94 2 door Stereo Confusion...

Hi,

I am looking into installing a CD head unit into my '94 Explorer - 2 door - if it makes any difference... and am a little confused about the AMP situation.

The cassette deck in it now does not have DNR on it - but it does have a Dolby symbol. When I look at the CD model I am interested in on Crutchfield, and check to see if it fits my vehicle - it indicates that I just need an adapter harness to make the Install easier. I went to local stereo place here and the tech said that all Explorers have AMPS and he couldn't sell me an adapter...

Needless to say I am very confused now as Crutchfield says just a harness adapter is required and the local guy indicates that it would take a custom install ...

Clear as mud...

Any help is appreciated.

Dave

Reply to
rolleye
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It doesn't really sound as though you have the premium sound in the truck at present. You probably do not need a custom install. BUT, there is a way that you can find out. You DO need the harness, unless of course you want to cut out the existing plug. Once you have your harness plug it in without it being hooked to the stereo. Then you need a 9vt battery, take your speaker leads off the harness + and - to each speaker, touch these leads to the 9vt, you should hear a pop and static at each speaker location. As long as you hear this sound you have no amp. If you do not hear this sound then you would need to run speaker wires to your present speaker locations, this translates into alot of work. You have to remove mouldings ETC. It's really not that hard just takes awhile. I had to do it with my 4 Runner. I assume that you have speakers in the doors and the rear somewhere. The doors will be the hardest to run as you have to remove the door panels and run the wires thru the door jam and into the door. Putting in a stereo is not hard even if you have to cut the factory harness, all there is is a hot (b+) (RED) a common (-)(ground, BLACK) and an ignition hot(+)(YELLOW). Then you have the speaker wires. Unless you are installing an aftermarket amp, then you will have to hook up the blue wire off the stereo (REMOTE).THe orange is for the power ant if you have one. These colors are usually standard, but you will have a wiring diagram with the stereo. If you have any questions feel free to email me. I can help you out.

Searcher (1986 sound challenge 1100 watt class winner) IASCA Yeah its been awhile since I was into the boom cars but I still keep my paws in the loop, I am no longer into the BOOM but I do like HIGH quality sound. and by the way a Pioneer head unit has been my top pick since 86, I have never had anything else win in my cars. I run a Pioneer 6700 with Infinity reference seps. Getting ready to hook it all into a Rockford Fosgate Punch amp.

goodluck

Reply to
Searcher1

If you have the upgraded system with the "amp" there are two ways to add an aftermarket head. The easiest is to be a harness you put right behind the head that converts the new heads speaker output voltage DOWN to the lower voltage level the amp needs for its input. That's how I did my 92. As I recall, it included an adjustment for volume. It worked but I was not thrilled with it as even with it set for highest volume it still wasn't as loud as I thought it should get. Plus it seemed to introduce a small amount of distortion.

The second way it to find the amp and take it out of the circuit. I've heard that for the early explorers there is a harness you can buy that makes bypassing the amp, once you find it and can get to it, a plug and play. If you can't find a harness you could just figure out which wires from the front going into the amp need to be hooked to the wires going out of the amp.

Some people have just said "screw it" and run all new speaker wires from the new head. To me that sounds like more work then bypassing the amp.

Reply to
Ashton Crusher

Thanks for the replies.

I found another stereo shop who had the adapter harness. I spliced it in and everything is great.

2nd opinions ( or 3rd or 4th ) can be very valuable.

Thanks again

Dave

rolleye wrote:

Reply to
rolleye

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