1993 Explorer with JBL hack

I'm working on a '93 Explorer Limited with the JBL Premium Sound in it.  I'm working in bits-n-pieces, starting with the head unit.  I already installed a Sony head unit which doesn't come with an internal amp so I ended up hacking the amp signal plug from behind the HU and converting it to RCA jacks. 

I know they sell a plug that does it, but i didn't want to bother being pressed with time and the factory stuff is all going to be permanently eliminated little by little.  The subwoofer box was removed to mount a capacitor and a fuse block to prep for 2 aftermarket amps.  One is a four channel and the other one is a mono-sub amp. 

My question is...are the colors of the speaker wires found on the output of the factory amp (located on the rear passenger quarter) the same colors found behind the HU on the same truck without the premium sound? The amps are going under the seat and instead running new speaker wires all around (i'm lazy) I figured I can hack the wires coming out of the factory amp, specially since all the wires are there, even the remote trigger for the new amps.

Anybody know offhand the color code to the wires of the amp's output? Any help will be appreciated.

Get Maxxed Outt

"why be lazy and use very small, hacked up wire to run from an amp? i'm not saying reinvent anything, just do it right the first time and save yourself some trouble in the long run.

you posted the question, i answered."

"Do it right the first time?" Ok so you mean to tell me you rewire EVERY car on a headunit upgrade, even a power wire straight to the battery?  All of that isn't necessary, not even rewiring the speaker wires.  If you aren't familiar with factory sound equipment, well then yeah, your best bet would be to rewire the speakers.  But I know where all the components are and which wires are which, I just need the color coding for the speaker wires.

What do you mean by small? Gauge or length?  Yeah the line level input wires behind the radio are very thin (16-18ga), but those are fine for line level signal for now, after I hacked them they were still factory length so I had no problems with them being too short.

Hacking the wires coming out of the factory amp is the same as if you hacked the wires behind the headunit when not using a wire harness.   Instead of having my speaker lines behind the radio, they are found in the rear pass. quarter where the factory amp is.  Since the four channel is going under the rear seat I can use the same wires with the same loom and everything, it reaches.

Either way I wrote to the forum to save myself sum time.  But I guess I'll just do it the ASE (Alley Sertified Eng) way and cut the wires and use a AA battery to look for the wire pairs.  I would have been done by now.

Maxxed Outt

I'll have to take my panel off again to check it, the weekend is up so I'll have it sumtime within a couple of days.  Thanks Dolphin

I hear what your saying Teezer, but Its a customers truck, and what the customer wants is what the customer gets.  He's not too happy with the factory amp and quite frankly neither am I.  The doors are going to be upgraded to component sets along with a 4 channel amp.

I'm all about soundstaging and unfortunately the owner of this truck is too.  So the master plan is 3 RCA sets from the head unit to the rear.  The front and rear to the four channel and the sub to a mono amp, both under the rear seat.

Now there is two ways of goin by running the interior speakers at that point.

1. Run speaker wires to an integrator plug you mentioned behind the radio and use a bypass plug at the factory amp. Creating a large loop towards the front of the car.

2. Cut the output wires of the factory amp and shoot straight from under the seat to the rear quarter. No big loop made there, a perfect straightaway.

Rewiring all four doors is definitely out of the question, I've seen more damage done that way than using the factory wires. Wait a minute...you just got me on to something.  I can figure out the colors at the amp when I remove the door panels, respectively. 

Thanks for your insight Teezer

Maxxed Outt

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no, i don't run new wires UNLESS i'm adding an aftermarket amp which is what i assumed you were doing. besides, if you know which wires are which, why do you need help?

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Don't get mad because I"m not going your route. I've been there and done that. In this field you need to be open to new suggestions and take criticism lightly.  The whole purpose of this is to ease installation and as an added bonus you also save on wire (factory 14-16ga is fine with me) and reduce the risk of breaking any doorpanels (you know how clips can be)

Was I stuck? Yes I was, and I came to the12volt for a helping hand. As soon as I'm done I'll be posting the colors and locations of the wires. 

Thanks everyone for all the help and great motivation!

Maxxed Outt

"A wise man once told me...two idiots think better than one." 

oh, and you could have saved yourself alot of time adding a deck by just doing you bypassing in the pass kick panel. and how did the sony radio not have an internal amp? so just rca preouts is the only thing it came with?

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How would I go about doing the bypass in the kick panel?

As for the radio, yeah its the higher end one with a full widescreen on the face (not detachable). It has audio/video inputs and plays dvd's

i'm not sure you can do that explorer in the passenger kick panel. generally that is the 1996 eddie bauer that you can do the bypass in the pass kick. on that vehicle the easiest way is to go to the rear passenger side and grab everything off the output side of the factory amp. instead of buying a taurus kit and using just the wiring out of it go and buy a 70-5514 (this is the amp integration with the bypass harness) and i believe that the 70-5513 (bypass harness by itself). you can use that harness to plug into the output side of the amp and just wire off of that harness and then route everything to your aftermarket equipment. also, it has been a while since i have done a 93 explorer but i want to say if you look around in the dash towards the passenger side inside the radio cavity there may be a bypass harness. if you see a black harness that looks very similar to the power harness (and maybe even another power harness) you can use that for a bypass indash and just run everything to the dash. good luck and hope this helps.

bmwpwner wrote:

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i'm not sure you can do that explorer in the passenger kick panel. generally that is the 1996 eddie bauer that you can do the bypass in the pass kick. on that vehicle the easiest way is to go to the rear passenger side and grab everything off the output side of the factory amp. instead of buying a taurus kit and using just the wiring out of it go and buy a 70-5514 (this is the amp integration with the bypass harness) and i believe that the 70-5513 (bypass harness by itself). you can use that harness to plug into the output side of the amp and just wire off of that harness and then route everything to your aftermarket equipment. also, it has been a while since i have done a 93 explorer but i want to say if you look around in the dash towards the passenger side inside the radio cavity there may be a bypass harness. if you see a black harness that looks very similar to the power harness (and maybe even another power harness) you can use that for a bypass indash and just run everything to the dash. good luck and hope this helps.

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Finally someone who's been to where I'm going. The only thing in the pass kick is the ECM. 

Although I didn't find any of the plugs you mentioned I did find towards the drivers side, underneath the dashboard, is another connection on the line level cord.  Making the wire that shows up by the radio only a couple of feet long, not the 10+ feet that one might think all the way to the amp.

I didn't use any of the aftermarket harnesses.  I patched the line level wire with RCA plugs and used the line level out of the radio, and voila, no need for a gain adjuster like on sum of the integrators available (I saved $40). Remember this is only temporarily while the aftermarket amplifiers are wired with aftermarket RCA wires.

I already had in mind using a bypass wire for the amp and cutting the line level plug off.  Hooking up the other end to the speaker out plug removed from the amp and wiring that straight to the amp.  But I have no need for using the plug, this will be a permanent installation. 

I'm off to the garage in about an hour, so we might come up with some more facts in the morning.

Maxxed Outt

bmwpwner wrote:

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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!

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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

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