Need front speaker wiring help

[Stormy]

Hey guys. I'm very close to finishing my install but I've hit a snag. Has anyone in here wired up aftermarket front speakers to an aftermarket amp? I figured I could just run new speaker wire out of the amp through the boot that goes between the jamb and the door and be done with it. Alas, there are terminal blocks in those boots. This means I am going to either have to:

1. Try to tap into some empty ports on the blocks. This is going to be kind of a pain because I will have to find the right inserts for both ends of the plug and likely have to cut a bunch of taped bundles just to get access to the end of the plug not shown in the photo below.

or

2. Actually cut/splice into the stock speaker wires, which I'd rather not do. I'm using T-taps off of them now for signal into my LLC, and that means I'll have to cut them completely to splice in the outputs or I'll obviously have a loop. I'd rather nor do in case I want to go back to stock, so I'd just have to reinstall and plug in the stock speakers again. Also, the stock wiring is so small, I'd prefer something beefier.

Has anyone here got any suggestions for an easy route to the door that I'm not thinking of? Thanks.

Terminal block with T-taps, passenger side.

 

[chicagoslick]

Stormy,

I ran my wiring (16 gage) to the door tracks / troughs at the floor and spliced into the existing wiring. I was discouraged that Ford used those connector blocks, but that is what we have to deal with. I am planning a speaker upgrade, going from JL C2's-to JL C-5's, sometime soon. When I do, I will be drilling new holes for 14 gage wiring adding flexible tubing and grommets. Best of luck with how you end up doing your work. BTW, I do not like the use of t-taps as I think this cuts some of the strands of wiring. It would be better to cut, strip, and splice as you will keep more of the strands of wiring intact. I believe our factory speaker wiring is 18 gage and under 4 ohm loads can support ~120 watts. I have been running 60-100 watts with no issues. Please see the information I copied from Steve Meade Designs. (Steve has been in the car audio realm for more than 20 yrs and his work speaks for itself.)

Speaker wire:

22 gauge: ~2.2 amperes

8 ohms - <36 watts

6 ohms - <27 watts

4 ohms - <18 watts

3 ohms - <13.5 watts

2 ohms - <9 watts

1 ohm - <4.5 watts

20 gauge: ~3.4 amperes

8 ohms - <96 watts

6 ohms - <72 watts

4 ohms - <48 watts

3 ohms - <36 watts

2 ohms - <24 watts

1 ohm - <12 watts

18 gauge: ~5.5 amperes

8 ohms - <240 watts

6 ohms - <180 watts

4 ohms - <120 watts

3 ohms - <90 watts

2 ohms - <60 watts

1 ohm - <30 watts

16 gauge: ~8.7 amperes

8 ohms - <600 watts

6 ohms - <450 watts

4 ohms - <300 watts

3 ohms - <225 watts

2 ohms - <150 watts

1 ohm - <75 watts

 

[Stormy]

Thanks, as always. I was going to bridge out the remaining 4 channels for 160 watts at 4 ohms vs 60 at 4 ohms for just 2 channels but that seems ill advised. The other issue is that these Alpines use an inline crossover so the tweeters wire off a second set of spades on the woofer, rather than having a crossover box which then splits two sets of leads off to the separate drivers. This means that even if I splice into the factory leads for the doors I will have to run power back out of the door somehow to the a tweeters in the A pillar. I think my best bet here is going to have to be to go active crossover and run the woofers and tweeters on their own channels. Then I can tap in for the doors and just run leads to the pillars for the tweeters. It's going to mean more money, though.

 

[Stormy]

Nevermind. I am dumb. The tweeters have their own passive crossovers after all. The ones on the woofer baskets are just for the mids. So I can run all 4 drivers on their own channels. I will still have to splice into the door leads but hey, to make an omelette you have to break some eggs, right?

 

[chicagoslick]

Nevermind. I am dumb. The tweeters have their own passive crossovers after all. The ones on the woofer baskets are just for the mids. So I can run all 4 drivers on their own channels. I will still have to splice into the door leads but hey, to make an omelette you have to break some eggs, right?

Yeah that is usually the case, with the tweeters and mids having their own crossovers (capacitors). I know in this case you found out a solution, but for future reference, you can buy the crossovers fairly cheap that will work for what you need. Best of luck...

 

[Nitelife]

[MENTION=4755]Stormy[/MENTION] & [MENTION=7548]chicagoslick[/MENTION] - How did your individual wiring projects go? I have seen on other car forum builds that people have drilled through empty spots in the wire harness connectors.

I am going to emulate Stormy's subwoofer enclosure with the Punch P3SD2 and the Soundstream PN5.640D amplifier. I have older Polk DB6501 components (gold; 100W RMS each). I don't think I'm going to risk over-amping the speakers or sub by running bridged (160x2 +325 sub) I can live with 60x2 + 200 sub at 4 ohm.

Stormy - the Soundstream amp accepts line level inputs. Did you use these line level inputs or are you still using a LOC from factory speaker wire to the RCA adapters?

 

[Stormy]

[MENTION=4755]Stormy[/MENTION] & [MENTION=7548]chicagoslick[/MENTION] - How did your individual wiring projects go? I have seen on other car forum builds that people have drilled through empty spots in the wire harness connectors.

I am going to emulate Stormy's subwoofer enclosure with the Punch P3SD2 and the Soundstream PN5.640D amplifier. I have older Polk DB6501 components (gold; 100W RMS each). I don't think I'm going to risk over-amping the speakers or sub by running bridged (160x2 +325 sub) I can live with 60x2 + 200 sub at 4 ohm.

Stormy - the Soundstream amp accepts line level inputs. Did you use these line level inputs or are you still using a LOC from factory speaker wire to the RCA adapters?

I am using a $20 passive LOC. Works fine for me.