1993 Explorer with JBL hack

now if you are just wanting something temp then i think you have another option. if this is the vehicle that uses a 70-5514 or 70-5511 (gray rectangle power plug and a square speaker plug that makes an L into gray heat shrink) then you can always wire up the harness and throw +12 volt switched to the blue and blue/white wires on the aftermarket harness and that will turn the factory amp on. again haven't done one of these in a minute and i'm getting kind of lax in my old age but i think that works and you will lose the sub (if it has one). anyway, hope this helps and good luck!"I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think."

-Socrates-

btw, the only down fall to turning on and utilizing the factory amp is if your radio beeps when turning the volume up and down or inside of menus it will be slightly louder than what you are used to. other than that you will notice you don't have to turn it up as loud on the volume to get it to an audible level. this is due to the fact that instead of 0.2 to 0.5 VOLTS (RCA level) going into the factory amp you will have 17 to 22 WATTS into the amp so the ratio is a bit skewed but alot easier than doing all that RCA integration for a temp job. anyway, good times!"I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think."

-Socrates-

bmwpwner wrote: btw, the only down fall to turning on and utilizing the factory amp is if your radio beeps when turning the volume up and down or inside of menus it will be slightly louder than what you are used to. other than that you will notice you don't have to turn it up as loud on the volume to get it to an audible level. this is due to the fact that instead of 0.2 to 0.5 VOLTS (RCA level) going into the factory amp you will have 17 to 22 WATTS into the amp so the ratio is a bit skewed but alot easier than doing all that RCA integration for a temp job. anyway, good times!

Well my radio doesn't have an internal amp, only RCA preouts. So I had no other choice. It was cool though because the factory amp is getting the correct signal. BTW it sounds pretty nice and the volume curve is perfect.

Maxxed Outt

oh yea i forgot you said that your head unit was a dead head. cool, i'm glad it is working out for ya then. some of those explorers get crazy with the factory amps, remote tuner brains, etc. i'm glad you got yours figured out. good luck."I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think."

-Socrates-

OK fellas, the results are finally in!  All the speaker wires are found in the rear pass quarter.  The big board with the factory amplifiers and subwoofer was removed, it came out in once piece. The aftermarket 4 channel took its place.

There are two factory amps back there, a black four channel and a silver sub amp.  The top plug on the black amp has all of the speaker wires and they are coded the same as that found on the12volt's stereo wiring database. You can even use the remote wire from back there.  I actually wired a relay using the old 12 volt wire for the amp and used the remote as a trigger, this way i can power up the amps crossover and cap without worrying about hurting the headunit.

The bottom plug on the black amp is the line level input coming from the headunit.  This is the wire I had patched behind the head unit into RCA plugs for the meanwhile. 

I added components to the front doors and left the factory set in the rear (lets see how long those will last).  The mono amp and cap was mounted to the sub box...after a lil tweaking here and there, we were ready for the drive by the clubs.

I might have been vague on some parts, please feel free to ask if unclear on any part.  For those of you who know what I'm talking about I hope this info will be able to get someone out of a deadend. 

Last but not least, this was done on a 93 explorer limited (exploder is what I call them).  We have a 94 limited and a 94 eddie bauer in my household and the wiring checked to be the same.  Anybody know what other years this is good for......through 91 maybe?

Once again thanks for everybody's input and insight.

Maxxed Outt