Anyone install a CD Player? Problems....

[dephrag]

I just got my 2nd '91 240, and Im trying to get rid of the extremly crappy factory tape deck.  I've got the CD player hooked up ok, all the connections made well, and it gets power and everything, but no volume whatsoever...  I've played with balance/fade etc... but nothing.. So i cut one of the speaker wires and hook it up directly to a speaker i have lying around..works fine..  Would this be something to do with factory amps that are installed?  It doesn't make any sence, i should still be getting SOME sound..  I can't see there being any factory amps though, when the tape deck is cranked you have to strain to hear it..... Well if anyones installed one before and had the same prob, let me know what I gotta do !!

Thanks..

[DSC]

Yeah, I had the same problem with mine. You have to bypass the factory amps. Run up to best buy and ask someone there for a little thingy to bypass them, it'll run about $30 or less and is the best way I know of to do it w/out replacing your factory speakers also. Aftermarket cd players run 4ohm to each speaker and the stock ones only take 2ohm. So you can rewire it to run them in series but it'll sound like shit because you would either have the left and right tied together or the front and back...either way sucks.

I don't know if this will be a problem with that piece they sell, I didn't look at it closely because $30 was more than I wanted to pay. But most of the guys at best buy seem at least somewhat competent and know a reasonable amount about what they sell (car audio department only...the computer guys are retarded...all of them) so just ask them for help.

[dephrag]

Well I have a 4 channel amp just waiting to go in as well.... Would it be best to just go straight from the 4 channel amp to the speakers? Just cutting off the factory amps and going straight to the speakers shouldn't be a prob should it?

[mrdirty]

I have no idea how good the stock speakers for the 240 are, mine were blown when I bought got the car but:
If they're really good and worth matching up w/ a decent system then running an amp directly to them (if they're 2 Ohm) will drive the amp twice as hard, make sure you don't run bridged unless the amp is good for 1Ohm loads. Also you'll loose sound quality and gain power @ lower loads unless (like DSC said) you run a pair of drivers in series which brings it to 4Ohm per channel. Other wise take the bridged rms power of the amp and divide by 2 per channel (~double unbridged power)

IOTW: If the amp going in has the specs:
-4 channelsx100watts RMS @4Ohm per channel (net 4 Ohm per 4 channels) THD=X
-2 channelsx400watts RMS @4Ohm per channel (net 2 Ohm per 4 channels) THD=2X
Then:
-4 channelsx200watts RMS @2Ohm per channel (net 2 Ohm per 4 channels) THD=2X

I hope that made sense...

[jdkruger4]

i just took all my factory amps out and made new mounts so my S13 holds 6.5"s all around. I have htem running straight from my head unit to crossovers mounted in the doors then to the speakers. Take that amp out, it sucks. M ex-girlfriend has a 93 or 94 Maxima with the Bose system and i installed new speakers but it sounded horrible with the factory amps, i just bypassed them and its sounds alot better. Here is my install, dunno if it'll help at all though: My 91 FB

[S13Grl]

I got an aftermarket harness and hooked up my Alpine head without any problems AT ALL. Maybe you should invest the $12 into that.

[DSC]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (S13Grl @ June 21 2002,5:21)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I got an aftermarket harness and hooked up my Alpine head without any problems AT ALL. Maybe you should invest the $12 into that.</td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>
I'd like to see someone try it without using a new harness.
I used a new harness and still had the above problems.

[ridebmx]

if you hook up the remote wire for the factory amps it works, thats probably why it worked for s13 girl when she got the aftermarket harness since she had the remote wire hooked up...when i installed mine in my s14 i ran new speaker wires because i have an eclipse 5 1/2 componet set with crossovers, and i used an amp to power them, and my deck doesnt have an amp built in, its one of the better ones that you need to have external amps for all the speakers...so that what i did...

[DSC]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (ridebmx @ June 21 2002,6:00)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">if you hook up the remote wire for the factory amps it works, thats probably why it worked for s13 girl when she got the aftermarket harness since she had the remote wire hooked up...</td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>
If you hook it up to use your aftermarket headunit and your factory amps, you will be amping your amp and can kill them.

[dephrag]

Ok, so I went out and bought some 4" JL speakers for the front, now Im trying to bypass these retarted amps, &nbsp;but this is a crazy mess! &nbsp;I found a wiring diagram on the faq page, but it doesn't seem to match up. &nbsp;There are 5 wires going into each amp. &nbsp;Brown, Black, Blue, Green, and &nbsp;Red, I cut them off of the amp to go to the speaker.. but why the hell are there 5 Wires?? &nbsp;Shouldn't there only be 2?? &nbsp;

So for the front left and right, I connected the brown as -, and the red as + , and that seems to be working ok.. &nbsp;and for the rears, if i touch the the green on the left OR right to the + or - it seems to power BOTH back speakers.. same if i twist it with the blue.. &nbsp;Is this right, or am I sharing the load the wrong way or something??

I just really don't know what I'm doing here, and 1) Don't want to start a fire, 2) Don't want to wreck any components. &nbsp;

Can anyone tell me if i'm doin this right? &nbsp; &nbsp;To make it worse, I have a 4 channel amp I want to hook up now or later... should I be putting that striaght to each speaker, or run it up to the wiring harness behind the deck, and splice it in??

[DSC]

I don't know how to wire it all up. &nbsp;But I can tell you the aftermarket amp should be pluged into the back of your head unit using an RCA cable, not the wireing harness...otherwise you'd have the same double amping problem you had with the stock amp.

[ridebmx]

actually it can be done using an aftermarket head unit and factory amps, they make a special harness for it...it might not work on a s13, but i know my s14 worked fine, as did my sisters maxima with the factory bose stereo and a/m head