KickerCS Upgrade with Kicker Key amp Install Assistance

Got it. I de-pinned the the yellow, as I didn't think I needed it since I was getting power from the battery. I still have it, I can add it back.

 

You definitely need it. The yellow, black, red, and orange wires at 1 and 3 are getting ties together because they are providing power and all that to the radio itself. They are just going straight across without touching the Key


Like so

 

In your harness, did you cut the additional stacked wires that were in the single slot (forgive my not knowing the exact terms) and add them into your harness like I have the arrow pointing here? Also, I see another blue wire (which I don't have marked) coming from a splice, where is it leading to?

 

yes you can cut the small loose wire in your picture.

as for the blue wires in the larger connector, you only actually need one of them on the male connector (which will splice into the speed wire headed to the blue wire on the key
These wires are 12v outputs from the factory radio for amp turn-on and powered antenna. If you don't have JBL, you don't need the amp turn-on, and our antenna is powered through the actual antenna connector which we aren't dealing with in this install.

 

Thank you for being so patient Dustin. If I am getting my power from the battery, do I still need the blue for amp turn-on? Also, the blue for the amp turn on is going through the male side. I am praying I have just wired my harness completely backwards as that appears to lead to the smaller of the black connectors to the amp, and the smaller connector doesn't have a blue wire.

 

you will still want the amp turn-on wired up.

your harness is wired correctly. The only place that can get confusing is that blue turn-on wire. it needs to go from the male connector over to the other roll of speedwire. It may need to be extended but no biggie. Then the other end of that roll needs to tie to the Key blue

 

Holy double-shit. I got the amp in, along with sound deadening the back wall, and this thing sounds spectacular. Below is the final product of the harness.

As a side note of humor. My son (15 years old) is next to me when I go to perform the auto-setup. I start the pink noise, beeping starts, close the doors and tuning begins. It gets to a certain point and everything just stops, no more noise at all from the truck. So, I start looking at the book and reading the troubleshooting section. Put my head directly beside the front door where the speaker is located (in case it paused for some reason to process) then look up at my son, and say, "Not sure why it stopped, this thing should keep going until we hear a happy tone". He looks back at me as if I was the new jester of the court, and asks me, "Are you serious? Its blaring at a super high pitch". I just stare, "Hearing loss is the byproduct of a misspent youth."

One of the reasons I bought the speakers was for better, more crisp highs...at least the kids will love it!

This setup is great. I really sincerely appreciate the help you guys have provided.


Thanks,
TT

 

Great work! Glad you’re happy with it!

 

Destin (or anyone else that might know) What diameter mount do I need to put the KSS6704 tweeter in the dash of the truck? I see the spec says it is a 1.25" tweeter, but is that the measurement of the mounting plate needed (from Tak0toones) or is there a different size or alternate method to mount these in there? Should I just make my own plate or even sacrifice the existing speaker as a mounting plate?

What method did you use when mounting your tweeters?

 

I used the plates from TT because at the time, noone else made adapters. But now they are all over the place for a few bucks. Even Metra started making the

$13 82-4201 Metra Speaker Adaptors

82-4201 but you need to drill out the hole size you need (gave me an excuse to buy the hole saw set from harbor freight)

In most client vehicles, they give me the OK to gut the factory tweeter and use that. Saves them money and makes it a perfect fit.

 

Thanks for your thoughts on it. Much appreciated once again!

 

Ordered the 44KSS6704 for the front doors and the 44KSC6704 for the rear doors. I found both in the open box section at Crutchfield; hope I don't regret going w/ open box. Also, I went to Tak0toons and got the tweeter wiring harness. Added the tweeter metra install plate you mentioned above from ebay. Additonally, Noico and Noico tape with roller from Amazon.

You were right about Crutchfield though, they added the correct plates and cables for these speakers to be installed in the rear for no charge even though they say they don't fit correctly.

After this, I will see where I stand and MAY add a second sub to the truck. I currently have the Sound Ordnance 8" underseat sub and it is REALLY nice, but I want a bit deeper hit, so I am considering adding the

$290 Cerwin Vega VPAS12 Cerwin-Vega Mobile 12" Powered Active Subwoofer 600W Max

Cerwin Vega VPAS12 12" underseat or the

$150 Rockville RW10CA 10" 800 Watt Slim Low Profile Active Powered Car Subwoofer Sub, Black

Rockville RW10CA 10" underseat. I would really like to go with the 12 because it SHOULD hit better than a 10" but I am leery due to the reviews being all over the place.

 

Don’t expect deeper bass with any of those under-seat boxes. 8, 10, 12, doesn’t matter. The bigger drivers and bigger amps will play “louder” but not deeper. Deep bass needs air volume, no way around it. My kicker 12 in a shallow sealed box can’t play near as deep as my wife’s kicker 10 in a ported wedge box. Same specs, same power. The box has way more to do with sound than people think, and those tiny enclosures just can’t make it happen.

Like I said, you can definitely get louder, and a harder punch. Just set expectations properly for deep bass.

 

Other than connecting the speaker inputs and outputs to speedwires; how's my harness look?

Tagging the expert @destin_meeks

 

I'm assuming you're getting power and ground for the amp elsewhere, which is perfectly fine

As long as that's the case, I'd say that's one good looking harness!

 

Thanks! I plan to get power and ground from the battery through my auxiliary fuse block. I appreciate the feedback and all your information in this thread

 

You even got your blue remote wire pigtail on the correct side! Props on that one!

I’m not crazy that kicker put the remote wire in the output harness and not the input harness. But they didn’t ask me for my thoughts so oh well

 

All powered up!

 

I'm about to do this as well. I already have the hideaway and changed all door speakers and tweeters. Should I pull the dash apart and take out the harness I already created for the hideaway? I used the same connectors in this thread to make it.

Or would there be any issues creating an entirely new harness and plugging it into what's already back there? I'd ideally like to have this harness all done and ready to go before I pull the dash apart.

 

I would take apart your existing harness and rebuild it with the key included this time. You don't want too many connection points, and that would also be a lot of wire crammed back in the dash