Nashville TJ's Build - Continued

[NashvilleTJ]

To allow for cooling, and reduce the weight, next I hogged out a bunch of material with a few hole saws on the press.

And then threw on some paint.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

And here is the finished product. I'm not going to start the wiring today, because, ya know...snowin'.

 

[TRE3TOP]

Right one looks great! Stack o’ nickels!(not dimes, nickels don’t have ridges)

 

[sourbluff]

What you don’t have any yellow paint? Looks awesome!

 

[DrDmoney]

And here is the finished product. I'm not going to start the wiring today, because, ya know...snowin'.

View attachment 303008View attachment 303009

Nice work, you guys are forcing me to upgrade my sound system.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

Today I tackled the power side of the wiring for the amplifier. Since I like to keep my wiring organized and looking as stock as I can, and (mostly) because I just like doing things the hard way, I wanted to add the required 40amp circuit to the PDC.

Since it is pretty tight in there, to get to it I have to pull the battery and the battery tray.

Once that is out of the way I can pull the PDC out of the bracket, take it apart, and gain access to the underbelly.

Years ago I picked up a fully dressed PDC from Davey's Jeeps to provide me with the necessary connectors when I do a project like this. I found it easier doing it this way as opposed to sourcing the connectors new. So, I cracked that one open too.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

I pulled this connector out of the donor - this connector came from the 50 amp IOD circuit.

I've never understood the wiring selections in cars. On this 50 amp circuit, I think the wire here is 12 gauge. Everything I've read on the amplifier, and electrical load in general, is that to support a 40 amp load under about 25 feet requires an 8 gauge copper wire. Much larger than the wire that Jeep used for this 50 amp circuit.

So I soldered the gigantic 8 gauge wire to the connector and covered it with heat shrink.

Since I still have a few open circuits on the bus with the larger fuses, it was just a matter of snaking the new connector through the other wires and stabbing it in place.

Then I tied everything back down and reassembled the PDC.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

Then everything goes back in place, and just like that I've got a new 40 amp circuit.

The final task on the PDC was to pull out my label maker and make a label for the amplifier circuit.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

I have a large grommet on the passenger side where the cables for the welder pass through the firewall. That was an easy place to pull the wire and keep it waterproof. It was then an easy task to route it to the driver's side.

The amplifier documentation made a big deal of establishing a good ground. So the first thing I did was pull out my big crimper and add an eye to the 8 gauge ground wire. Here it is after some shrink wrap.

I took advantage of an existing 1/4" hole just above the steering column mount, and after grinding off the paint I added a 1/4" through bolt to attach the ground wire.

Next up - the wiring to the head unit. But now the nasty part is out of the way.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

I'm doing some prep work getting ready to wire the input and output side of the amplifier into the Jeep. The input side is a piece of cake - four RCA connectors for the main speakers and two for the sub. For the output side, looking at the Jeep's wiring diagrams the front and rear speakers are clear enough with four dedicated connections. But the sub-woofer - not so much.

In the factory wiring for the stereo, there is no specific connection to the sub-woofer. The factory sub-woofer is wired by splicing into the wiring for all four of the main speakers, along with a 12v connection to the radio, and a fused 12v ignition switch connection.

My plan has been to use the stock wiring for the front and rear speakers - it is 18 gauge and in good shape, although 16 gauge would be better for the power from what I know. I am still giving some thought to swapping it out.

Two questions:

1) On the sub-woofer, I think I need to bypass the stock wiring and go straight from the amp to the sub. Does that sound correct?

2) As I recall there are two (+) and two (-) terminals on the sub (I know there is a name for that, but it escapes me at the moment). As there is only one (+) and one (-) coming out of the amplifier, how do I wire it into the sub? In series or in parallel?

I'm hoping some of the audio guru's like @skrelnik, @JMT, and @Jerry Bransford, or anyone else who knows more than me, can give me some advice. Thanks in advance.

 

[JMT]

I'm doing some prep work getting ready to wire the input and output side of the amplifier into the Jeep. The input side is a piece of cake - four RCA connectors for the main speakers and two for the sub. For the output side, looking at the Jeep's wiring diagrams the front and rear speakers are clear enough with four dedicated connections. But the sub-woofer - not so much.

In the factory wiring for the stereo, there is no specific connection to the sub-woofer. The factory sub-woofer is wired by splicing into the wiring for all four of the main speakers, along with a 12v connection to the radio, and a fused 12v ignition switch connection.

My plan has been to use the stock wiring for the front and rear speakers - it is 18 gauge and in good shape, although 16 gauge would be better for the power from what I know. I am still giving some thought to swapping it out.

Two questions:

1) On the sub-woofer, I think I need to bypass the stock wiring and go straight from the amp to the sub. Does that sound correct?

2) As I recall there are two (+) and two (-) terminals on the sub (I know there is a name for that, but it escapes me at the moment). As there is only one (+) and one (-) coming out of the amplifier, how do I wire it into the sub? In series or in parallel?

I'm hoping some of the audio guru's like @skrelnik, @JMT, and @Jerry Bransford, or anyone else who knows more than me, can give me some advice. Thanks in advance.

1) Correct. Wire straight from amp to sub bypassing stock wiring.

2) I don’t know enough about your system and whether you are wiring for 4-ohm or 2-ohm. Someone like @skrelnik would know more about that than me.

 

[Mike_H]

I'm doing some prep work getting ready to wire the input and output side of the amplifier into the Jeep. The input side is a piece of cake - four RCA connectors for the main speakers and two for the sub. For the output side, looking at the Jeep's wiring diagrams the front and rear speakers are clear enough with four dedicated connections. But the sub-woofer - not so much.

In the factory wiring for the stereo, there is no specific connection to the sub-woofer. The factory sub-woofer is wired by splicing into the wiring for all four of the main speakers, along with a 12v connection to the radio, and a fused 12v ignition switch connection.

My plan has been to use the stock wiring for the front and rear speakers - it is 18 gauge and in good shape, although 16 gauge would be better for the power from what I know. I am still giving some thought to swapping it out.

Two questions:

1) On the sub-woofer, I think I need to bypass the stock wiring and go straight from the amp to the sub. Does that sound correct?

2) As I recall there are two (+) and two (-) terminals on the sub (I know there is a name for that, but it escapes me at the moment). As there is only one (+) and one (-) coming out of the amplifier, how do I wire it into the sub? In series or in parallel?

I'm hoping some of the audio guru's like @skrelnik, @JMT, and @Jerry Bransford, or anyone else who knows more than me, can give me some advice. Thanks in advance.

If the sub has two sets of terminals, that means it's a dual voice coil. You'll need to look at the speaker doc and the amp doc to find out how to wire it. You want to go with the lowest impedance connection your amp will be stable at. IIRC the Picasso nano will go to 2 ohm.

 

[skrelnik]

I'm doing some prep work getting ready to wire the input and output side of the amplifier into the Jeep. The input side is a piece of cake - four RCA connectors for the main speakers and two for the sub. For the output side, looking at the Jeep's wiring diagrams the front and rear speakers are clear enough with four dedicated connections. But the sub-woofer - not so much.

In the factory wiring for the stereo, there is no specific connection to the sub-woofer. The factory sub-woofer is wired by splicing into the wiring for all four of the main speakers, along with a 12v connection to the radio, and a fused 12v ignition switch connection.

My plan has been to use the stock wiring for the front and rear speakers - it is 18 gauge and in good shape, although 16 gauge would be better for the power from what I know. I am still giving some thought to swapping it out.

Two questions:

1) On the sub-woofer, I think I need to bypass the stock wiring and go straight from the amp to the sub. Does that sound correct?

2) As I recall there are two (+) and two (-) terminals on the sub (I know there is a name for that, but it escapes me at the moment). As there is only one (+) and one (-) coming out of the amplifier, how do I wire it into the sub? In series or in parallel?

I'm hoping some of the audio guru's like @skrelnik, @JMT, and @Jerry Bransford, or anyone else who knows more than me, can give me some advice. Thanks in advance.

1) See @JMT above

2) Is the subwoofer rated for 1 or 2 ohm? The Soundstream amplifier is rated at 200 watts at 4 ohms or 350 watts at 2 ohms. Depending on which ohm version of subwoofer you purchased will tell us how to wire. Confirm the subwoofer specs or send the product/model number?

 

[NashvilleTJ]

1) See @JMT above

2) Is the subwoofer rated for 1 or 2 ohm? The Soundstream amplifier is rated at 200 watts at 4 ohms or 350 watts at 2 ohms. Depending on which ohm version of subwoofer you purchased will tell us how to wire. Confirm the subwoofer specs or send the product/model number?

The sub is a bazooka 6.5" dual voice, 100 watt at 2 ohms.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

1) Correct. Wire straight from amp to sub bypassing stock wiring.

2) I don’t know enough about your system and whether you are wiring for 4-ohm or 2-ohm. Someone like @skrelnik would know more about that than me.

If the sub has two sets of terminals, that means it's a dual voice coil. You'll need to look at the speaker doc and the amp doc to find out how to wire it. You want to go with the lowest impedance connection your amp will be stable at. IIRC the Picasso nano will go to 2 ohm.

Thanks guys. That's a big help.

 

[skrelnik]

The sub is a bazooka 6.5" dual voice, 100 watt at 2 ohms.

I searched for a manual but could not find one. Do you happen to have the manual? If not, you can either test the speaker or just assume, which I do not like to do, that the Bazooka speaker has a pair of 4 ohm voice coils, so if you wire in parallel it would pull 2 ohms and the 100 watts.

I make that assumption based off that manufacturers love to inflate numbers and show their products best performance.

Is this the speaker you have?

https://bazooka.com/products/6-2-ohm-dual-voice-coil-replacement-woofer-for-bta6100

 

[NashvilleTJ]

I searched for a manual but could not find one. Do you happen to have the manual? If not, you can either test the speaker or just assume, which I do not like to do, that the Bazooka speaker has a pair of 4 ohm voice coils, so if you wire in parallel it would pull 2 ohms and the 100 watts.

I make that assumption based off that manufacturers love to inflate numbers and show their products best performance.

Is this the speaker you have?

https://bazooka.com/products/6-2-ohm-dual-voice-coil-replacement-woofer-for-bta6100

That's exactly it. I pulled up my original sales receipt and it is listed as:

WF621.5DV - 6 inch 2 ohm replacement woofer

Which matches the SKU on the link you posted.

I'll see if I can dig up the original documentation.

Edit: No luck on a manual, all I have is the original purchase receipts.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

Sooooo, here is my current understanding:

My Bazooka dual voice coil, 2 ohm, 100 watt sub wired in series is 4 ohms. Wired in parallel it is 1 ohm.

Looking at the documentation for the Picasso Nano Amp, the sub channel has no rating at 1 ohm, 350 watts at 2 ohms, and 200 watts at 4 ohms.

Does this mean that I should wire the sub in series for 4 ohms? Or do I have the wrong sub for this setup?

 

[skrelnik]

Sooooo, here is my current understanding:

My Bazooka dual voice coil, 2 ohm, 100 watt sub wired in series is 4 ohms. Wired in parallel it is 1 ohm.

Looking at the documentation for the Picasso Nano Amp, the sub channel has no rating at 1 ohm, 350 watts at 2 ohms, and 200 watts at 4 ohms.

Does this mean that I should wire the sub in series for 4 ohms? Or do I have the wrong sub for this setup?

It's not the most optimal set-up but it's not a wrong sub for this choice, just not the best choice. The Kicker 4 ohm, wired parallel would be ideal, or their 1ohm wired in series.

I would recommend wiring the Bazooka in series so the Bazooka is 4ohm.

If you ever upgrade this would be a good choice.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_20648CT674/Kicker-48CWRT674.html

 

[skrelnik]

By the way, amazing job on the install!