wiring in a new headunit questions

[AlyssaB]

Okay guys, I received my Kenwood Excelon KDC X597 in the mail last night! I've been doing hours of reading and searching on multiple forums, but haven't found exactly my questions, so please have patience with me if you feel this question is asked too much.

With some helping hands from my roommate, I was able to solder and heat shrink almost all of the wires last night together on the wiring harnesses. After class I will go home and begin the install... first I want to be sure I'm doing the right things.
First: it is a 1999 Yukon SLT OBS, 4dr 2wd, stock sound system(non Bose)

I looked on the harness that came with the HU, and Crutchfield had neatly taped and labeled the wires I "wouldn't" need, which is great for me. The blue power antenna wire is labeled as such and there is also a blue and white wire labeled "power control" and the vibe I'm getting from Kenwood's instructions is that I should wire the amp in at that wire, not the power antenna. Would either of these wires work to turn on the factory amp? I've seen everyone say that the power antenna wire is usable, but I haven't seen anyone mention just a power control wire. I looked under my dash and confirmed I have the factory amp and that it is functional because the rear door speaker that isn't blown still works, so I might as well use it.

Also, should I just accept that I should cut the amp wire inside the truck off of the oem harness and splice it directly into one of these power wires from the headunit? Or should I see if it will work in the harness first?

Last question: as I understand it, the pink wire in the truck is the amp power wire, right?

Thanks in advance for help!

 

[SunlitComet]

for non luxury factory systems>>> the blue/white would hook up to the pink wire in the body side of radio wiring to trigger the amp as it remains on as long as the head unit is active with any sound source. the antenna one would only be active when you actually are listening to radio waves. do not use the hu wire to directly feed a factory amp it will not function and likely break your hu. the factory amp is given direct power on an orange wire controlled by a relay which is triggered by the pink wire. the amp does not have separate power supply and trigger inputs.

 

[AlyssaB]

for non luxury factory systems>>> the blue/white would hook up to the pink wire in the body side of radio wiring to trigger the amp as it remains on as long as the head unit is active with any sound source. the antenna one would only be active when you actually are listening to radio waves. do not use the hu wire to directly feed a factory amp it will not function and likely break your hu. the factory amp is given direct power on an orange wire controlled by a relay which is triggered by the pink wire. the amp does not have separate power supply and trigger inputs.

Sorry, I know the amp doesn't get it's power directly from the HU, I guess I worded my question badly

But as to your first answer, that's what I was worried about. I wanted the amp to work at all times, not just when AM/FM are on. So I will splice the pink wire with the blue and white power control wire.

Thank you for your help! I've seen a lot of your posts in older threads with basically the same question but none of the diagrams you've posted will open up anymore in the threads I saw :/

 

[SunlitComet]

Sorry about that they are from another server and I don't have the extra time to pull every single one down to my own server where they won't cycle out. I have been asking the admins for a couple of years now to allow pdf uploads that would solve all that but get no progress.

 

[AlyssaB]

no problem, I found other diagrams, just needed confirmation on the wires for the amp.

about to go do the install right now!

 

[AlyssaB]

Everything worked on the first try! I cut the pink wire coming from the truck at the harness and crimped the blue and white wire to it and it worked flawlessly. Thank you again for your help! I'm so happy with it, this was my first ever install without anyone here helping me.

Next up, new speakers!

 

[SunlitComet]

6.5" for the doors and 4x10 for the rear roof if optioned.

 

[AlyssaB]

Yeah, I am looking at a few different 6.5s as both my rear door speakers and rear roof speakers are blown. rear roof I'll deal with later...

Why does crutchfield say all the 6.5s need brackets but 6.75 size speakers fit perfectly? and some 6.5s don't fit at all, I'm guessing the mounting depth is the problem?

I already have some Alpine SPS-610C components on their way and I ordered the speaker wire harnesses from crutchfield when I ordered the stereo.
I've heard very good things about these Alpines! Front doors first, then I'll figure out the rear.

 

[SunlitComet]

Might be or they are talking about size of door opening or each individual speaker cage. I use Polk db6501 in front and rear doors without adapters. I even got the front tweeters to fit where the Bose tweeters would go on the door switch panel.

 

[AlyssaB]

You put components in the back doors? Where'd you mount the tweeters? If i had the tools for that sort of project it'd be fun to try. As it is, I'm just looking for components for the front since there's already places to mount the separate pieces.

 

[SunlitComet]

yes. On the back doors I used the surface mount option for the tweeters and mounted them on the grill forward of the speaker so they would not be blocked by the seat cushions.

 

[AlyssaB]

ohhhh okay.
do you know how much power that factory amp is putting out?

 

[00Caddy]

I am about to tackle the stereo in my caddy. its basically the same setup as your 4-door, except i have the bose stuff to take out and you have the regular option stuff to take out. The reason it says some 6.5's wont fit from crutchfield is because of the mounting depth. They are using the mounting depth of the speaker if you are to put it in the factory location. You can fit pretty much anything in where the factory speaker was if you just cut the factory grill out of the door and mount the speaker on the outside of the door panel. I have a set of Focal Access 6.5 component sets going into the front doors, Focal Access Components going in the rear doors. My tweeter is going in the same spot as sunlits. Im going to drill out holes in the grill to allow sound to come through the grill.

 

[AlyssaB]

I am about to tackle the stereo in my caddy. its basically the same setup as your 4-door, except i have the bose stuff to take out and you have the regular option stuff to take out. The reason it says some 6.5's wont fit from crutchfield is because of the mounting depth. They are using the mounting depth of the speaker if you are to put it in the factory location. You can fit pretty much anything in where the factory speaker was if you just cut the factory grill out of the door and mount the speaker on the outside of the door panel. I have a set of Focal Access 6.5 component sets going into the front doors, Focal Access Components going in the rear doors. My tweeter is going in the same spot as sunlits. Im going to drill out holes in the grill to allow sound to come through the grill.

thanks for clearing that up! I figured it had something to do with the depth. I'm curious what speakers would be good plug n play back there so I could just mount directly to the factory holes. Or at least ones that come with a bracket. I don't mind so much if I can't use the factory grill, but I'll have to track down a drill in a pawn shop somewhere if I need to make new holes.

 

[SunlitComet]

ohhhh okay.
do you know how much power that factory amp is putting out?

To my knowledge there is no info on that spec and none of us have measure it before.

---------- Post added at 05:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:15 PM ----------

the wiring is speaker level outputs from a radio into the front and roof speakers. the amp has speaker level inputs and taps into the roof speakers for it signal to amplify and send to rear doors. so your rear doors can go out while all the other work if that little amplifier is turned off. A bit of rewiring is needed to power doors directly form head unit.

 

[AlyssaB]

Okay so I put new speakers in the rear and used the wiring harness from crutchfield and neither speaker works now in the rear doors. The blown speaker was making crackling noises with the new headunit and the other original speaker worked with it so I wired the amp correctly, right? and now I'm getting absolutely nothing from them. Any suggestions where to begin my search for the problem?

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[SunlitComet]

Check your AUX PWR fuse. #13 I think to see if that blew somehow.

 

[AlyssaB]

That was it!! You're incredibly helpful sunlit!!! Thank you so much.

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---------- Post added at 09:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:35 PM ----------

I plugged in the old speaker and it didn't work. Then I noticed they were all hissing very quietly. Then I got on and saw your reply and fixed it with a quick swap. Good thing they provide extra fuses!

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[AlyssaB]

Okay, after about 30 minutes I noticed the music didn't sound full and faded it to the rear. Sure enough the fuse had blown again. They are 4ohm just like the originals. Where should I start looking now?

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[SunlitComet]

At possibly the amp itself as it sounds like the amplifiers capacitors or IC's are giving out. If you are just going to have front and rears doors only you are just better off wiring the rear door to the head unit. Or you can try sourcing a replacement amp from a junkyard perhaps. The dealer wants $190 for those things. New from dealers is not the best route in this case as many aftermarket options are out there.