ok, got my bazooka bass tube and was pleasantly suprised to find that the wiring harness and all that came in the box....i just need to buy some patch cords and some 12 gauge wire to hook everything up, but i have 2 questions

1) i found the hole in the drivers side firewall that leads to the engine bay, but my battery is all the way over in the passenger side corner....where do i run the wire to keep it away from the engine? just up the side of the car, that across the bottom of the windshield, and then through the hole?

2)a few connectors came with my wiring, i have 3 plastic tubes with metal inserts inside, and 1 ring which i think is to hook up to my battery, and it has the same sort of connector...a hard plastic tube with a smaller metal tube inside.....how do i use this kind of connector? i'm not sure if it has to be heated, or just pressed shut with pliers, or what

hopefully somebody will reply quick, i'm anxious to get this installed now

 

Hey, that's cool it came with the connector! Remember to buy an in-line fuse holder, too!

Technically you want your power cables (and all cables) as short as possible. You could drape the power across the firewall but be careful of engine heat. Might be better to run it across the bottom of the rad support and then up the driver's side. Make sure you put the fuse only a few inches from the battery. That fuse needs to be "before" any possible "rub point" of the power wire against the car. Fer example, if you were doing a sharp turn to the left and then wire-tying the power cable to the rad support, the fuse should be before the wire-tie point.

I'd vote to drill a new hole... but in thinking about it, there's no damn room on the firewall at that side. The heater/evap box blocks it. It's smartest to drill from the inside of the car to the outside... and you can't really do it that high in the dash. You could drill "below" the heater/evap box, but that'd put the power cable close to the exhaust pipes and might cause melting.

There's one more way... you could run the power cable inside the passenger fender. Remove the passenger tire and inner fender panel. (Use pliers to pull out the middle of the plastic rivets.) You'll find your ECM pass-thru by the door hinges. You could drill a hole there- but don't place the hole too close to the ECM wires because the electrical interference might confuse the computer.

Remember to use a grommet (can buy them at Radio Shack or sometimes in parts stores like Pep Boys, in the "Help"/Motormite parts section) where the power wire goes thru the firewall. Also protect the cable from rub points; split wire loom is great for this (also at Radio Shack or Pep-Boys-type auto stores).

Those connectors are butt connectors. You could buy a proper crimper at Radio Shack, or if you wanted to, technically you could use pliers. Personally I'd scrap 'em and use a strip/heat shrink/solder method.

You might be forced into using the butt connectors to connect the 12 gauge power wire to the special Bazooka connector. Is 12 gauge what the Bazooka tube recommends? I'd go one step up, to 10, just b/c it might be harder to find 12- and you can never go wrong with too thick of a power wire. Use a ground wire of the same gauge.

You can also find "better" butt connectors at Radio Shack / Pep-boys-type-stores. Oh!! You can even find butt connectors & wire ties and heat shrink and probably even crimpers at Home Depot! Home Depot might be your cheapest bet!

 

Oh and this is the little toy I like to use for connecting amp power wires up to side-mount batteries:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-fcCGJu0...asp?I=211BTSMS

You should be able to find it locally, but you might have to go to a local custom car stereo joint to get one. Not sure if places like Circuit City or Best Buy or etc will have them.

 

yes dont forget the fuse holder i run my wire between where the front pass fender hood and door meet and its been fine for 3 months but today had a passenger and door must have shut wrong and cut right threw the rubber of the 8 gauge and blew a fuse i checked everything but there for 2 hours couldnt figure it out hooked back up new fuse POP and then i hadda run around the city looking for a 80amp fuse got it put it in went to connect + to the batt and sparks like a mother****er pissed me off then i thought lemme check door and i found it wrapped it in tape and made it so it shouldnt get messed up

Thanks to this fourm i got a fuse holder about a month ago if i didnt get it i would have been PHUCKED elec fire im guessing but i dunno

 

thanks for the info...i was too anxious though and ended up bringing the car to a local car audio shop to get installed....it was $40 and took an hour, whereas it would have been free for me, but taken most of today and tomorrow, because i'd have to keep running back to the computer and asking questions

as for the fuse thing, suprisingly it came in the box too, as well as a connector for the battery post (not the one you posted above though)

they ran the wire from the battery up the side of the engine bay, across the bottom of the window, and then through the hole in the firewall...the whole bundle of cords is wrapped in plastic tubing stuff, so i dont have to worry about it rubbing on the metal sides of the hole in the firewall

i do need to secure the wire in the engine bay though as it has a tendency to slide down from the windshield so it's going diagnoally across the engine bay across the top of the engine

one thing i need to change....i need to look closer at it tomorrow, but I think they ran the power cord right along w/ all the other cords, and they're supposed to be on oppisite sides of the car, right? i guess i'll just cut the power cord, move it to the other side, and solder in a lenght of wire between the cut



again thanks for all the help, i just ended up being too impatient, plus the fact that i'm sitting there looking at a table full of wires wondering what the hell i got myself into. i need to see someone hook an amp and subs up and then i'm sure i'll be able to do it after that

the bass tube sounds amazing...i ride around with Loud Off, but at Loud On it's freaking blasting...it's not distorted but it's too loud to be comfortable, so at least i won't have a problem of wanting more bass out of it....cost me around $290 for everything (bass tube was $195+S&H was $20+wiring supplies was $30, labor for install was $45 = $290). Not bad considering retail on the tube was $460, but it was being sold brand new on ebay fo $195, can't beat that

 

Who did it for ya, Circuit City?

don't cut your power cabling, just leave that stuff alone, if it works it works.


sounds like those monkeys should have had the courtesy to use some zip ties that probably came with your wiring. The hole in the firewall should've been filled w/ a gromet, tape or rtv.

 

no, circuit city was going to be $60...there's a local place called Innovative Audio that did it for $45. nah no zipties came w/ my wiring, but it wont take more than 2 minutes to secure the wire in the engine bay. and as for the hole in the firewall, the entire length of wire is enclosed in a plastic tube (looks exactly like that black plastic drainage pipe, but it's like the size of a quarter) so i don't have to worry about any of the wires rubbing the metal edge of the hole....and they taped up the plastic tubing at the point where it goes through the firewall so no wire could slip out of the tubing and get damaged on the metal

 

LOL, junkyarddog, I was thinking Circuit City also! And that place definately sounds "innovative", if they didn't secure the wire loom (that's the drain-pipe looking thing they put the wires into) with wire ties!

Now that the system's installed, you could find all the wires, and make sure the preamp cords aren't run along with the power wire. If they are, like JYD said, don't cut the power wire- just un-do everything, and run the preamp cord down the other side of the car. You might want to make a diagram, too, of how everything hooked up, before you start moving wires.

Glad to hear it sounds great!!

 

lol, actually Innovative Audio has a real good reputation around town....better than Circuit City and Best Buy...don't know why they were sloppy with the engine bay wire though

there's plenty of lenth in the engine bay wire, should i run it up the side of the car then along the bottom of the windshield?

i'm gonna look at the wires running down the side of the car today to see how much of a job it'd be to run the preamps down the other side....i'm not hearing any unwanted noise as of yet, so i may just leave it be