| | Well I'm totally pleased with myself and feeling rather AWESOME.
Mainly because I just finished installing a new stereo head unit, and amplifier to my car in preparation for a 12'' woofer :)
Travis was there to help when I pulled out the new head unit yesterday to attach the RCA cables and remote cable to the
correct connectors.
Then the power cable was installed starting under the steering column
by pushing the wire through a pre-existing rubber grommet, with Travis's help of cutting a small hole in it we, through team
work, managed to get the wire though the firewall, many jokes about penetration were made.
After zip tieing the power cable to the throttle linkage cable housing, I ran the power cable under the door and frame trim
paneling back under the rear passenger seats into the trunk, Travis helped me out with a particularly tight trim piece near the
rear door. Then as the sun was setting, I ran the RCA and remote wires through the door and frame trim paneling on the
opposite side of the car and into the trunk.
That was yesterday, tonight I got home and had to fix the neighbors computer, they use Limewire, but that's a separate story.
When I got done with that, it was nearly midnight, so I felt compelled to, under inappropriate conditions, wire my amp by
myself for the first time ever. It should be noted that I started around 12:30am, outside in my drive way, with gusty winds
around 15mph, armed only with a super bright LED maglight.
I'm not saying it wasn't easy, it just took patience and about 2 hours of slow consistent work.
Before I did anything I disconnected the negative terminal on the battery for safety and to prevent any accidental short
circuiting. I crimped a few connectors to the ground and power cables first. Then I hunted around the trunk for an exposed bolt
within a few feet of the amp, I found a perfect one, but the problem was that the bolts had been painted over, so after a few
tries with the perfect one, I bailed on it, and picked the next closest one, which was about six inches away. It fought hard but
eventually gave in to my elbow grease. I sanded down the nut and chassis around the bolt until it was shiny, then attached the
ground wire connector to the bolt and screwed the nut back on. Then I when into the engine compartment for the part I was
nervous about.
There is a particularly bad ass looking fuse that sits in between the wire to the battery and the wire to the amplifier.
I had to cut the power cable I'd installed the previous day, strip and twist the wire and then thread both ends and tighten them
down on to the fuse connectors. After that was done I went and got the amp and put it in the trunk. Using an Alan wrench I
opened the screw grips on the amp's various connection points: Remote wire, ground, power.
The purpose of the remote wire, is so that the amplifier is only on when whatever the remote wire is connected to is on. In this
case, I attached the remote wire to my car stereo's powered antenna wire, so that the amp only turns on when the car stereo is
on.
Then came the moment of truth, I re-attached the negative terminal to the battery, and tightened it down, then I got in the car
and said "If something is going to blow up now's the time." then turned the ignition key over to accessories. At first my stereo
didn't come on and I was like OH NO!, but then I remembered I'd turned it off before I started everything. I turned it on and
hopped out of the car to see if my amp was on. And wouldn't you know it, it sure was and it was bright as daylight.
In that picture I had the camera sitting in the trunk with the lid closed.
The box it came in said it had LED illumination on the amp, I was thinking like dim blue, but no, it was like this blinding
beacon of success! Seriously this thing is bright as hell.
So now I'm all giddy waiting for my sub woofer to come in, it's all set, all I would need to do is connect the speaker wires, but
after what I just did, that will be a walk in the park.
Cody Summary: I got a new stereo and amplifier, installed them with great success and am happy.
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| | Posted 3/5/2009 2:57 AM - 18 Views - 4 eProps - 2 comments
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