HELP. Stereo install problem (1 Viewer)

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Anybody on here tonight that can help with a stereo install problem?

I have hooked up an Alpine head-unit cde-9881 to the 'ol 80. The power up is fine, but when I switch to another source by the source button on the unit (will do one of these, or all of these each time);

-the unit powers out, then comes back on.
-blows the fuse to the dome lights
-blows fuse on the head-unit
-sometimes it just powers in and out several times before comming on.

Thanks for the help.
 
Did the truck originally have a factory amp? If so, did you unplug it?
 
yes it does, no I did not. I'm using an aftermarket wiring harness for the four speakers. Does that disconnect it?

Thanks!
 
The aftermarket harness does not disconnect the amp. What is actually happening (as far as I can tell) is that the harness behind the radio that we connect an aftermarket one to has the speaker wires paralleled to the factory amp's output wires. Not an issue with the factory deck, but when not using the amp, you are actually feeding signal from you radio into the output stage of the factory amp which is now sitting idle. This must creat some degree of a short because usually makes the aftermarket radio shut down. Drop the front of your golve box down, reach in to the right side and unplug all the harnesses from the factory amp. My guess is all your problems will be solved. Let us know if that helps.:)
 
Make sure that the power antenna wire on the aftermarket harness (usually blue) is not connected to the antenna wire on the stereo harness....It causes problems. :doh:
 
Thanks, I'll try that and let you know.

Thank you very much!!
 
what they said +...

You are almost there with the wiring harness problem. Go to a Best Buy or Circut City and get the Toyota wire harness for the LC. Go behind the right dash speaker and remove the factory amp (crap). Three screws and its gone. Take the wire harness that you got from BB or CC and plug it into the two Grey plugs that were connected to the factory amp. Those are the "out " plugs that go to the speakers. You will now have to go from the wires that come out of the head unit harness to the harness that you just pluged into the grey factory harness. This is simple and you can go to your local hardware store and get a wire crimpimg plyers and extra wire and join the color coded wires from the head unit to the harness you got from BB or CC. It's that simple. It wil take you a couple hours and you will want to remove your entire lower dash and glove box to get at all the stuff but it will be easier if you do. The head unit will screw right into the existing mounting bracket from the OEM double din unit.

Get rid of the original OEM amp and wire around it and you are good to go.

Speakers for the front and rear need to be less than 1 7/8" deep and you can fit almost anything in there with some trimming of the sheet metal.

I just did all of the above and it took some time but it sounds frickin fantastic. I put in a Pioneer 6800 head unit, iPod adapter, Rockford Fosgate 5 1/4" rear door speakers, Kenwood 6" front door speakers and a Kenwood 8" 150 watt amp sub and couldn't be more happy. Yeah, it's not a 80 watt unit but it is 1000 times better than the OEM unit! It gets me to the pain threshold with no distortion and great sound.

PM me if you need more info on the install.
 
EXCELLENT!!!

That's what Y'all are! I knew I'd find the answer here.

Well, I did all that was mentioned, and it all works. Amazing how the factory brackets just bolt right up. Now I just need to install that CB.

Nothing like getting right to it. Thanks for the location of the amp. Took the glove box off, and there that thing was (thanks Eratic). Unplugged, cut the blue ant. Pwr wire (Thaks Ika, and LandTank), and things are perfect.

Nice to have good sound in the 80. Only thing that was missing.

I plugged and played the Alpine Head-unit (thanks PhotoGod), and an Ipod wire installed into the G-box. I'm using 6.5" JVC's up front, and will use the same in the rear, with some fab work.

Thanks again. Nothing like satisfaction on a frustrating install. Y'all made my night!!

Take care, Thanks again!
 
I used 6.5" up front and 5.25" in the rear. Both sets mounted to the door panel but the rear doors took some trimming in the metal hole to get the clearance I needed. So you see the after market grills but the install was super easy and quick.
 
Thanks again. I finally have some good sound in the 80!!
 
Glad it all worked for you! Now I have a question. Its pertaining to the power antenna wire. I see a lot of folks have an issue with it being connected. I don't remember, but does the metra harness have a jumper in it to connect it to two pins? Is it the loop that is cut or do you just not connect the wire to the aftermarket deck at all? If so, how do you make the antenna go up? Im just curious because I just hooked mine up like normal and have the power ant. wire connected. My system would shut down until I had unplugged the factory amp. Maybe that's what the problem was? Not the speaker leads connecting to the amp but the power antenna wire? I never bothered to diagnose what was actually wrong. It just worked after I unplugged the amp. Anyone ever actually figure it out? Why do some of you have issues with the power antenna wire?
 
from my understanding the 97s are a different animal then the rest concerning the antenna. 97s have the auto up feature as well as the manual buttons where the rest are manual only.

My wiring kit worked fine but was bought some time ago. I think the current ones are designed for the 97s and the rest of us have to adapt it to ours.

Not 100% sure but I think this is how the story goes.
 
Make sure that the power antenna wire on the aftermarket harness (usually blue) is not connected to the antenna wire on the stereo harness....It causes problems. :doh:


What he said!
 
Hmmh, I just gutted my factory stereo last week and noticed the wiring kit for Toyota harness made me use the extra plugs in the dash. I had three plugs at the same place behind my factory radio,I put the conversion harness in place and tried to plug it in the existing plug that came out of the radio,it wouldn't connect. I checked the two plugs that were not being used and the conversion harness plugged in. I thought that was weird. I soldered and heat shrinked everything together and tried the radio and it worked. I guess it was a plug for the amplified setup,or the other two for non amped?? Anyway,it all works now and sounds good.
 
The plugs that are used for our stock radio go out to the amps. The other set which are used with the after market radios avoids the amps and goes directly to the speakers in the doors, 2 front and 2 rear. The tweeters in the dash, the rear woofer and the two overhead speakers in the cargo bay are not used.
 
If you use the grey plugs behind the factory head unit you are still using the factory amp. If you take out the amp and connect the new head unit wires to the grey conectors that were in the amp you are bypassing the amp ( cause you just took it out). I did the later and ALL my speakers work except the factory woofer. If you get the proper Toyota wiring harness it will plug into the amp output wire harness (grey connectors).
 
The tweeters in the dash, the rear woofer and the two overhead speakers in the cargo bay are not used.

..Not quite.

The rear "woofer" isn't used, but the dash tweets and cargo bay speakers still work, with the Toyota harness.

Edit: Maybe that's just in the 91-92's...93-97's might be different.
 
it almost looks like ther might be two harnesses available. The one I got definately used the other spare plugs that was behind the stock radio. I don't remember what color they were buit at the time I broke out the EWD for the truck and made sure what I was powering with the new setup.

It was only the door speakers unless I miss read the schematic.
 
it almost looks like ther might be two harnesses available.

Could be. Mine is a universal Toyota harness, Scosche TA02.

Wally World was the only place I could find it. :eek:
 

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