Installing 2nd amp in my friends car

NViejeP · Post by **NViejeP** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 5:28 pm

Tommorow me and my friend will be attempting to install a 2nd amp for his new components that we are also installing. We want to make sure we dont do anything stupid.

1) Is there anything we need to look out for? Any settings we should be looking out for?

2) I can just run the turn on wire from one amp to another right, to make it like a linked connection?

3) How do we mount the speaker crossovers in the trunk? Is it a lot of extra work?

4) For the speaker wires from the amp, we crimp it to the head unit's connections right? Do we need to connect the head unit to the component system?

solacedagony · Post by **solacedagony** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 5:36 pm

1) As long as you have the power/ground/remote/speaker wiring all done correctly, that's the main thing. All other settings can be tweaked on the amp.

2) That should work fine.

3) Mount them wherever you want, NOT near RCA cabling.

4) If you're running new components, you're probably going to have to run new wire, unless you use stock locations. Then you can just reuse the wire that's going to your stock location already. The only way the components are connected to the HU is by the RCAs that you ran to the amp which is powering your component set.

NViejeP · Post by **NViejeP** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 5:56 pm

Okay cool I see now. So right now, his component set in his stock location is hooked up directly to his head unit? I'm confused on the speaker wiring part. I'm thinking that maybe we should cut the speaker wire frfom the components to his head unit, and then tap into that using the speaker wire to amp, but i'm not sure. Can somebody clarify?

smoker · Post by **smoker** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 5:56 pm

where to start......ok, you WILL have to run new wires to the speaker locations....dont use the stock wire.....

the amp and the head unit should be connected via rca cables dont run anything else except for remote to the head unit....especially the speaker wires

you can jump the remote from one amp to another it will be fine

you will take the speaker outputs from the amp to the component crossovers...then that will split it out to tweeter and mid output for you...

you may also have tweeter adjustments on the crossovers...if your not sure just leave them at 0

smoker · Post by **smoker** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 5:57 pm

NViejeP wrote:Okay cool I see now. So right now, his component set in his stock location is hooked up directly to his head unit? I'm confused on the speaker wiring part. I'm thinking that maybe we should cut the speaker wire frfom the components to his head unit, and then tap into that using the speaker wire to amp, but i'm not sure. Can somebody clarify?

dont use the factory wiring....most stock component sets are amplified....and the crossover is usually in the amp for stock setups...run all new wires.....if you cut it at the head unit all you will get is lf/rf/lr/rr you wont find mid and tweet wires and you dont want to run your amped signal through the factory amp

NViejeP · Post by **NViejeP** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 6:04 pm

Oh I see. I don't have to replace the wiring involved with the mid to the crossover do I?
But yah that makes sense.

Now this is regarding my car. My speaker wires are run along side my RCAs to the head unit. I do not know where they go, I have never been in the back of my head unit, but is it a possibility the installers used the stock wiring or will it not work? Also is it okay that my speaker wires are being run alongside my RCAs? I've got no engine noise at the moment.

solacedagony · Post by **solacedagony** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 7:48 pm

It's ok to run speaker wires next to RCAs, just not power wire or having crossovers next to them.

Smoker: What I was referring to was running the speaker outs on his amp to the existing wiring so that he can just hook it up to the crossover and stick the crossover in the door. I would imagine he should know if his stock components have an amp or not (since he didn't ask about it). He also didn't say if he had a stock component system or just some stock speakers.

EDIT: Sorry to either of you if I wasn't clear, I have trouble with the making sense part sometimes.

imbrognolouis · Post by **imbrognolouis** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 7:49 pm

Well if you havnt installed the component set there shouldnt be anywiring ran yet.
What you want to do is run a set of RCAs from the HU to the 2nd amp. Then split off from the remote wire and run it to the 2nd amp.

Get a distrobution block and somewhre near your 2 amps use the distro block to Y out your power cable to run to both amps.

Run a seperate ground for each amplifier. Try and keep the ground wire very short.

Take some new wire, run one + and one - from one channel to one crossover. Do the same to the other crossover from the other channel.

Take some more wire, run it from the woofer + and - from the crossover to the woofer in your door or kickpanel that you just installed. Do the same for the other crossover and woofer.

Now do the exact same thing with the tweeter inputs.

No woofer, tweet, or crossover should run anywire near the headunit.

hope this helps. And run the rcas away from the side your battery is on.

NViejeP · Post by **NViejeP** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 9:43 pm

Cool thats exactly what I needed. I guess I don't use the existing wires from the old tweeters.

NViejeP · Post by **NViejeP** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 9:49 pm

He has a cap attached to his sub amp. It is possible to have 1 cap for 1 amp and no cap for the other right? Just want to make sure nothing gets screwed up.