I've got an amplifier on order and have never installed one and was hoping one of you guys might have installed one on a Lighning and can give me some tips. I orderd an install kit with it so I should have everything I need. I plan on mounting it to the back wall of the cab, but I'm worried about screwing through the back and creating a place for water intrusion. I guess my main questions are: Is the hot wire ran directly from the battery to the amp? If so, what routing did you use to get there? The speaker wires will run from the amp go under the carpet and into the doors to the speakers? In reference to the connection between the amp and the head unit, is there a jack to plug into on the back of the head unit to make the connection or is it spliced in? Does the head unit pull out of the dash to do this, or does it have to be done from under the dash? If it just pulls out, how the hell do you do it? Why do waves rush to the shore? Why am I here?

 

Are you using the factory head unit or do you have an aftermarket? If factory, you are going to either need a line out convertor(this will convert the factory speaker outputs to low level rca outputs) or your amp will have to have speaker level inputs. If you are using an aftermarket head unit, then it should have one, two, or 3 sets of preamp outputs. This is where you hook the rca's from the amp to the head unit. Yes, the head unit has to be removed to do any of the above. Let's start there.

 

The wiring kit will have everything except the speaker wire, i believe, you hook the power wire directly to the battery & most wiring kits will have a fuse on one end of the of the cable, put that end closest to the battery, if there isn't a fuse, then splice one in. You can route that wire through the firewall via a grommet close to the pedals, i think. If you have an aftermarket head unit, you will have the outputs for the RCA cable, if you have a factory head unit, then you will have to take the head unit out by using DIN tools http://www.crutchfield.com/S-e9qbhc0...sp?i=120865618 you can pick these up at Wally World too, for about the same price. Since you have the factory stereo, you will need a Line output converter, that you splice into your speaker wires http://www.crutchfield.com/S-dzxqLlH...g=721&I=101PL2 and you can run the wires under the door sills, you will also have a remote wire that you will need to splice into a switched power source, and you will want to run the power & remote wire down one door sill & run the RCA cables down the other, to eliminate interference. With your ground wire, you will want to keep it under 16" you can ground it at the seatbelt bolts.

 

First of all, thank you very much for the help guys. This is the amp http://cgi.ebay.com/ROCKFORD-FOSGATE...QQcmdZViewItem and this is the kit http://cgi.ebay.com/ROCKFORD-FOSGATE...QQcmdZViewItem. I'll check Walmart for the din tool. Would somewhere like Best Buy or Circuit city sell the line output converter? I would like to get that locally if I could. Somone else suggested these: http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...number=265-610 and http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...number=265-653. Are they necessary? I also found this while searching:
"You currently have wires going from the radio to each of the four speakers. You can pull the radio out and look at the connector on the back, then once you know the color codes for the wires (which I can give you, if you need them), cut all four pairs just outside the connector. Now connect the wires that go to the right door speaker and (using crimp connectors) connect them to the wires going to the right rear speaker. Yes, your speakers are now connected to each other... just follow along. Now pull the right rear speaker and cut the wires going to it, and connect these wires to the "front-right" terminals on the amp. Now your front speaker is connected via the original wires to the front door to the dash, then via the old rear speaker wires to the new amp. Now just run a short new wire to the right rear speaker and connect it to the "rear-right" terminals on the amp. Repeat for the left side."

All this does is use the factory wiring to connect your new door speakers to your new amp, assuming the factory wires are decent (which they are, in your Ford). Unless you are running over 100 watts to the door speakers, you'll be fine. You still have to run new wire for the rears, but on a truck... that is usually MUCH easier than running new wires to the fronts.

Oh, and of course this assumes you are mounting the amp on the rear wall...

This can save a couple of hours and cut fingers, depending on how tight the space is in the door wiring grommets. I've never installed a system on a '97-'04 F-150 so I don't know if it's simpler to just run all new wires.

BTW, this approach is used a lot more commonly than you might expect at places like Best Buy and the other mass market shops.

I already planned on eliminating the rear speakers, is this good advice? I just want to make sure I fully understand and have everything I need before I start. Thanks guys

 

Yes, Best Buy & Circuit City should both have the Line Output Converters, as far as the speaker wire goes, it will be fine as long as you are running them to your door speakers, but if I were you, I would get some bigger stuff if you plan to put that on a subwoofer. Also, you should run all new wires to your speakers, to get the best sound, and to not be hacking into the wiring harness all over the place. You don't have to "eliminate" the rear speakers, just keep them hooked directly from the headunit power, thats what most people on here do.

 

I just replaced the fronts with two Infinty Kappa 682's and I won't be installing a sub at all. I plan on not using the rears and running everything through the fronts to improve sound quality. Sure would be a lot easier to use the method described above instead of running new wire.

 

OK, I need to tap into a keyed 12v source for the amp "turn on" wire and would like to tap into the keyed wire that feeds the head unit. Does anybody know what color that wire is in the head unit harness? Is there a better wire to tap? I'm pretty sure this will be my last question. But then again...........

 

It shoul be blue, but if you can't find it the switched +12V wire going to the radio will work too, so when the radio is on, the amp is also on.

 

I'm using the stock head unit so there is no "turn on" wire provided. I know I need to tap a 12v switched source. I think I've figured out it is the black/pink wire going to the radio.

My new action plan:
-Remove front door panels, remove speaker, cut off factory speaker connector, temporarily attach new speaker wire to factory wire in door, locate where factory wire enters door and pull in through which pulls new speaker wire through with it, disconnect factory wire from new wire and run the new speaker wire to amp, connecting front speakers to amp.
-Extend factory front speaker wires to run to inline converter and then connect converter to amp.
-For "turn on" wire, I will probably tap into the radio fuse with a fuse tap.

How does this sound?

 

you don't have to cut the factory speaker connectors, you can buy these:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-Warw5If...100&I=12071058

 

I got some of those with my new front speakers. But as described above, I would need to cut off the factory connector to pull the speaker wire out of the grommet to then extend them to the inline converter and also allow me to pull new speaker wire through the grommet to run from the front speakers to the amp. This is my plan, if it's not a good one please let me know.