Aftermarket amp in place of factory amp?

[jyeager]

Hey. I have a '97 LE that was originally equipped with the NON-Bose factory stereo with a-pillar tweeters and rear mounted amplifier.

 

I have a new head unit, adapted to the factory stereo harness and new door speakers all the way around, plugged in to the factory speaker wires.

I got a component system for the front door speakers and replaced the factory tweeters with the tweeters included in the components system. But I did not install the included crossovers.

 

At the time, I assumed the system had crossovers hidden somewhere and I now know from reading the factory schematics that this is not the case. So I'm currently sending all signal to the 2-ways in the front doors as well as to the a-pillar tweeters.

 

The sound is reasonable to my very indiscriminate ears. But I understand that installing the supplied crossovers should be a big improvement.

So one of my questions is:

1) Where does the factory front speaker wire tap off to the door speaker and the tweeter? It's not going to the speaker and then traveling on, like in the Bose setup....there were only 2 wires to the factory speakers...my guess is that it's behind the kick panel? I assume that's where I would want to install my crossovers.

 

2) What downside is there to the fact that I'm basically still using the factory amp with my different pieces? What was the factory HU's power output? My new one is 17watts RMSx4.

And what output does the factory amp put out?

 

Thanks!

[XPLORx4]

If you don't get an answer to your question, you can pull off the A-pillar trim to run new wire to the tweeters from where ever you mount the crossover.

[jyeager]

Yes, that is true!

One way or another it can get done.

 

I'm also hoping for an answer to my amp question.

 

Hey, I like your truck BTW (but who doesn't?)

Thanks for posting.

[ferrariowner123]

The factory amp output is less than that if I remember correctly, I had to wire around mine in order to get any noise over a wiper in my car.

 

And I think the wire does split in the kick, but you will be greeted with a huge loom so it would probably be easier to run your wire. It's a hassle but it's easier than digging through the 1.5 inch thick loom.

 

-Kyle