ace123

I haven't done dynamat yet. I might later; I still haven't decided. I've got a rattle, but I'm pretty sure it's a wire that I left too long rattling--my fault. I'll fix it when I get annoyed enough or open it up for other reasons.

From what I've read, you can de-rattle with a little bit of soft foam, but dynamat will cut out some road noise. And wind noise from the soft top makes for very quickly diminishing returns.

Neutered Sputniks

Make sure there's enough room for proper ventilation of the amp. Just because it physically fits doesn't mean the longevity of the amp won't be affected.

SlowTeg

[QUOTE=Neutered Sputniks,Apr 26 2010, 11:00 AM] Make sure there's enough room for proper ventilation of the amp.

[DT]

None for me at this stage. The doors come apart pretty easy (3 screws, 1 plastic fastener and pull) so going back in later if I feel like there will be an improvement isn't a huge deal.

I've read about people putting amps under the seats (though I know some MY variants make that harder/easier), but really, there's plenty of room in the trunk and I would think it wouldn't make the wiring that much more difficult, but it seems like it's much better for cooling[?]

Like I said above I didn't want to compromise my trunk space, so I think my solution will do that. Well, I guess I'll see as I work out the details.

[DT]

OK, all the wiring is in place, but I need to connect the power. I have some =dumb= questions:


Are the 4g ring connectors designed to be crimped or should I solder or crimp + solder?

The fuse holder has small "collars" and a small set screw. I'm assuming the collars go over the (stripped) wire then into the fuse and it screws down. Do people use any solder here or just the screw down? The collars seem a bit undersized (or the Knu wire is slightly oversized).

On the amp side, it also has roughly the same style connectors as the fuse - 4g openings with a set screw at the top. Since the power/ground is stranded wire, so people use some kind of connector at the amp, or do a little solder at the wire tip (to kind of join the strands into a more solid connection point) or just squeeze the strands in and tighten (which doesn't seem like a good connection)?

For reference, this is the wiring kit I used (plus a little extra speaker wire): KFX-AK44

ace123

I've always done it the easy way--clamp it with a screw and call it a day. I roll the wire tight and make sure the copper is clean before I bolt it. Solder might give you a better connection, but I've never done it.

You might want to just bolt the connections first to check that everything in your system works properly, then solder the connections down after. That way you can undo it easily if something is wrong.

[DT]

Cool, thanks, I got the same reply over on CarAudio.com, sounds like maybe I was making it too complicated (but I wanted to make sure the power side of things was done properly).

Apparently the small collar in the fuse is just an 8g adapter, just remove it and use the screw to secure the 4g wire.

I wound up with speaker wires in the door sills, remote wire/RCA down the center and the power on the passenger side, between the carpet and tranny (pushed down close to the floor). I went through the small opening behind the driver with the driver's side speaker and rca/remote wire, and the passenger speaker and power through the big opening behind the passenger seat, power to one side, speaker to the other (about a foot or so apart).

Pretty happy with how everything looks, perfectly stock, no fitment issues with plastic panels, etc.

It would be nice to at least have a test ignition of the amp today!

Neutered Sputniks

Sounds like everything's finally coming together.


A quick note on solder: soldering anything larger than about 14ga becomes quite tedious. You're very likely to get a cold-solder joint due to the wire's efficiency in transferring the heat from the iron away from just the end. I once tried to tin some 12ga speaker cable with a PACE PRC 2000 solder system...didn't exactly work out too well and I gave up on tinning speaker wires. Now I just use the set-screws and call it good

[DT]

Awesome thanks. I didn't even stop to think about the battle with trying to tin a 4g wire.

I actually went down into the garage to finish up the power and I got totally sidetracked, hahaha, maybe later or tomorrow. Definitely doing a supply run to the Depot for supplies/tools in an attempt to finish up this weekend.

Side note: I've become distracted with the new Kenwood KIV-700 and 900 models.

[DT]

Got my MDF and started sketching the mounts/spacers. I also picked up a new jigsaw to replace my "lost" one.

I pulled my speaker wire into the door. I pulled my door panels (again, 3rd time) for the last time as I'm going to leave them out until this is done, plus it's not like the car is unusable without the door panels or OEM speakers.

I wound up using a clothes hanger, went through the door conduits, duct taped the speaker wire to the hanger and then rubbed a very tiny amount of vaseline on the tape/wire and it pulled right through.

So basically now I have everything wired, just need to mount the speakers. I also removed the entire tweeter grill, I'm thinking about maybe cutting those out and mounting the tweets "externally".

This is actually the first time I've done any semi-major car audio, so I'm pretty happy with everything so far.