF you just wanna make your stereo work ok, then leave them all there adn plug it up. You'll ned to supply power to them(86-8 cars) through, IIRC, the white single wire, or else they wont turn on. Use the blue wire on your deck.

IF you have an 89+, then youll want to rewire the front door speakers, cause they have a low pass filter to make them woofers and sound shitty otherwise. Just find the wires for the front dash speakers, and splice into those, and extend them out to the doors as well, so theyre playing off the same signal. When I install a good stereo in a rex, I usually run all new speaker wire to all 4/6 speakers. I use 18 gage wiring, its bigger than stock, and you can be absolutely sure of connections and integrity. Plus, later on if you want, you can hook an amplifier up to the mids (if you have subs) and tune it all out to sound great, but only if you run your own wires. THis from a guy who had a $2000 fosgate system in his 89 gtu that hit 147+.

supergoat

thanks for the answer. I didn't wanna go through the hassle of removing them...now that i know i don't have to I feel better. I figured it would be safe to leave them in. I'mnot looking for much power out my stereo at all; I was just tired of a damn tape player.

Icemark

#1 The big key to the factory amp is that it is designed to have a less than 15 watt input.

Putting more than 15 watts has a tendecy to overload the circuit increasing THD and blowing out the speakers. It also tends to short out the new radios outputs leading to a shortend life on the new replacement radio.

This generally won't happen overnight (but I have seen it happen in a little as a week or a year.

#2 So say you buy a new sony or alpine or kenmore radio with 40 watts a channel... if you hook it up to the stock amps that only put out 25 watts a channel you will have considerably less power than what that radio can put it out. So you just wasted your money on that high powered radio, not using that high power.

supergoat

No sir! 15 watts per channel for me.

What can I say, I'm cheap.

Keith

I put in a Sony cd player(50x4) in my last rex with the amps still connected and it worked fine for about a week. Then when I turned it up it would cut off. I had to switch to a 30x4 and it worked o.k.Now I just wired it without the amps. I think it is the best way to go.

JarvsStyU

ok, so i'm installing a new head unit. i got a 91 n/a, but when i looked the wiring harness up it corresponded to the 92 and newer stock tape decks. there are 2 banana clips in back of the stock unit. now, i'm to understand that one is the power to the factory amps? the female one, right? what do i do with it? this is the impression i got from reading the top of the post. and i have to uninstall the factory amps. where exactly are each of them? i believe one to be by the passenger side front 4". and i must run new wires from the 6" speakers in the door to the head unit (i put in full range speakers, installed a sub in back). otherwise those 6" ones will only be low ends. i'm working on mountin 6" in the shock towers as well. do i have to run wires to those, as well? and in a few months i intend on putting tweeters either in the front of the door, or in the corners of the dash. i'm just trying to clarify all this before i go and do it wrong.

thanks ya'll.
jarvs

kemozabi

If the amps arent getting power.....could that make it so no sound comes out the speakers. I have and 86 na with no sound, yet power to the deck and im tryin to figure out the problem.

one guy at some shop said to rewire the whole thing..is that hard to do myself if it comes to that...or does anyone kno a good shop around sacramento who will do it for a good price?

KNONFS

iTrader: (14)

Not te ba an *** or start a war, BUT I will love to see ANY radio put out more than 10 watts RMS (at best)!!

RLBRX7

I just rewired the speakers in my 1986 base N/A. Yes, it appears to be a challenging job at first, however, it is not as bad as it sounds. You will need 2 putty knives, both fairly stiff. These are used to pry up the plastic pop rivets used to hold down some of the plastic pieces and carpet of the interior. A phillips head screwdriver is required for the various screws encountered.

Remove the plastic door jambs along the door sill. The carpet is held over (stretched) a metal lip by 3 white plastic pieces. They lift up easily. There is a hard cardboard strip along the inside of the frame, held in place by black plastic rivets. Slide a putty knife underneath one side of the rivet, the other knife under the other side and lift up on both at the same time. Give it alittle strength. THey will come up. 'Bout 3-4 on each door. This opens up the cavity you will feed wire thru.

Working toward the rear you will find another plastic rivet, carpet colored, holding the carpet down in the back. Pop it up with the putty knives. You will get the hang of that quickly. Slide your seat forward all the way. Remove the plastic rivets holding down the carpet from the rear area. Flip the carpet back to rear, exposing the storage bin framing. I have no bins, if you have them they must be removed as well. Get a socket or wrench I think 11mm, maybe 14mm and remove the bolts holding the storage bin framing and take them out. You can now access and remove the inner panels against the bodyside, which is the next step.

Lift the door rubber trim piece off the frame, it comes off/goes back on easily. Now you can slide your fingers behind the rear panel to remove it. You have to pull hard, you will hear it pop off. Inspect this piece from the rear. Notice where and how it affixes to the body so you can align it properly on re-installation. It will pop back on easily, you have to push hard at each spot that contains a retainer. You now have a path to feed wire to the rear of the car.

At the front of the door, the kickpanel is a small piece with a few plastic rivets. Remove them with putty knives. You splayed out the wiring path. Up under the dash you are on your own, its not that hard to feed the wire their, just tuck it away. Worst part is you are on your head, upside down. Feed the wires up to the head unit and make your connections. Beware positive to positive, negative to negative, at head unit as well as at all speakers. The wiring for the front dash speakers is easy to run, you will see that.

Well, I think that is all. Use the putty knife to press the wiring down low behind the cardboard piece. Make sure nothing binds on the wires when replacing all the pieces. Once you have done this you will see how it is all put together. Not too hard. Just alittle work and a few beers (or N/A beers). I ran speaker wire and RCA down passenger side, power and remote turn on leads down drivers side. I mounted amp in storage bin area.

Hope this helps, I think you will get it done. Saves alot of cash for that stereo as well.

Icemark

Why did you rewire that way? were you adding a new amp and it was over 50 watts per speaker RMS???

This is why you pay a shop to do this for you...

The shop would have simply re-wired the drivers dash speaker by running a new wire, then bypassed the amps at the speakers.

In other words at each amplified speaker, you have a set of wires already running from the head unit/front. These wires are perfectly fine to wire directly to the speaker when installing an aftermarket head unit, in fact they are fine for up to about 50 watts RMS with no problems. maybe 100 watts peak even.

anyway you just bypass the amp at the amp, no need to rip apart the whole car and run another 10 lbs of wire.

and KNONFS you said:
Most of the better high powered head units from alpine, pioneer, and sony all have 20 watts RMS per speaker. These decks require wiring directly to the battery or ignition source and have a 20 amp or 30 amp fuse. These are in the affordable range now, and with new mosfet designs much more efficent than even basic chip amps.

RLBRX7

Yes, when I upgraded to a new head unit I was unimpressed, as I kind of knew I would be, with the sound it produced. I made the decision to add an amp, hence the rewiring of the speakers. I wanted to hide the amp and since I had no storage bins I felt the ideal place was in that location.

kemozabi

oohh, i see, time to bypass

Angel Guard Racing Team

OK guys I need help on this one... I just bought an 87 GXL. The guy who sold it had ripped all the radio cables from their respective plugs. I put them back together. Now can someone tell me where do these cables go? I mean there is a little black "Clarion" box with a blue wires on both sides Where does that one go? Some will fit in one place only that is fine but after installing everything the antenna goes up but there is no sound and the radio's display is not turned on. Can someone help this radio illiterate?

RLBRX7

Heres a post from "Icemark" on 1-28-02:

here's the radio wires again...

LTBlue/Red= 12v+
LtBlue/White= +Accessory
LtBlue/Yellow= -power ant trigger
Red/Black=+ Lumination
White=Factory Amp Turn on

Ground to the body, use the 10mm bolt behind the center console front drivers access panel. Do not use the Red/Black as ground it will damage the interior light circuit and dimmer in the car

Front Speakers (maximum of a 15 watt peak from the radio):
LtGreen/Red= Left
LtGreen/Black= Left

LtGreen= Right
LtGreen/Yellow=Right

Rear Speakers (if applicable, if you have the amplified rear speakers again the Maximum of 15 watts peak is all the stock speaker amp input can handle):
Brown= Left rear
Brown/White= Left Rear

LtBlue= Right Rear
LtBlue/Orange=Right Rear

(the above Thanks to ICEMARK)

This should give you the information you need. Just a suggestion, but if you use the search button at the upper right part of your screen, you can type in a few words that will bring up pages close to what you are looking for. This usually works well and you end up acquiring all kinds of information. If you cannot find what you are looking for or don't understand you can then post your question. Good Luck!

RLBRX7

By the way these colors were exactly what i encountered when working on my 86 N/A stereo.

kemozabi

since were on the subject of sound...im havin the same problem as ANGEL GUARD except i have power to my deck. Im super positive that all the wires are connected correctly, iv checked to many times, and i have a proper ground to the little bolt on the side where the stock ground was. with all that done there is no sound output at all, not even fuzz. so right now all i can think of is that the amps are blown or somethin and its not letting the connections go through or somethin. as of now im tryin to bypass the amp, but theres a problem, i dont kno what the amp is and how to bypass it. i have one of the rear speakers out of it right now along with the little bucket type thing it comes in and im assuming that the amp is the larger board inside of it?? some assistance would be nice...id be mighty neighborly of yall. o ya, its an 86 na

-kemo

Angel Guard Racing Team

Thanks...

Angel Guard Racing Team

OK let me make the question a lot easier... Since I am not interested the wires all I want is to know where the plugs go in the radio. There are plugs that fit in more than one place. So can somebodu tell me where the 3 and 4 wire plugs go? I don't want to burn the radio.

Rx-7Addict

iTrader: (2)

With wiring the amps to the new deck, you lose the power antenna. So basically either the antenna is up when the car is on, or the antenna never comes on. Kind of a pain.

I have a JVC SH99 MP3 player hooked up to my stock amps. Its OK, but Id rather take out the factory amps and run the stock speakers from the deck.

Also, when I change tracks on my player it makes some noise when it does, like a almost whooshy sound. i think its becauuse of the way i rigged it.

Hope this helps, Im not too good with stereos, and if I had the choice again, I would of paid to have a professional install mine instead of doing it myself. Not worth the hassle

fc3sny

I've just installed a new head unit. However I'm not getting any radio reception. The reason for this is because the power antenna doesn't extend. I am aware that the stock power antenna needs a negative trigger but the head unit is giving a positive charge. Doesn't anyone know what I need to do to make the antenna work with the head unit?? Thanks in advance.

fc3sny

I've found the answer under a different thread. I should've looked more carefully... Thanks.

Angel Guard Racing Team

If you buy a power antenna ready unit you should be fine. Now can anyone help me????? Where in the radio do the plugs go???????? some fit in more than one place!!!!!!!

Angel Guard Racing Team

Will This help?

Angel Guard Racing Team

OK I found out where the cables go. My radio still does not work! The lights turn on with the dashboard, the antenna goes up and no display, no castte deck no eq or sound. Then I pulled it out again and outside the car ii hooked it up to a 12V+ and NO ground. The casette deck worked, the display lighted up but mo numbers just an orange screen, the program and dolby buttons worked in other words everything worked except the dark display numbers. I checked the fuses inside the car (kick panel) and no fuses are blown. Could it be that I am getting no power from the accessories (ignition) switch?.