have lotsa boxes of just-arrived-in-the-mail speakers, amp, wire, sound deadening, etc. and the big day (or two, or...?) of installation looms on the near horizon. i am psyched!

i think i've been able to visualize and assimilate most if not all of the procedure of installation--this forum has been invaluable and will continue to be. it's given me the confidence to pull stuff up in the interior and realize that i can do it as well as the "pro" (term used very loosely here) at the local car stereo shop.

one of the things Ford's manual doesn't tell me is whether or no i'll find a positive trigger 12v remote turn-on or power antenna lead behind my factory head unit--my alpine amp requires that. i do realize that if that doesn't exist i can go with an SPST switch out of the ignition, but i have no idea what that entails and would rather not waste brain time on it--yet!

anybody been there? can you tell me if the Screw has a 12v remote turn on? if so, what color is it?

here's what i'm installing, in order:

beavertail sound deadening (seen it? it's at the Bquiet site) in all four doors

infinity kappa 572.1's in front doors
polk ex 572a in back

rewiring all with 16 gauge

alpine mrp-f320 five channel amp (75x4 + 180x1) behind passenger rear seat

staying with OEM HU for stealth

peace and cheers to all,

neil

 

woops! forgot to mention that i have the "premium" (another term i use loosely) sound package.

come on back now!

neil

 

Sounds like you have a killer system planned! There is no power turn on available with your factory HU. I installed a fuse tap kit made by LittleFuse(found it at Kmart) into the interior fuse block. It's very simple to do. Just pull your radio fuse from the block and insert the tap kit into the slot. Re-insert the radio fuse into one of the slots on the kit, butt-splice your remote turn on lead to the pigtail on the kit, and install a new fuse in the other slot. Only thing is the black plastic inner cover of the fuse block won't fit back on.

 

thanks, robdude--sounds like a snap.

nice sub set-up, btw!

neil

 

which of these fuse locations would you go with to tap out of:

1 Audio
8 Radio, Remote Entry Module, GEM Module, In-vehicle entertainment system (SuperCrew only)
20 Audio, GEM Module, Powertrain Control Module (PCM), Transmission Range sensor

too many choices!

neil

 

I went with the #8 slot. Haven't had any probs with it.

 

I found a remote turn on wire somewhere when I was probing around on my head unit. I don't recall which one it is, but there is one there. I have my MTX Thunder 81000d hooked up to my Visteon factory unit, and I spliced in my remote wire to the harness, as well as putting a line converter in. Sorry I can't help on the location, but it's been some time since I did the installation and I don't recall which one it is.

 

Hey neilbmclaughlin, looks like I may have lied to you. I asked the same question that you did about a week ago and I was passing along what I was told. Thanks dufunnel for setting me straight!

 

no worries--it's all good.

so i guess i pull the HU, and whatever wire is left over after the speakers and ground are accounted for, that must be the 12v remote turn-on.

right?

neil

 

If it's the right one, you should have 12 volts with the radio on and the voltage will go away when the radio power is turned off.

 

Neil,

System sounds like it'll be sweet. Ditto to what dufunnel said about the remote wire. When I swapped my stock "Premium" HU out, the harness I used to connect to the stock harness had a blue remote wire available. Sorry but I don't remember what pin it went to in the stock harness.

Hope your install goes well. Couple of hints:

1. Use the grommet on driver's side firewall to run new 12V from the battery to your amp. The grommet is near the steering column.
2. Pull the entire back panel off to get an idea of where to mount your amp. It comes off easily, hopefully it'll go back on after your amp is mounted (mine didn't after I mounted my Kicker amp to the back wall).
3. Keep the 12V and new speaker wire away from each other. Suggest you run power on driver's side and speaker wires on passenger side. To get wires from the driver's side speakers to passenger side, run the wire up through the top part of the dash. All you need to do is pop off the oval peice on the passenger side of the dash top and routing will pretty obvious.
4. Take your time. I've had my SCrew apart for a couple of weeks now. I'm having trouble with mounting my amp, it won't fit behind the back seat or under any of the front seats. Now that the holidays are over, I should be able to work on it steadily over an entire weekend.

Sorry to be so wordy Good luck.



Aloha From Hawaii

 

hey robodude 30 i don't want to but in-- but ..if you tap the (turn on) lead to the fuse for the h.u. -- that will keep your amp on at all times right? you want the amp only on when the h.u. is...or the amp will be drawing on the battery at all times....

 

The fuse slot we are talking about is only hot when the key is on. I agree that is not the best way to get a remote turn on, but I was told we didn't have a remote lead on the back of our radios. I am about to get a new HU (yeah, I'm excited) so I'm just going to leave mine like it is for now.

 

OHH ..EXCELENT.... i just didn't want you burning out your amp or having some other stupid electrical problem....

 

whew--you really have to learn to take these forums with a grain of salt--misinformation, incomplete info, etc. i'm as guilty as anybody, so relax.

i'm going to put an SPST switch in line with a fuse on the way to the amp turn-on from the 12v line so that i can turn off the amp when not in use. may not be necessary, but the idea of the amp always on whether or no it's needed niggles a bit.

how 'bout this one--the two harnesses that connect to the back of the OEM HU--on is squarish, one is more rectangular. which deals with the speaker wire, and what's the other one all about? no guesses allowed--where can i tap some 12v power out of there?

is there ANYBODY who remembers where (as in the color) they tapped 12 volts from????

cheers,

neil