System install

pcmofo · 04-06-2006, 04:47 PM

I need some help! I am installing a complete system for the first time and know what I am doing in theroy but have never done it before. Check out my web site http://www.pcmofo.com to see a project log of my work so far.

I will be installing a 4 channel infinity 111w x 4 amp to power all 4 speakers, a 150w rockford fosgate mono sub amp driving a 10" dvc cerwin vega sub in a fiberglass sealed box, and a 160w computer in an ampe case with intelegent psu.

I have installed 4 guage power wire to the trunk and will be connecting that to a 2 farad cap and grounding the cap with the 4 guage wire. The 2 amps require 8 guage wire but I have no good ground points. I was told that the trunk spare tire was a good place to go. Will all of those ring terminals fit on the same bolt? is there a better place? I could not find a bare screw the right size in my trunk for any of the wires to connect to

Also I need to crimp the ring terminal on the end of the 4 guage wire but it appears that I need some special tool? what kinda tool is this and who could do it for me for free since I only need it for about 4 seconds?

I want to eventuially put infinity kappa components in the front. I have a 2000 civic and want to put the drivers in the doors and the tweeters in the door sails. If so where do I put the crossovers? I assume not in the doors. If so then I have to somehow run the 4 wires (2 for driver 2 for tweeter) into the doors, idk how.

I am mounting the computer and 4 ch amp to the rear seats on standoffs (1/2") and want to hide the wires under the appolstry. where can I get plastic stand offs that can do this?

What else do I need to know to do this install (lol no I haven't connected the fuse in the power cable yet etc)

chuyler1 · 04-06-2006, 05:03 PM

If your ground wires are long enough, you could use a seatbelt bolt. There's nothing that says you can't drill your own hole and use your own bolt. If you do this, make sure to use a locking washer (they have little spikes on them) and sand down the paint to bare metal. ALWAYS check what is on the other side of the metal before you drill. The last thing you want to do is put a hole in your gas tank.

To crimp 4-ga wires I sometimes just use a hammer. Those 4-ga crimp terminators are usually pretty strong and even a standard crimping tool will be difficult to use.

You can put the crossovers in the doors if you want. It will save you running a second set of speaker wires through the door jam (which is my least favorite part of installing car audio equipment). Just find a place where there is extra space back there and use double-sided-tape to secure it. Do not put the crossovers on the inner door...there is significant moisture there when it rains and the window needs most of that space to roll down.

For stand offs, you can prolly find something at home depot. You could always just cut a wooden dowl and drill holes through it.

3onDubs · 04-06-2006, 07:11 PM

For the grounding point...you should be able to fit two or three ring terminals on a 3/4" bolt with no problem. Should it be a problem, you can always get a ground wire distribution block and just have one ring terminal being bolted down.

For the 4 ga wire, i second using a hammer to get it crimped. The large crimpers do a good job, but you want to be sure that there is absolutely no slack anywhere because that will cause resistance. You should hammer it down for good measure...this is especially true for 0 ga wire.

Yesterday, i needed a ring terminal for my 0 ga ground wire. I went to a local audio shop and they didn't have change for a twenty (wanted to charge me 2 bucks for it), so i told them to just do it for me and keep the change. The guy came out, crimped the 0 ga (using a hammer) and bolted it down for me (and he gave me five bucks back). You can either do it urself or go to a shop like that...they'll probably even do it for free if they're nice.

For the crossovers, you should try and fit them in your doors so that u only have one wire going into them. Mine were to big, so i mounted them underneath the dash in both footwells and then tapped into the factory wiring from there because there was no room to feed new wires with out some modding.

In order to do the install, ur also going to need a 12V switched ignition wire to turn your amps on...i don't know if u know the location in ur car, but a good place is usually off the stock head unit harness if u can locate the wire.

pcmofo · 04-06-2006, 09:14 PM

well I guess I can try my luck with a hammer, If it doesnt work out I can just get a new ring terminal lol. I might stop down at a local shop and ask them what I should do. Many places I feel dont want to sit around and answer your questions if your not buying something from them though.

I dont have a head unit, I am using a computer as the main audio source. The computer has 12v out that I am using to turn on the 2 amps though. I may use the spare tire bolt to ground my cables bc it is allready there but I would rather drill my own ground hole and put a bolt in it. In the car I have some inner frame work around the seats which I can see both sides of that would be easy to drill through and put a nice bolt into.

I figured I could find standoffs somewhere for the amps, it will look cool also because they will appear to be floating and like my RF amp which has cover plates on the ends will show none of the wires.

I also need to find some level surface to mount my cap so I can read it (its why I got a digital display) and where its closest to the other 2 amps. should I put it closest to the amps so the wires from the cap to the amp are short or does it not matter if its on the other side of the trunk?

Is there a cap or a lid that goes on the capacitor so people dont accidently touch the live ends of the cap?

Legarcondemerde · 04-07-2006, 02:33 AM

If I were you, I would use factory wiring for your front speakers. Your car has molex-type plugs that connect the door to the car, which makes it VERY hard to run wires into the doors. If you pull your back seat there are plenty of good spots to scrap paint away and drill your own ground, just make sure you look before you drill. Your cap needs to be as close to the amps as possible, and you shouldn't have to worry about covering the ends unless you think they will either touch one another or ground--nobody will get shocked from the cap, if that's what you're getting at.

pcmofo · 04-08-2006, 09:45 AM

I want to have kappa 6 1/2 components in the front and kappa 6x9 components in the rear. kappa components count as 2ohm load. my INFINITY REFERENCE 7541A 4 CHANNEL 656W AMPLIFIER puts out 139W RMS x 4 @ 2 ohms.will my amp be able to handle this? can kapps handle that much power?

pcmofo · 04-11-2006, 02:37 PM

The back arnt components but they do have a crossover which means the load on each speaker will be 2ohms.

VitalRyan · 04-13-2006, 01:01 AM

am I crazy, or does it sound kind of silly to use a cap for 500W total power, and to run 4 gauge sounds kind of silly as well for such low power amps. But whatever.

Mike Troll · 04-13-2006, 02:04 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by VitalRyan

am I crazy, or does it sound kind of silly to use a cap for 500W total power, and to run 4 gauge sounds kind of silly as well for such low power amps. But whatever.

Agreed.

a 2 farad cap is definatley over kill...usually a two farad cap would be used when powering a 2000watt amp. so for barely 500 watts a 1 farad compacitor would be considered over kill.

pcmofo · 04-13-2006, 03:20 AM

Well I ended up with a 1.4 Farad cap. the 4ch amp will be putting out around 600 watts and then a 150 watt sub amp and a 160 watt computer so roughly 900 watts of power added to my stock electrical system. It was nearly the same price for the 1.4 as it was for a 1.0 and this was a name brand, $75 shipped for a 1.4 is better than crutchfields cheapest cap, a 1.2 for $99 + shipping.

Anyway how about the answer to my ? I was looking at the amp hook up diagrams as my amp came in the mail today. It showed the regular 4 speaker hook up as expected. Then it showed a hookup where it bridged the front and rear into 2 outputs to go to "components"

This confuses me... if I want to use components do I need to connect it like that and if so then I can only connect the front and not the rear?

It is rated at 139watts/ch @ 2ohms and crutchfield says the kappa components and rear 6x9's which also have crossovers count as a 2ohm load. so as far as I can figure connecting up 2 components in the front and 2 in the rear would give me 4 speakers with 2 ohm loads each, and the amp should be able to handle this right?

pcmofo · 04-16-2006, 06:36 PM

so i got my whole system installed today. i am suprised to find that it all worked! it was my first install and there were lots of things to make sure i got right. i willl post pics of the install later when i am home as i am on my pda right now.

anyway i have a few after instillation questions...

what should i set the amp crossovers at? if i am using component external crossovers later should i use the amp crossovers at all?

i am getting some noise when i connect my ipod directly into the amps. you cant hear it when a song is playing but its noticable when the system is on and no audio is playing but not if nothing is pluged into the amp.

also when i put the components in the doors where do i put the crossovers? in the door too? if so what do i need to do to protect them in the door?

3onDubs · 04-17-2006, 12:29 PM

For the amp channels that go to a crossover, you won't need to set any amp crossovers. If you're going straight to the speakers (w/out crossovers), then you will need to set the HPF to cut off the lower frequencies so that you don't get distortion (80 HZ...???).

The noise from the ipod leads me to believe that you have your speaker wires running close to your power wires somewhere along the line. Listen to all speakers...is the noise the same with all of them, or is it louder in some of the speakers?

If you can fit the crossovers in the doors, do that...it will be easier to just run one wire into the door. If your door has a rain guard, you should be fine...or you can put the crossover in a ziplock (just an idea). I didn't have any room for mine, so i mounted them under the dash. This works out great because my crossovers have a light that comes on when im overdriving my tweeters....so when i see my shoes glow, i turn it down a bit...lol.

pcmofo · 04-17-2006, 03:03 PM

Yeah I think I might have room in my doors, I noticed lots of space in there when I was doing the sound insulation. I will have to roll down the windows to make sure they dont hit the crossover lol. I was told to put them in a ziplock bag and wrap the bag with tape to make sure no moisture gets into the bag and protects it from leaking.

The system sounds a lot better than it did before with the addition of the sub and 4ch amp I cant wait to get the Kappas in there. I looked at pics of the kappas and they have a 4 mounting holes 90 deg apart from each other. My doors have 3 mounting holes 120 deg from each other. Crutchfield says the speakers fit in my car.... but how will I actuially screw them in???

Also the noise from the ipod went away? or atleast I cant hear it now when I drive or when the engine is off. I did straiten out the wires a bit in the trunk moving the speaker wires as far away from the power wires as possiable. That might have solved the problem I was having earlier.. either way it works now :-D

3onDubs · 04-18-2006, 11:43 AM

Make your own holes....that's what i'd do. I don't know how your stock mounting location looks, but if it doesn't allow you to drill a new hole, post a pic and we'll see what we can recommend.

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