I have a Panasonic CD head unit (which will be used as my tuner - yeah, yeah, I know... I'll never listen to it) and my new empeg to install this weekend. I am not very informed on how all the wiring works but I do have a Crutchfield MasterSheet on its way so that will guide me through the installation.

The one question I have though is how do I wire both the empeg and the head unit to the car's wiring harness? Is there a special wiring harness out there that will allow piggy-backed power connections? Do I have to splice the cars wires in order to hook them up to the two units? Again, I don't know too much about this so if this sounds way off it's because I have never done my own install before.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Dennis

I purchased my stereo from cruchfield also and I just wired the Empeg and my JVC head unit to the harness that cruchfield provides. You can see my installation at: http://www.riocar.org/modules.php?set_albumName=album39&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php

Also, some cars do not provide enough power for you to run the head unit and Empeg off the same power source, so you may need to run a new power lead directly to the battery. I had to do this in my wife's car. She has a 2001 Crysler Sebring, which is basically a Mitsubish Eclipse. I also had to replace her center console with one from Mitsubishi to support a double din install, because the Chrysler head unit was 1.5 din.

Anyhow back to the separate power lead. I just ran a 12 guage lead with an inline fuse to the positive lead of the battery to the yellow power lead on the Empeg. For the other leads you can just attach them to the harness provided by Crutchfield.

Do I have to splice the cars wires in order to hook them up to the two units?

You seem to be mostly concerned with the power wiring to run the two decks. Have you given any thought to the outputs from the decks?

Are you going to run the output from the Panasonic into the auxilliary inputs of the empeg? Or vice versa? The first way, you will need an external amplifier, the second way you will use the amplifier built into the Panasonic -- but this only works if your Panasonic has auxilliary inputs; most consumer level CD decks do not.

If you are going to run the decks independently, then you will need the external amplifier plus a signal switch -- the Sony XA-39II is the only one I know of, and Crutchfield the only place I have found them for sale. And you will have to make sure your Panasonic deck has line-level outputs, not just speaker level outputs.

Wiring the power to the decks is the easy part. It's dealing with the outputs where things get tricky.

tanstaafl.

I don't think you're going to find an adapter to hook up two head units to a single factory connector. In fact I'm sure of it.

It's time to get the soldering iron out, you'll have to start splicing. Hopefully you're comfortable with that. Good note on the power wire too, it needs to be up-to-snuff.
Altogether this won't be very toigh, but yes it will require some splicing. I'd start there and then redo the power wire if it becomes a problem. If there is one, you'll just blow a fuse, so don't worry about killing the car from it or anything.

I'm all set in the AUX in department. I am going to run the empeg outs into the Panasonic's AUX input. No problem there. I was mainly concerned with powering the unit and it looks like you guys have answered my question.

Thanks!!

It sounds like you need to make yourself a 3 way harness, similar to what I descibed recently for my Golf. (Look down the topic list.)

It's fairly easy if you're comfortable with a soldering iron. Make sure you buy some heatshrink tubing and slip some on before each splice. You can get it at RatShack if you don't have a better source.

Of the 6 wires on the empeg harness, you will only need to connect 4. You will need constant 12V , ignition, ground and dimmer. (yellow, orange, black and white respectively), and you need to splice them into the correct wires on you current factory->cd harness. ***Make sure you check the color coding on that harness***. Do not assume that it is the same scheme as the empeg...

I don't think that you need the green (telephone mute), as the mute should be handled by your current HU (although it *probably* would be ok to connect it.

You want to ensure that you do not connect the blue (remote amp turn on) to the current harness. If your current HU was on and your empeg was off, then one of these wires will be at 12V and the other at 0V, so joining them together is a Bad Thing(tm).

And remember to insulate the ends of the unconnected wires

I've got an even easier way. For my "double-din" install (OEM Head Unit/Empeg - 1 amplifier), I plugged the (geez, what do you call it.?), the empeg harness (with the bare wires) into the empeg ISO connector, and then used some wire taps to clip the 12volt constant and switched wires to the wires just behind the wire harness that plugs into my factory headunit.

Took about 5 minutes. And no soldering. Also, you can get 10 wire taps for about a dollar.

True, a totally valid way of doing it. I'll only say I "highly recommend" soldering and shrinkwrapping, because it's really not "very hard", it's actually cheaper, and it will last forever. Inside of a car, the taps probably will too, but it just doesn't make me comfortable. Which is only an opinion of course.

I've got an even easier way. For my "double-din" install (OEM Head Unit/Empeg - 1 amplifier), I plugged the (geez, what do you call it.?), the empeg harness (with the bare wires) into the empeg ISO connector, and then used some wire taps to clip the 12volt constant and switched wires to the wires just behind the wire harness that plugs into my factory headunit.

Took about 5 minutes. And no soldering. Also, you can get 10 wire taps for about a dollar.


That does sound quick and easy - I've never used wiretaps, and I've been soldering a long time, so I'd naturally go with the hot stuff! I don't know how well the wiretaps would hold up to strain or time?
I trust you remembered to also connect the ground wire.

One observation that I would make is that it is not generally a good idea to do anything to the car's loom, it is always better to try and build a separate harness, especially so with a new car.
Firstly it makes things easier when it comes to selling the car - just unplug your harness. Secondly, if your car is still under warranty, modifying the original loom could invalidate that part of the warranty - so if there was ever an electrical problem on some other part of the same loom then the dealer might try to blame it on your modifications and charge you for the replacement.
The letter of the law regarding warranties is obviously different from country to country, but you could get into hot water. Those looms are not cheap. When I was looking for the stereo connector for my VW (to build my harness), I tried my local dealership. The only way that they could supply me with one was to supply me with the whole loom......$3000. Obviously I didn't take them up on the offer