So I Just Yanked The Shaker 500 And Put In An Old Eclipse Unit I Had Laying Around, Model 5441, Old One I Know. Well Got A Couple Of Probs. The Harness Crutchfiled Sent Me Only Has Two Plugs Not Three Like The Factory One Has, Do I Just Abandon One? Also The Stereo Pops On When I Turn The Car On You Know That Horrible Sound. I Forgot What Causes This, Anyone Know. Also With The Harness That Crutchfield Sent Me Has Two Plugs, One Big And One Small, This Big One Wired Up Fine, The Small Too But Then Is Has A Set Of Rca's. And My Eclipe Unit Has Three Rca's. One Front, Rear And A Non Fader One For Subs I Believe. I Hooked Them Into The Non Fader One. And Everything Works But The 8inch Door Subs Seem To Be Playing Some Mid Freq's And It Distorts Them Badly. Anyone Have This Prob.? Can I Put A Low Pass Filter On The Sub Speaker Wire In The Door Or Something?

Please Help, I Had A Five Min Car Ride To Work And The Music Sounded So Bad I Turned It Off. Oh Yeah And The Cd Player Doesnt Light Up When The Lights Are On, I Got The Dimmer Wire Connected Too?

Please Help.

 

That sounds like such a bad experience I would just put the Shaker Head Unit Back In

 

From what I heard, you cannot use an aftermarket head unit with the stock amps and speakers. If you are going to mess with it, you have to do a complete system.

 

You can use an aftermarket headunit with the stock amp and speakers, the pop problem is solved with some sort of delay relay from Radio Shack so the sub amps turn on after the headunit, but I don't know what the product ID is off hand, just look at some of the other radio threads. As far as the midrange sounds going thru the door subs, unless your headunit has a built in crossover, they are going to try to put out whatever frequency they are sent since the stock amps don't have a built in x'over. What you can get are "F-Mods" from Crutchfield which are RCA in-line crossovers. I am going to get some of them for my 6x8 speakers to cut out the lows from them.

As far as crutchfield only sending 2 harnesses, that is correct. The 3rd connection has something to do with the computer in the car which you can't use with aftermarket radios(I think the speed sensitive sound adjusting and such). My dimmer doens't work either on my radio so I don't know what it takes to get that to work so can't help you there.

 

Here's the part I was talking about from Radio Shack...I'll just link to the post from the person who put it so they get the proper credit due...

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/showpo...01&postcount=2

 

I just recently replaced my entire audio system with aftermarket parts and I can help you a bit.
First off install the Voltage regulator to eliminte the sub pop on the stock 8" subs.
As for the RCAs on the Metra adapter you have, you will need a Y-Adapter. Hook the single end to the RED side on the Metra adapter and then the other end (RED & WHITE RCAs) go to their respective postions on the HUs Pre-Outs. The other two wires (Blue/White are remote turn on leads.)
If you are wondering the WHITE side of the Metra adapter is if you have the Shaker 1000 System, then you would use the WHITE side not the RED.

 

Nonsense ... I have a Pioneer head unit and am using my original SHaker 500 speakers and subs ...

Not sure what the third connector was on the back of the Shaker 500 but it is no required when installing an aftermarket unit ...

The 5V resistor is required on the Sub trigger wire to stop the pop.

 

Anyone that tells you that you cannot replace the headunit and still utilize the factory amps and speakers doesn't know what they are talking about.

The amp pop is because of a voltage difference between the head unit and the expected voltage by the factory POS amps. Factory amps use +5v as an amp on signal, your aftermarket head unit is sending +12v.
You don't need a resistor or a delay relay, what you need is a voltage regulator. the part number is LM7805. Do a search for "skipper1000" and you will find a thread I wrote over a year ago on replacing my stereo. Instructions are in the thread. But basically, three legs on the regulator. Amp wire from the head unit to the "in". The "out" goes to the wire harness where you had the amp wire connected, and ground is pretty obvious.

As for the subs now playing the wrong frequency, that sounds like lack of equilization by your head unit. Certainly not the wiring.

For dimming, take the dimmer wire to the black with white strip wire on your headlight switch. Problem solved.

 

Sorry for bringing this old post back from the dead but...

I just installed a new head unit in my car and I would like to get the dimmer problem rectified while I have the panels off. You say to splice into the black with white striped wire on the headlight switch but I don't seem to have a wire that is black with a white stripe on my headlight switch. I have two solid black wires and one black wire with a green stripe. There is one black wire with a white stripe on the plug that goes to the dash light "dimmer wheel" but I doubt that is the one you are referring to. Any thoughts?

 

Do you have a voltmeter with clip style leads? A paper clip? A wire tap?

I used one of the wires from the buttons up top.

First connect the black lead to a good chassis ground

If you want to test to make sure you have a good ground, place the red test lead to the yellow wire on your radio (+12v constant)

After you find a good ground, take your red lead and clip it to a paper clip. Open the paper clip so you have a pointy side you can stick into the adaptor. Plug it into one opening that has a wire going to it in a adaptor from the top set of plugs. I used the right set.

Secondly, take note of the voltage. If it's reading >12volts, go to another opening.

When you find one that reads ~0 volts, turn on your headlights. If it jumps up to >12 volts then you have your lead, turn off the lights and make sure it goes back down to 0

Turn your keys to the on posistion, and check the voltage, should still read 0, if it doesn't, then you don't have the right lead, try onother opening.

If it still reads 0, I always turn the headlights on again to verify I have the right connection. Take a peice of electrical tape and mark the wire.

Finally, I use a wire tap and just splice into the correct wire from the radio.

The dimmer should work correctly now. I believe the wire I used was green w/ a yellow stripe

 

Wow! Thanks for the great tutorial on using a voltmeter to find the lead Gremlin.

I have a Radio Shack Multimeter but it doesn't have the clips on the leads. It has probes. I just bought it yesterday so I may be able to exchange it or buy a set leads with clips.

I ended up using the yellow wire on the info center buttons that others have used but I would like to change it to the appropriate lead on the headlight switch. The voltage drops on the the one I currently have it on so the lights on the head unit will go to full brightness if you turn the dash light illumination down too much.

Thanks again for the great tutorial.

 

I bought a set of alligator clips from radio shack and just bent the back ends to go around the probe leads. you can take them on or off as needed.

 

No problem, If someone actually does use this, then please let me know if there is any errors. I did this on two mustangs and it worked fine, however I posted this info from memory.

Also, yes, you can just buy alligator clips. I believe Radio Shack has them in a pack already premade like these http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=family
You can use those instead of returning your multimeter, plus I've used them for other projects

 

It will probably be a few weeks to a month before I tear it back apart and try this but I will definately post the results if/when I do it.

Thanks again for the tips.