I posted this on CZ28.com, but their audio forum isn't nearly as active as the one here... Here's the copy/paste

In replacing whatever the fancier system is in a 97 WS6, I've done the folowing: hooked up my headunit, and it works. I then ran the rca cables to the back of the car to an amp, and hooked them up there. I have new components in the doors. Instead of fishing wire through the door rubber hose thing, I spliced it into the speaker wire for the midrange speaker that was already there. I BELIEVE these were the light/dark blue anmd lighjt/dark green wires. [part I know now is wrong edited out] The amp is on and such, wired correctly.. Any thoughts?

Rears not hooked up yet.

Ok, new details, and a new question..

HU: ALpine 9851
Amp: Kicker kx 350.4
components: Last years Kenwood eXcelon 6.5


Apparently, I DID wire it correctly. That said, the setup is just super quiet. If I turn the gain way high (I know, don't do that) it becomes barely audible at 5 feet... So... I have no idea. It IS wired right. It sounds like the HU is on attenuate, but it's not.


Any thoughts now?

 

Unfortunately, due to the year of your car this thread will probably be locked. If it is feel free to pm me and I will help you the best I can.

I've got a couple of questions before I get started. Did your car have the monsoon sound system? You said that you spliced into the factory wiring. This is fine as long as the wires are run to the desired locations. Do those blue and green wires run to wherever you put the amp? I would imagine that they either run to the factory deck or to the monsoon amp, which you will have to remove from the car if you haven’t already.

Just to be sure run a quick run of speaker wire to one of the speakers directly from the amp. It doesn't matter if you don't hide the wire because this will simply be a test to make sure that it is correct.

It's not a bad thing to turn the gain up. In fact, with your deck you're going to have to turn the gain up a decent amount because you've only got 2 volt preouts. For an excellent gain setting tutorial follow this link.

So

1 - check to make sure that it really is wired correctly
2 - set your gain correctly
3 - get back to us

 

Yeah, I figured it may eventually be.. That said.. Considering there's very little of the original audio system left, and this ENTIRE system used to be in my third gen, I'm hoping to appeal to the mod sense of reasonability here...
IT did have monsoon. What I did is the following:
I ran my RCA (red, white) cables from the output of my 9851 to the amps in the rear. Then, I ran my speaker wire from the amp output way up front to where the OEM head unit was. I then spliced into the harness that originally clipped INTO the monsoon hu.. SO, I pretty much just went from my speaker wire, into the old speaker wire. I did that because I knew that wire went into the doors, so it made sense instead of spending tons of work putting new wire into the doors through that rubber piece.
All the monsoon has been removed.


I Actually did that. That was when I figured out that the speakers were actually on, just super quiet.. I then respliced it into the wire it WAS spliced into, turned the gain ALL the way up, and I could hear it, barely.

THat's true, but I can only barely hear it with the gains ALL The way up... I didn't think of the 2v preout, but this entire system has worked together with itself in the exact same configuration, and was loud... I don't get it...


Thanks for the insight.

 

I thought the monsoon system had an amp somewhere? It's possible that it's still in the line but if you say that you tested everything by running wire directly to the speakers without using any of the factory wiring I guess it's not an issue.

Out of curiosity, when you say you can hear it but not very well how high up is the volume on the deck? How does this compare to the previous install? Do you have a friend's deck you can try plugging into the amp? Also, check voltage @ the terminals of the amp to make sure it's getting at least 12.5. It should be around 13.4-14.4 with the car on.

 

Yeah, the Monsoon does have an amp, and yes, I bypassed it.

The deck volume is set to 35 (of 35)
I don't have a friends deck, no one has any...:S

I checked the voltage, I Got 13.7 fluctuating a tiny bit

I plugged in my sub amp (250.2) and got more or less the same results. It was a tiny bit louder, but marginally.
I don't get it.. I went to my audio shop and they didn't have a clue, but I didn't have time to have them check it.. .Strange..

 

I'm guessing that's 13.7 volts per channel? That's a pretty healthy 45 watts (rounded down) @ 4 ohms (what I'm assuming your comps are). That should get your speakers moving. Do you have any spare speakers you could try out? I'm assuming you have crossovers - are they wired correctly? Also, check the resistance of your components for kicks and giggles.

The same results with two amps narrows it down to either your speakers or your deck. The voltage you measured should eliminate the deck as a possible problem because the amp is producing power, which should translate to sound.

 

WEll, since both components act the same, I assume that they are wired corectly. Taht said, earlier, when I did the test with the other amp, I also tried it with my Kenwood 6x9s. This was using a spare piece of wire not in the car at all, and I Got the exact same problem..


I don't get it... BAsicly, I know that the deck is sending SOMe audio information. This passes through RCAs directly to the amp.. The amp is getting full power, and is not in protect. THen, even with a short piece of cable directly to a speaker without external crossovers, I get no luck. The only variable that has not changed at least once is the deck. That said, I've tried it with both the internal amp on and off, and using it's different output channels. The balence and fade are both set at zero...

It's driving me nuts, because I 1) Think I did a thourough job of troubleshooting and wiring, and 2) don't think it's a complex wiring job at all..


Oh well, again, thanks for the input..

 

Sounds like you changed everything but the deck. Can you swap that out? Do you know if the deck ever worked?

 

WEll, I don't have another one..
That siad, the deck worked great. It probably hasn't been used for 100 hours. It worked perfectly fine when I pulled it out of my Camaro about a month ago...

 

just a quick question. you say that your RCA's go from HU to amp, then speaker wire goes from amp to the old wire plug that goes into the old HU. between the factory HU and the factory speakers there should be a amp. is it still there?

also try using the speaker level leads from the HU to the speakers. no amps. see what happens. I know that is one of the reasons that I got rid of my 9851, I had audio issues, and the sound was whackey.... I had t jack the bass settings and cut all the mid and trebel settings just to get it to sound decent.

Good luck.

 

He ran new wire to the factory amp's location and spliced in there from what I understand.

[url=also try using the speaker level leads from the HU to the speakers. no amps. see what happens. I know that is one of the reasons that I got rid of my 9851, I had audio issues, and the sound was whackey.... I had t jack the bass settings and cut all the mid and trebel settings just to get it to sound decent.

Good luck.[/QUOTE]

Line level is also a good idea.

 

I didn't have time tonight, I'll try that tommorrow.. If it does work, could I then use the "high level inputs" ( I think they're called...) on the amp instead of the rcas?

 

I didn't have time tonight, I'll try that tommorrow.. If it does work, could I then use the "high level inputs" ( I think they're called...) on the amp instead of the rcas?[/QUOTE]

Yes but it's not an ideal solution because it introduces distortion via the deck's IC (its internal amp). If this works that's a short term solution but the right thing to do is replace it.

 

I am not extremely familiar with the head unit you have, but my Alpine has the ability to enable and disable the line outputs from the menu system, also it has the ability to control the level of the output independant of the main volume control. Perhaps the levels are set to minimal. They would still turn up and down with the volume control, but at a considerably lower level. My headunit menu system is accessed by a button just below and to the right of the volume control and is labeled setup.

I hope this is some help, it sounds like you have covered most other bases.

 

Were the RCA cables damaged during removal from one car and installation into the other?

Like others have said, until you can try another head unit and rule that out its tough to zero in on the problem.

 

Checking the menu setting a good idea. You don't have a setting that would mute all the RCA outputs, unless you're use the sub out, that one can be turned off. Make sure the subw output is turned on and the subw is set to sys 1. Turn off any extra inputs and check the the AP mode is set to 'other', NOT H510. Also check the audio interrupt wire in the harness, it's pink/black. Don't use that wire.

 

WEll, it's working!
That said, I didn't really fix it.. Sometime last night, I just got annoyed and decided to finish wiring the rest of the system isnstead of being stuck at zero progress for a week.. After that was done, I hooked it all back up to try to work on it some more, and it worked, really loud... I KNOW it's hooked up the same as it had been the last 3 or 4 times, but it's working now..

Oddly enough, beforeI did that, I tried line level, to the exact same results as with the RCAs, so I never did figure out what the matter was.. regardless now, it's working and rather loud...

I took it for a drive tonight, cruised with a black 89 or so Camaro... That was cool, gave him a thumbs up when he pulled away.