Thread: first time installing an amplifier

It might be easier to tap into the factory harness where the radio plugs in. You will have front left, front right, rear left, and rear right which will connect to the tweeter and woofer in the front and whatever you have in the back. For the factory sub, not sure, what kind of car is it?

Originally Posted by snoboarder2k6

The problem with the factory harness is that it got so messed up by the previous owners I can't make heads or tails of what's going on. There's different color wires crimped to each other and bare wires kind of hanging there not attached to anything.

In any event, I have the wiring diagrams for the car (1999 Land Rover Discovery II), and even then I kept hooking up wires with reversed polarity, which of course results in sparks and blown fuses and other fun stuff.


Anyway, I decided it would be best to just skip all that and wire up the speakers directly...

I would sort through all the wires you need and save those, and cut the rest or at least organize them. I had the luxury of having a well maintained electrical system (old people owned the car) but what I did is buy a harness kit, cut most of the wires off and only used the ACC wire from the harness to turn on my PC. I would look for that wire and get rid of all the rest. Best thing to do is run a nice gauge wire for the speakers, in case you decided to upgrade speakers in the future. I recently installed 12 gauge wire for mine. I decided to pull all the old speaker wire out to give me more room in accordion boots that hold the wires from the car to the door. Also I noticed that with my truck, using the stock wire, cause alot of EMI. In case your wondering, my PC controls my AMPS from one of its serial ports and a PAC TR-4.

PS: I love the Discovery, I hate they changed the name to the LR3.