C2damuthafuqinLO

My 97 runner came w/o a cd player.. only an am/fm radio.. would this cause the wiring harness for 97 4runners to not fit? And if this is the case.. is there another adaptor out there somewhere? OR will i have to hard wire my new head unit in..?

pllleeaaasseeee sooomeeebooddyyy helppp meeee.. hahah

Victor

The CD player plugs into the back of the stereo. That is why the factory radios have a CD button.

PhxTRDRunner

what exactly are you trying to install? A '97 factory unit? OR a aftermarket cd player? I know my '00 factory player had a factory amplifier behind the radio that had a different plug to the actual unit in the dash. The regular old toyota plug was still there, just connected to the amplifier, then a harness to the deck.


..need more info

C2damuthafuqinLO

your not speakin my language... i have a new head unit and equalizer i am installing.. and i got a wiring harness that's supposed to fit 97 runners... but the plug doesn't match up.. and i think the problem might have been that there was no CD player to begin w/.. only an am/fm radio..

I'm not keeping the radio in place.. and it's not a toyota factory Cd player... the unit and eq are both aftermarket ????

C2damuthafuqinLO

sorry, that last response was to victor..

i think we're on the same page PHx... yes, it's an aftermarket unit..

So what exactly am i supposed to do? thanks man

DuB

As Phx said, the plug you're looking for is plugged into the factory amp which is sitting on the transmission hump below the headunit. Your wiring harness plugs into that one, and then the stray wires coming out of your harness get soldered onto the wires coming out of the back of your aftermarket headunit. Your eq can be wired into that harness as well. then RCAs go from your headunit to the EQ and then to the amps.

Victor

You can buy a harness that plugs into the factory harness and then you can attach it to your new stereo. Avoid cutting the factory wiring at all costs - you'll regret it if you ever want to return it to a factory radio or if you start having problems you have to track down.

C2damuthafuqinLO

thanks A LOT Dub.. i think i got all this nonsense figurd out..

thanks again

Bob_98SR5

Guys,

After reading this, I'm a bit confused.


So say you have an aftermarket amp. From the aftermarket amp, where do you plug the connections into? The stock (small amp) or into the back of the stock stereo? Obviously a newbie stereo question, so be merciful on me.

Bob

midiwall

From my experience, the harness adapter that I got from when I bought my Xlod from Crutchfield plugs into the harness that plugs into the _stock_ amp, NOT the harness that comes up from the amp to the head.

In my 96 Limited, the amp was a separate unit that sat down low in the middle of the console, almost right on the transmission hump.

The wiring looked something like:

And the harness adapter plugged into harness 1.


Hope that helps!

Mark

midiwall

If you have an aftermarket amp, then it should be connected to the output of the head unit (in this case, your stock head) and then your speakers connect to the new amp. You should never have an amp feeding an amp. The impedences are wrong and you can burn out the first amp in the chain.

With some re-wire magic, you could use the stock amp to power just the fronts and the new amp the rears (or vice-versa) or use the stock amp as a sub amp. But usually the stock amp is removed and not used.


To get an aftermarket amp to mate with a stock head unit, I think you'll have to end up checking a real wiring diagram or spec out the wiring yourself. I don't know if there's an adapter that will mate with the stock head.

PhxTRDRunner

I have to disagree with Mpulver on his response to this...I would always use the stock amp to feed the aftermarket amp AS LONG AS the aftermarket amp has "high level inputs", or "speaker level inputs" that way all the volume levels match up. Otherwise you will have to turn it waaaay up to achieve the same volume from the aftermarket amp as the factory one to the factory speakers (as in adding a bass amp)


OH, and BTW- what DUB said just about sums it up. Oh, and MPulver also said the same thing as far as where to find the correct harness

Have fun!

midiwall

Ummm, okay... I'll give ya' that one..

But the speaker level inputs are just "soakers" which are throttling the input down to line levels that the amp can work with. So, you're kinda' not really buying anything. Actually, you're picking up distortion along with wasted heat and power drain from the first amp.


Oh crap. I didn't even see that! oops! Sorry!

PhxTRDRunner

Haha, we all friends here ~Mpulver...


anyways...as long as we're talking about it, I strongly discourage use of speaker level inputs and even line level converters...both dirty sound IMHO. Do it once, do it right. Period.