wiring for 96 taurus w/ jbl

hello

im trying to put in a small powered 8"sub on the back seat floor. the sub itself has no labels for wiring, cause i lost the manual. online, kenwood offers nothing, but i think this is ok: the power is labeled as 12v, and is 2 wires going into the quick release connector. ground, im assuming is the other 2 black wires. this is most likely the case because even though they have 2 power and 2 ground wires, they are crimped together at the ends. now the only one left must be the remote turn on wire, right?

considering that is all ok, my problem is that i cant figure out what wire is the remote turn on in my taurus with premium jbl sound. the info on this website says its ORANGE / LIGHT BLUE but i have no orange light blue wires either at the HU or in the trunk at the  jbl amp. im assuming that this site hasn't included the jbl wiring diagrams in their databases.

anyhow, i tried using the wires going to the power antenna (the remote unit turn on wire runs there, right?). the 4 wires are hot, hot in start, ground, and antenna, not including the coax, of course. well, the antenna wire didn't work. is it supposed to?

anyone who with info about where the remote turn on switch is for a 96 taurus w/ jbl sound would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

You should be using a multimeter to test for wires, and as long as you have one of those and can get to the jbl amp, check all the wires going IN to the amp for approx. 12 volts.  Some will read 12 volts all the time, and one might even read 12 volts with the car on and the stereo off.  But the one you want to tap in to for the remote turn-on for your amp is gonna be the wire that gets voltage only when the stereo is on.

Before you hook up to that wire though, I'd double check to make sure you have the sub amp's wiring correct.  You can do this by picking out the wires you think are the power and turn-on, then hooking them both to a known constant 12 volt source, and the amp should power up.  Remove the turn-on and the amp will turn off.

The reason I say to make sure you have the correct wiring on the sub amp side is that if you inadvertently pick the amp's constant wire as the one to hook up to the remote turn on connection in the jbl amp harness, the sub amp will end up trying to power itself using that remote signal and not a direct battery line like it's supposed to.

Sorry if that's not the answer you were looking for, but no matter what we always insist that you are checking all your vehicle's wires with a digital multimeter before you're making connections to them; so you should be able to not only find the correct wire but also verify the other wires, by using a DMM.

ok, so i got to working on the amp again this weekend. everything powers up now. the problem was a bad location for my ground. with the multimeter i got a fine reading, but i guess it couldnt carry much of any real current like the amp wanted to. no problem with the remote turn on wire, i got it.

new problem: the sub is very quiet! i think it may be due to the incoming signal from my speakers (im using the hot speaker inputs, not rca). when i measured the voltage, it was just under 7 volts. isn't it supposed to be around 14 volts?

if this is the problem for the quiet output, would a rca line level converter be able to solve this? these units have adjustable outputs, correct?

also, thanks to esmith69 for the last reply, it helped alot.

I dunno why I forgot about this before, but make sure you're picking the correct spot to tap in to the factory wiring for your signals.  The thing with this system is that the amp for the woofer is actually a separate one from the main speakers' amp and it's mounted directly on the back of the woofer's magnet.  Most likely the wiring to the woofer's terminals will still be accessible, although you won't have much slack to work with.  Just strip back the insulation while leaving the wires intact, and solder onto the wires to make the connections for the line output converter's inputs (or the sub amp's input, depending on which one you decide to use).

If you tap in to the other wires that go to the 6x8s, you'll get an amplified signal, but there won't be a lot of bass because the system is designed to send the bass only to the sub.

The only place where you'd be able to get a signal that's full range is before it gets amplified, but this would not be compatible with your setup without you using an output-matching line driver ($$$).  So the back of that woofer is your only other alternative.

Usually I recommend using external line output converters as they do a better job than the ones built in to most amps.  If this is not the spot you chose to tap in to, you can try it again using the correct spot and the sub amp's built-in high-level inputs, and see if you like the way it sounds.  If you're still having problems you might then consider getting yourself an external converter.

its all working good now. i used the line coming from the factory jbl sub, and it works. it sounded sh*tty at first though. the problem was very loud bass at lov volune levels, and normal bass at higher volume levels. fixing it was as simple as turning the bass at the HU from +2 down to zero. ford and their screwy jbl systems.... i'll be dammed if i ever reccomend one.

thanks again for all your help esmith69. couldn't have done it without this forum!