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1989 Mustang GT -- Stereo Questions

3012 Views 12 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  ragtopfox, 
B
Hey guys. I just picked up an 89 GT that previously had an aftermarket radio installed. I have already read a good deal about the factory amplifier and how to bypass it. I've heard that people tie the front speakers together and use a bass blocker on the 3.5" dash speaker. Here is my question:

I have 3.5" infinity kappa 2-way speakers with an external crossover. Seeing as they have an external crossover, do I still need to use a bass blocker when tying them in with the door speakers?

I may need some more stereo related answers in the future, but that should do it for now. Thanks in advance!!
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Yep

bd89gt said:
Hey guys. I just picked up an 89 GT that previously had an aftermarket radio installed. I have already read a good deal about the factory amplifier and how to bypass it. I've heard that people tie the front speakers together and use a bass blocker on the 3.5" dash speaker. Here is my question:

I have 3.5" infinity kappa 2-way speakers with an external crossover. Seeing as they have an external crossover, do I still need to use a bass blocker when tying them in with the door speakers?

I may need some more stereo related answers in the future, but that should do it for now. Thanks in advance!!
Click to expand...
Yes...you still need the bass blockers. All the external cross over will do is send the high frequencies to the tweets and the low to the 3.5 inch driver. That driver is not made for the low frequencies, especially amplified.

Tell me what you are working with and I can give you better advice on what you will or won't need.
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B
Thanks for the quick response. I am going to use my stereo from another car for now. I have an older alpine head unit with the v-drive internal amp. (60 watts x 4) I have the kappa 3.5" 2-ways, and kappa 6x9 3-ways. I wanted to trim the rear openings to accept 6x9s. I was planning on keeping the existing door speakers (clarions) for now and tying them in with the dash speakers. I'll eventually amplify the speakers but the head unit will have to do for now. I do plan on upgrading all of the speaker wire to 12 gauge while I'm there as well as soldering all connections. Finally, I have a rf punch amp paired with a bazooka tube that I had hooked up in my last vehicle. As a side note, the previous owner had a really old 4-way rf amp in the hatch. If I knew of a way to test it, I would. If it works I'd be willing to use it for my speakers until it needed to be replaced. I know this is a long post but any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. I like to thoroughly plan things before I take action. Thanks.
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It's all good

bd89gt said:
Thanks for the quick response. I am going to use my stereo from another car for now. I have an older alpine head unit with the v-drive internal amp. (60 watts x 4) I have the kappa 3.5" 2-ways, and kappa 6x9 3-ways. I wanted to trim the rear openings to accept 6x9s. I was planning on keeping the existing door speakers (clarions) for now and tying them in with the dash speakers. I'll eventually amplify the speakers but the head unit will have to do for now. I do plan on upgrading all of the speaker wire to 12 gauge while I'm there as well as soldering all connections. Finally, I have a rf punch amp paired with a bazooka tube that I had hooked up in my last vehicle. As a side note, the previous owner had a really old 4-way rf amp in the hatch. If I knew of a way to test it, I would. If it works I'd be willing to use it for my speakers until it needed to be replaced. I know this is a long post but any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. I like to thoroughly plan things before I take action. Thanks.
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If you are going to rewire the car, then I would run all your RCA's and everything now even if you don't use the amp right away. If you do that, then you can just throw your amps in and go. What model is the old amp? Does your Alpine have RCA outputs? If you are only using the Alpine for power, then you won't need the bass blockers yet.
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The amp is a RF 4600x. I'm not sure how old it is. The power rating in the back states:
dynamic power - 4x90 watts (2ohms)
RMS power - 4x60 watts (2ohms)
I think I will run the RCA's like you said. The other amp that I will be running is a newer RF punch amp. I believe that it puts out 150 watts x 1 channel if I'm not mistaken. What gauge power lead do I need to run to a distribution block? Also, I have a new stock alternator and a new battery rated at around 850 CCAs. Do I need to look in to a capacitor with this setup?
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Old School

bd89gt said:
The amp is a RF 4600x. I'm not sure how old it is. The power rating in the back states:
dynamic power - 4x90 watts (2ohms)
RMS power - 4x60 watts (2ohms)
I think I will run the RCA's like you said. The other amp that I will be running is a newer RF punch amp. I believe that it puts out 150 watts x 1 channel if I'm not mistaken. What gauge power lead do I need to run to a distribution block? Also, I have a new stock alternator and a new battery rated at around 850 CCAs. Do I need to look in to a capacitor with this setup?
Click to expand...
I believe your RF 4600 is from Rockford's Series 1 line of amps from the late '80's to early '90's. They were made for budget minded people. Don't get me wrong, they are still great amps. My best friend from high school had one powering his whole car, new full range and two RF Series 1 10's. I love old school ('88-'94) Rockford, PPI, Soundstream, Pyramid Super Pro and Phoenix Gold which I look for on Ebay. I won't buy any other amps.

If the 4600 works, I would run the door and dash speakers off of the front channels and the rear 6x9's off of the rear channels. Use your other Rockford amp to power your tube. Now the catch is, you will need a two-way electronic crossover separating your full range speakers (dash, door and sail panel) from your sub if the new RF amp doesn't have a built in crossover or there is not one built into the Alpine. I would choose between 70-90 hz for low pass and 125 up for high pass, unless your crossover is 24db per octave. If so, add the bass blocker to the 3.5's. Now the real kicker is that you could power everything with the 4600 because it has a built in crossover. This will save you some money until you get exactly what you want.

As far as the alternator cap combo, I think you will be ok because you will not be drawing that much current. Try it with out a cap and see how it runs. I believe you will like the sound. If you want to try something real neat, get an L-pad and make the rear channels going to the 6x9's a Hafler circuit. Old school idea, but it works nice, like having a surround channel.
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You lost me with the l-pad and hafler circuit. I'll have to do some reasearch. As far as a crossover goes, I think I'll be ok. My alpine was top of the line when I bought it like 6-7 years ago... It has 3 pre-amp outputs. (Front, rear, and sub). So should I run 12 gauge wire from the amp in the hatch to all inside speakers? Do - need thicker wire? Lastly, the 4600 has a terminal labeled AP right next to ground and b+ is this my remote wire? Thanks
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No and Yes.....

bd89gt said:
You lost me with the l-pad and hafler circuit. I'll have to do some reasearch. As far as a crossover goes, I think I'll be ok. My alpine was top of the line when I bought it like 6-7 years ago... It has 3 pre-amp outputs. (Front, rear, and sub). So should I run 12 gauge wire from the amp in the hatch to all inside speakers? Do - need thicker wire? Lastly, the 4600 has a terminal labeled AP right next to ground and b+ is this my remote wire? Thanks
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No...you don't need thicker wire for what you have now and yes, I believe that it the remote turn on lead.
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five-ohh-love
Im not trying to hijack your thread or anything but im in somewhat of the same problem.
Just put in new Rockford Punch 5 1/4s in the doors, and also Rockford Punch 3 1/2s in the dash and tied them together to run off headunit power(55x4 channels.I have a sub in the back thats powered by an amp but i have to keep my headunit bass turned down because my speakers (mainly the door 5 1/4s) distort bad from the bass when its turned up.My question is simply how do i know witch bass blockers to buy for the 5 1/4s in the doors.

Thanks and sorry for kinda stealing you thread, but i cant find anyone to answer this for me.
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Beerdog80
five-ohh-love said:
Im not trying to hijack your thread or anything but im in somewhat of the same problem.
Just put in new Rockford Punch 5 1/4s in the doors, and also Rockford Punch 3 1/2s in the dash and tied them together to run off headunit power(55x4 channels.I have a sub in the back thats powered by an amp but i have to keep my headunit bass turned down because my speakers (mainly the door 5 1/4s) distort bad from the bass when its turned up.My question is simply how do i know witch bass blockers to buy for the 5 1/4s in the doors.

Thanks and sorry for kinda stealing you thread, but i cant find anyone to answer this for me.
Click to expand...
First, are you running the three speakers or are you running more off the HU?

Try adjusting your gain on the amp and lowering the bass on your components. I have Rockford 5 1/4 as well and I have the bass on my Alpine deck turned down around 1-2.

If that does not work for you, then any bass blocker that can handle 40-50RMS (your deck does not put out 55 RMS-thats a peak rating). Here is one example.

Bass Blockers Individuals at Crutchfield.com
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Thanks ragtop, and happy holidays as well! I'm a full time student and I work full time so free time is scarce. Luckily for me, I'm on winter break. I soldered my new wiring harness last night and I was able to remove the head unit and equalizer this evening. WOW! What a mess... I labeled all wires. I'm still trying to take it all in, and I'm most likely going to have to get ahold of you for more advice. It's going to take a solid weekend to rewire this car. I'm not sure when exactly but I'm going to gather supplies for now. If you don't mind, let me explain what I have found thus far...
Old school clarion head unit, equalizer, and speakers, as well as the amp previously mentioned. The only speaker leads that they utilized on the original harness were the two rears... they ran RCAs for the front and sub (the HU has 3 pre amps). The wiring of the head unit is pretty cut and dry but the equalizer is in two parts... the face plate and a separate unit under the passenger seat. This is where it gets tricky. So far I have traced the two sets of RCAs leaving the head unit to the unit under the seat. From there, two other sets of RCAs leave there and go to the amp in the trunk. The amp has 3 sets of speaker wire leaving it... one went to the bass tube and I'm assuming that the other two go to the fronts. I'm assuming this because they utilized the stock wiring for the rear speakers as previously mentioned. Ok, now back the the under-seat equalizer unit. From what I can see without removing the seat, it has the RCAs, the main plug that runs to the faceplate, and a small harness that contains several wires. I'm not sure what they are other than one remote, one ground, etc... They must all tie in behind the dash because there are some spliced wires that are a bit out of reach. I think that I'm going to have to pull the console. I think my best bet at this point is to get everything that I need: speaker wire, distribution block, bass blockers, etc... and pull the seats and the console on a weekend. Should I reuse their RCAs and use RCA couplers where they meet under the seat or just buy new ones that are long enough to run from my head unit all the way back to the hatch? Any suggestions or thoughts? I really appreciate your help. Once again, happy holidays and enjoy your weekend.
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Distortion portion

five-ohh-love said:
Im not trying to hijack your thread or anything but im in somewhat of the same problem.
Just put in new Rockford Punch 5 1/4s in the doors, and also Rockford Punch 3 1/2s in the dash and tied them together to run off headunit power(55x4 channels.I have a sub in the back thats powered by an amp but i have to keep my headunit bass turned down because my speakers (mainly the door 5 1/4s) distort bad from the bass when its turned up.My question is simply how do i know witch bass blockers to buy for the 5 1/4s in the doors.

Thanks and sorry for kinda stealing you thread, but i cant find anyone to answer this for me.
Click to expand...
Since you are running your full range speakers off of the deck, your distortion is probably caused by the deck itself. Yes the bass blockers will help keeping your 3.5's from taking a pounding, but your 5.25's should be able to handle the deck power. It is a very rare thing to have deck keep up with anything amped.

Secondly, a gain control is not a bass level control. The gain control is used to match the amplifier to the given output voltage of the headunit. While it will increase the sound, it will also hit a point of distortion. What kind of amp are you using? Also, why are the full range speakers tied together? Did you run them in series or parallel?
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What a mess.....

bd89gt said:
Thanks ragtop, and happy holidays as well! I'm a full time student and I work full time so free time is scarce. Luckily for me, I'm on winter break. I soldered my new wiring harness last night and I was able to remove the head unit and equalizer this evening. WOW! What a mess... I labeled all wires. I'm still trying to take it all in, and I'm most likely going to have to get ahold of you for more advice. It's going to take a solid weekend to rewire this car. I'm not sure when exactly but I'm going to gather supplies for now. If you don't mind, let me explain what I have found thus far...
Old school clarion head unit, equalizer, and speakers, as well as the amp previously mentioned. The only speaker leads that they utilized on the original harness were the two rears... they ran RCAs for the front and sub (the HU has 3 pre amps). The wiring of the head unit is pretty cut and dry but the equalizer is in two parts... the face plate and a separate unit under the passenger seat. This is where it gets tricky. So far I have traced the two sets of RCAs leaving the head unit to the unit under the seat. From there, two other sets of RCAs leave there and go to the amp in the trunk. The amp has 3 sets of speaker wire leaving it... one went to the bass tube and I'm assuming that the other two go to the fronts. I'm assuming this because they utilized the stock wiring for the rear speakers as previously mentioned. Ok, now back the the under-seat equalizer unit. From what I can see without removing the seat, it has the RCAs, the main plug that runs to the faceplate, and a small harness that contains several wires. I'm not sure what they are other than one remote, one ground, etc... They must all tie in behind the dash because there are some spliced wires that are a bit out of reach. I think that I'm going to have to pull the console. I think my best bet at this point is to get everything that I need: speaker wire, distribution block, bass blockers, etc... and pull the seats and the console on a weekend. Should I reuse their RCAs and use RCA couplers where they meet under the seat or just buy new ones that are long enough to run from my head unit all the way back to the hatch? Any suggestions or thoughts? I really appreciate your help. Once again, happy holidays and enjoy your weekend.
Click to expand...
You should make a good pot of sauce to go with all that spaghetti. If I were you, this is what I would do. Follow the KISS rule, Keep It Simple Stupid. I'm not calling you stupid. I am saying in this case, less is more. Head unit, amp and speakers.

Take out all of that old wiring, EQ and other non-sense. Get all of your connectors, speaker cables, distribution blocks and whatever else you want to put in the car. Now, follow these steps:
-diagram your system (it will make things smoother in the long run)
-pre-cut all of your speaker cable (measure twice/cut once) and use full length RCA's (don't use connector RCA's if you don't have to)
-run all the power cables, speaker cables and RCA/remote wire
-install speakers
-install the blocks (minus the fuses), head unit and amp
-double check all connections
-add fuse and enjoy

If you can afford it, use flex-loom. It keeps things cleaner and easier to work with.

Unless the EQ is high quality, I wouldn't use it. The more things you add to a system, the more noise it can generate. Keep me posted.
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