NEED HELP: Stereo Install 96 LX450 w/ amp/cd changer removal

[Aeneiad]

Are you running wires directly from the alpine amp to your speaks, or also running through the Factory amp. Looking at the wiring that came with the amp I don’t see am easy way to use the alpine amp unless I completely bypass the factory amp and running all new wires...not very appealing.

My amp is bypassed. The Alpine amp is connected to the speaker wires.

 

[Dirty Koala]

My amp is bypassed. The Alpine amp is connected to the speaker wires.

Yeah I am doing it the same way. I pulled the factory amp out yesterday. Just waiting on my my Metra 70-8112 and Scosche TA02B harnesses to arrive so I can make up an amp bypass harness.

 

[BigSh00ts]

Wow I'm really glad this thread is current. I'm having the antenna issue. The harness i used is this one:

Amazon product ASIN B00009UHKW
And the head unit is this one

Amazon product ASIN B07B3TX6MF
I didn't know i needed to extend the wires thinking I was going to use the hookups from behind the head unit, you know, like a normal install. Anyway I almost returned it but after reading this thread I tried it where the amp hooks up and it works perfectly except the antenna doesn't work (and I can't get the tuner on the cheap Amazon head unit to come on either). The strange thing is this harness has a connector for power antenna and so did the radio, but it still didn't work. I'm about to extend all the wires and I want to know if there's a way to make the antenna work before I start.

 

[haganLX45096]

I added a KENWOOD double din last weekend to my 1997 LX450 and decided to keep the factory amps. I used the standard harness retro fit you can get from amazon or Best Buy with the RCA plugs. This was a super easy swap just wiring the power and grounds and plugging up the RCAs into the stereo outputs. I did hook up the “blue” wire for the antenna and it works just like the factory, going up and down when turned on /off but still having the manual switch option working. The only part that was tricky was the blue white “dashed” wire. Wasn’t a white stripe but a dash which is used to switch on the amps. I left that off the first time not knowing what it was for and not listed on the harness instructions. Once I hooked that up everything worked perfect. Only last hitch was the RCA cables are not red and white. They are random colors so you have to be careful to use them in the RT / LF. FT/BK plugs so the fade and balance work correctly. I did read somewhere here that the 1997 seemed to be the only model this worked for perfectly so I can conform that if you want a shortcut. Oh, last item. I did get a bit of alternator noise so I added ground loop isolators which fixed that for $14. Overall easy to take apart and swap.

The reason I picked the KENWOOD was for the physical volume and camera buttons. I added a backup camera and didn’t want to hassle with hooking to the reverse wire. Easer to just hit the CAM button when I need it.

Btinn I get feedback through my speakers using the same setup you did but I don't have the ground loop isolator. What exactly did you do there with that?never done that before... Do you need two for the four rca cables?