1st gen stereo installation

*This is not a "how-to" thread per se, just a journal of what I did (and, how/why I did it) for my 2004 Double Cab. So not every step is shown. This thread is a work in progress.*

I'd read on this site about an unused firewall grommet and decided to pull it out and slit it, to run some power cables through to the battery. It's here, and you can pull it out with your fingers. Look right in the middle of this picture:



Unfortunately, after 10+ years, it's probably brittle ...



So when both the edge AND the inside split just from removal, I ordered a new one from my dealer for about $3.50. I got the part # from the part itself,
90950-01882 or you can just get it online, http://www.toyotapart.com/90950-01882.html

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So I moved on to speakers

Many years ago I bought (but never used) some Boston Acoustics RC61's off eBay. These were BA's bread-and-butter component separates in the 6.5" size back in the mid-late '90s. I had to file off rust from the crossover terminals.

From Crutchfield I picked up a pair of Scosche adapter plates to permit the round speakers to mount to the plastic OEM speaker bracket. The holes didn't line up where speaker met Scosche adapter but self-tapping screws FTW.

This picture shows 2 speedclips I used for 2 of the 4 screws that attach the woofer to the Scosche adapter plate. It also shows how close the woofer magnets get to the OEM bracket ... the magnets are 3 1/2" diameter.



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I located what I thought were one of two possible mounting spots for the crossover behind the door panel or on the door but in the end, wasn't confident i could clear everything or attach them properly. So I punted, and decided to locate the crossover either in the kick panel (if possible) up behind the dash next to the glove box (likely) or just next to the amplifier.

And so that meant running at least one set of wires through the door jamb. Coulda used the OEM wiring going through the door for either the woofer or the tweeter but hey, in for a penny, in for a pound right? So I ran new wire for both speakers.

Didn't see how I could negotiate the S-curve of the door jamb rubber, so I pulled it out from the truck body in order to get it straight. There are 2 harness connectors in my truck behind the kick panel that lead into the door for power locks, windows and of course OEM speakers.

I disconnected those harnesses to allow the rubber-with-wires to be pulled out. That allowed me to get to the opening of the rubber, after unwrapping the OEM electrical tape. Note: the other end, inside the door, is "open" so you can just leave it in.

The wires were fished through with a long skinny screwdriver, or pickup tool etc. taped to them. The more sophisticated way to do it is to push through "fish tank hose" (nylon tube) and then feed wire through that hose.




Inside the door, I zip tied my new wires to the existing bundle. Here it is, before trimming the excess.



Back inside, with the 2 harness connectors attached and rubber door jamb thing reinstalled, I used a small flat blade screwdriver to disengage the bottom connector from the bracket to permit my wires passing through. Obviously you can skip this step and route wires another way. But doing it here means one less tape or zip tie attachment there IMO.



Got the woofer installed. The extra holes in it you may notice were put there by the previous owner. The wire snaking out from the top is my tweeter wire. I wanted it to exit up top and to the left so as to not interfere with the window track.



Next up: the tweeter.

 

Ready to put the FR door panel back on. Noticed the harness connector for the power window (or locks?) got crushed. Snapped in 3 places. Huh? Probably shut the door on it as it was dangling.

I've super glued it together but the super glue isn't really holding the plastic together as well as advertised. Hopefully enough to do the job. I'll let it sit tonight first.

In the meantime, I'm also stuck on removing the rear door panels. I haven't yet found instructions that work. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/removing-dc-rear-door-panels.57939/#post-10764600

 

Remembered I got instructions with my radio purchase from Crutchfield.

"Carefully pry up armrest to release six (6) plastic clips and remove armrest. Note: Clips can easily break if care is not taken. " Well, mine didn't budge until all of a sudden BANG if flew off, breaking one of the clips. But it's off now.



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When I got my truck the stereo system was bone stock. I noticed the fronts sounded much better than the rears even though they were the same size speakers and no, it wasn't mostly because the fronts have separate tweeters up high. In fact I could put my hand over a tweeter and it basically sounded very similar as before.

But no, the fronts have balls. Actual mid bass occurs, with some punch. These weren't horrible speakers overall. So I decided to repurpose them in the rear doors because the rear speakers did suck. My philosophy about car audio is much like home audio. I want "front stage, rear fill." I really don't give a damn much what the rears do so long as they aren't truly nasty.



I didn't take a picture of the bottoms because they look the same. And they do look a lot alike other than the whizzer cone the rear speakers have. But here's the deal. To make a proper "dual cone" speaker you have to sacrifice mid bass and lows because if they were present, they'd totally mess up whatever highs the whizzer cone was trying to do. So although the woofer portions look identical they are most definitely not, as listening to them earlier revealed.

A final clue, the finger tap test. With each just sitting there, lightly tap your finger on each woofer cone. The dual cone speaker returns a "plink" sound and the other returns a lower, "plunk" sound because it can move in a way to make lower notes. The plan is to attach the stock tweeter to a metal strip and mount it in front of the woofer, a la coaxial.

There's a further irony of sorts here. I could easily spend $100 or so on quality aftermarket coax speakers but I'd most certainly lose mid bass because most every coax is compromised in that way due to the fact the center of the cone has a freakin' hole in it at the dust cap where the tweeter is mounted. Dunno if I will try to add subs, so I need to retain as much mid bass as I can here.

 

Kids, don't smoke. And if you do smoke, quit.



(Other parts of the truck are ... worse. There's a level of soot everywhere that would make an R.J. Reynolds rep [and I happen to know one] blush.)

 

One of the front door component speakers I reused as rear speakers. Just listened to them and wow they sound so "meh." I may need to reevaluate my earlier enthusiasm for them.

 

OK let's wrap this up for now.

A mockup/test fit of amp for front speakers, crossovers for front speakers (piggybacked) and inverter.



I may move the power cable that's seen on the right side of the amp. You can see it front the back set/might be vulnerable. But I put there as to not cause noise next to the RCAs nor speaker wires (which it may not anyway).

I didn't have time to mount an extended outlet for the inverter, so it's not part of this project. The inverter's placement is a compromise (in lieu of a remote turn-on ...) that lets me easily flip it on while seated

Inverter is positioned as close to the seat frame as possible without hitting it and is an easy reach to the power switch while seated. Seat moves fully aft and forward without hitting anything, although if a really short person got in and moved the seat all the way forward the stuff would be "on display" to rear passengers suddenly enjoying limo-like legroom. (So, not likely).



And what of the unused USB charging ports on the inverter? Don't need 'em.



... and there's another one of those in the dash, too, in place of one of the lower OEM 12v outlets.


I hate mosquitos.




This smartphone mount does a couple things for me. First, it's on the left, so I can provisionally position the phone into it to get it out of my hands prior to entering the truck (hands full with other stuff). Once I get settled I can reseat to connect it if necessary to the built-in Lightning connector.

BUT, the mount also comes with a thing to allow usage of a small USB cable instead, for Android users. I hate having to put phone somewhere, connect power, connect audio separately. One and done! It's not yet perfect; I have the cable entering through the fuse cover and unless I cut it, won't close without pinching the cable ...



The other end of the iPhone's cable goes to the radio. Unfortunately, the USB connector is in the front and I still didn't want a cable dangling. So I found a right-angle, downward USB cable that I tucked in through the ashtray. It's not perfect; the ashtray won't close, but it's good enough for now. There's also a neat right angle cable I bought in case I wanted to route the cable up higher and cut into the trim. Maybe later. Details on these parts to follow.

If you zoom in you can see the USB cable going into the radio (lower right), my other USB charger and I replaced the OEM burned-up cig lighter with a 12v outlet. I wanted one with a hard plastic cap with a real hinge and got it but it has to stick out which is OK by me. Some of the original cig lighter parts don't fit here, including the outer metal heat shield on the dash trim and some of the rear holder bits. A casualty of this is that I can't yet get the dash light for it to stay put. Might use electrical tape there. One of those two switch blanks down there will house my single 110v outlet if I can ever find my Dremel.

 

Sound? Not what I'd hoped for based on experience years ago with even older Boston separates (741, 751 and 761 from late '80s/early '90s). There's essentially no mid bass here, so I might be swapping them in the future. I did check polarity.

 

Bought this kit for the 12v outlet with hard plastic cover. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WM11US6?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s01

"Bandc" USB power port (one in dash, one installed in rear of console)

$11 Bandc Power Outlet Dual USB Charger Socket 2.1a 1a for Car Boat Marine Mobile

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MNGCDVS?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00 (You don't need to install the rubber cover if you don't want it.)

This fuse holder is installed under the hood near the battery. I ran 4AWG welding cable back the distribution block/fuse holder under the driver's seat.

Raptor R5AGU1SN 24K Hard Gold Plated Water Resistant AGU Fuse Holder

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EN86YEG?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01 Old skool tube fuses.

XP800i from Whistler ... all I really wanted was to run a laptop, so the 800 watts is overkill for that. However, I wanted something that would NOT run its fan unless needed, and *all* the cheaper/smaller inverters suitable for "just a laptop" seem to run their fan all the time. No thanks.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HWL4N7Q?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

"Smays Down Angle USB 3.0 Male to Female Data Sync and Charging Extension Cable (7 inches, Black)"

$6 6" USB Extension Cable, 90-Degree USB 3.0 Male to Female, Short USB A Down Angle Cable Black

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OHDUFCY?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01

DB Link MANLFB428 4-Gauge In and Two 8-Gauge Out Mini ANL Fuse Block

DB Link MANLFB428 4-Gauge In and Two 8-Gauge Out Mini ANL Fuse Block

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NCDAS8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00 Uses mini ANL fuses.

Didn't use it; bought "just in case" >> check it out, you can plug it in either way, so that the plug becomes either L or R angle!

Tripp Lite Universal Reversible USB 2.0 Hi-Speed Extension Cable (Reversible Right / Left Angle A to A M/F), 6-ft.(UR024-006-RA)

Tripp Lite Universal Reversible USB 2.0 Hi-Speed Extension Cable (Reversible Right / Left Angle A to A M/F), 6-ft.(UR024-006-RA)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EIDU3YI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

Sinjimoru phone mount, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MLZZ7KA?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00

Blaupunkt New Jersey 220, http://www.crutchfield.com/p_023NJ220BT/Blaupunkt-New-Jersey-220.html?tp=5684#&gid=1&pid=1

And last but not least, door panel clips. Each door removal busted 3 to 5. My panel removal tool was hopeless against old and brittle clips.

$15 50 Trim Panel Clips Compatible with Toyota 67771-04040 Tacoma

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0040CVQH0?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

 

Excellent write-up! Sub'd for future reference when I eventually redo my audio.