I've been searching around for the past two days on here and haven't found a clear answer to this, so I figure I'll ask and hope I don't get flamed ;-). I just bought a 96 Miata with a head unit, amp, and subwoofers already in it.

Ideally, what I'd like to do is rewire the head unit into the aux of the Empeg and wire the Empeg into the amp, but I'm not sure how this should be done. Do I just buy another harness adapter for the Empeg and wire that to the existing one? I'm assuming I can find out on the forums or in the FAQ which wires the Empeg needs to be connected to the harness adapter, but which wires on the head unit will need to be connected to the harness adapter and which shouldn't be?

If you search my name you'll see I've put this in another car once before, though with vampire clips in the previous attempt. Since I've got a few loose connectors on the Empeg harness that I'm going to have to solder anyway and have been reading up on it here. I'm assuming I just make a western union and heat shrink for the connections to the harness. I bought a 30 watt soldering iron, but didn't pick up any flux. Will I be needing some?

Thanks and sorry about the long post.

Like Tony said, constant power (usually yellow), switched power(usually red for the car harness, but orange on the empeg) and ground (black) to both units. You may also want to hook up the headlight sense to both units. Then the amp remote wire to the empeg.

Then connect the pre-amp outputs on the back of the existing head unit to the aux-in on the empeg. Then run the front and rear outputs from the empeg to the amp.

Evand,

I have a 2001 Miata with pretty much the same setup as yours. What i did was splice the empeg into the existing wiring and then run it into the AUX in of my Clarion. While i may lose the use of the empeg equalizer from the Clarion, i like it better this was as i dont have to run the empeg when i am listening to Sirius or the radio.

also, as i am sure everybody is sick of hearing about...i have chronic alternator whine from my install...managed to minimize it but still audible when i turn on the a/c or headlights.

just curious...where did u put the sub..i have a 8" jl audio in the passenger footwell....fyg i have 2 amps in the trunk along with the Sirius receiver

let me know how it all works out!

Ed

Thanks guys!

Upon further inspection I've found that the amp is only driving the two subwoofers in the back. I'm going to have to use a head unit for the Empeg's amplification, though a different one than the one I have in there as it doesn't have AUX-in without a silly adapter. I've still got the old head unit from the last install so I'll throw that in first, make sure it works, then hook the Empeg to that. I'm pretty clear on the wiring now, and provided I didn't destroy my sled wiring in the process (I used too much solder on the loose pin and heated it up once or twice more to get the extra off) I think I have soldering under control. Either way, it'll be a better job than the twist the wires together and electric tape job that he did.

Edsmiata:
I did read your previous posts but was unaware that you still had the problem so thank you. I don't have AC but we'll see if it happens with the vent or headlights.

He had the sub put in two boxes in the trunk. Never having owned one before I can't see how that works well with the trunk closed, but I haven't had much of a chance to try it out yet, what with spending 20 minutes trying to get those eye-vents out.

go to miata.net...has everything u need to know..lots of info on sub installs and i hate to say the trunk is the last on the list...but i am sure u will have lots of fun

I got them out, it just took a lot of time and patience. The whole setup works, Empeg plays through both the speakers and subs and so does the HU.

The only problem now seems to be getting everything back in the dash. It looks like the wires are getting pressed up against the back of the metal frame and the HU keeps popping out about 2 inches every time I push the whole thing on the dash. Have any Miata owners or cars with a very small space in there happened to find a way around this? Did you find a way inside the back of the dash so you could guide the wires to an area where they'll fit? I've looked through miata.net but I haven't found anything that covers this problem yet.

Thanks again

I got it. If anyone runs into a similar problem, here's what I did. I unscrewed the wiring from the dock and removed the dock from the dashboard. I was then able to move the wires around enough to the point where I had the head unit far enough in, I then pulled the head unit out a bit which let me pull the empeg wires further out. I screwed the empeg wiring back in and pushed both units back into the dash.