radio component locations on 90 Sport

I'm not postive regarding the 90 sport. On a 90 Ski Nautique, the radio was mounted in the glove box.

Again, I've not seen a sub mounted in a 90 sport. In general, people will mount the sub behind the kick panel under the steering wheel if there is room. If not, then under the passenger console. BKH

Just did a total install of sub, 2 amps and speakers in my 92 Sport. If you're still looking for info, let me know.

Mounted the sub in a box behind the observer's kick panel. Also installed two Alpine PDX solid-state MOFFSET amps...300 watts direct to the sub, and up to 150 to each speaker. I did the install in the back building of my buddy's body shop. When I finished, I gave it a bit of a test (okay, a HUGE test). They all came running back to hear it for themselves. Apparently they could hear it over their pneumatic tools! It sounds awesome.

The four speakers were mounted in the combing pads that run fwd to aft on the sides. Two speakers front, two rear (standard place for them).

The Alpine PDX amps may be pricey, but the performance is unparalleled. I have them set up to feed the four 6.5" speakers w/ the highs and all lows go to the sub via a second PDX amp that is bridged to feed it 300 watts.

The sub is an Infinity Kappa Perfect 12DVQ that you can tune with large metal rings that fine-tune the sub to the enclosure or mounting type. The sub is mounted in an enclosed box that is made for a truck..it's sloped so it's narrower on the top than on the bottom (7" bottom, 6" top). I positioned the box directly behind the kick panel in front of the observer's seat. Then cut a hole in the kick panel and mounted a sub grill on it, then positioned the box and put the kick panel back up. Because of clearance issues, I ended up having to mount the kick panel about 1 inch further aft than the factory position, but you cant tell at all. I did add some brackets from the rear of the kick panel to the top of the sub box and fiberglass area near the cubby hole door. (The kick panel is "heavy" because I mounted both amps on it next to the sub grill. This "heaviness" resulted in my wanting to add some brackets to hold it all nice and firm).

The end result is that if you were to get down on your hands and knees and look at the kick panel, you'd see the sub grill and two amps. If you look in the left cubby hole door, you'd see the rear part of the sub box. There was enough room on top of the box to mount the positive distribution block which has two fuses in it, making the fuses easily accessible, should they need changing.

I mounted the main fuse (125V) near the battery to protect the wire run from the battery to the forward distribution block...it's recommended to have that fuse 18" or less from the battery so as to protect the wiring from any potential shorts. The ground lead ran from the engine block up to a distribution block also mounted on top of the sub box. The biggest challenge was how to run the positive and negative wires from the bilge up to and in the cubby hole area where all the wiring needs to be. I cut a hole from the bilge to the ski locker, ran the wire inside the ski locker then another hole into the top and side of the ski locker abeam the left cubby hole area, then another small hole thru the floor in the cubby hole area to allow wiring access there. I wanted to make sure I didn't drill into the stringers so took a sight of the stringers and made sure to drill thru the floor inboard of the stringer. I hit the "foam stuff" inside the hull (good, not the stringer!), ran the wires, and sealed the hole with the 3M 8200 adhesive sealant (per suggestions from the good folks on this board), NOT silicone.

Another help was removing the glove box which allowed me good access to the wiring behind the kick panel (to tidy it up) as well as making the brackets, fastening them, etc.

I'm using two four-channel amps. One feeds the four 6.5" speakers and the other currently feeds the sub thru bridging two of the four channels. The install allows me 2 more channels for tower speakers when I install a tower on the boat.

The system sounds amazing. Even my "how much did you spend on this sound system?" wife said it sounded incredible.

Hope that helps!

FYI the radio head unit was mounted in the glove box originally. When I bought my boat, it had been moved to the area to the left of the steering wheel and near the ignition switch. It involved cutting the plastic labeled dash area but they installed an In Dash Radio Cover with the head unit inside.

I have a JVC head unit and left it there. They "plugged" the hole in the glove box with a black piece of plastic that is glued on from the back side. It looks fine. In the area to the left of where the stereo was mounted in the glove box is a small recessed area. I installed a 12V outlet there and have placed a "DLO Transdock Micro" FM transmitter so we can hook up an iPod, place it in the glove box where it can be protected, and transmit to the head unit. It works and sounds great.

Here's a link to the FM transmitter that fits perfectly in the glove box (and comes highly rated...our experience is the same. We have 3 and there's never any static). DLO Trans Dock Micro


I can post some photos but it'll be a while. The boat is at our lake house which is a couple hours away and --WORK-- always seems to keep me away during this busy travel season.

I will take pics and post when able.

I just purchased a new head unit (an upgrade from the tape deck that was in the boat)

When doing so i noticed the old wiring harness had both the front and rear speakers on each side connected through the same ground wire.

I tried hooking up my new wiring harness to it but when i turned my volume up, it shut my new head unit off. Is there to much feeding power and not enough ground wire? Im probably going to rewire each speaker with its own ground per my new wiring harness.

Any suggestions on how to run the speaker wire from passenger to driver side? i have not really investigated it yet.

well i wired everything per the wiring harness diagram, i am still running into the issue with my cd player turning off at mid volume, even if i add extra bass this will shut it off

I wired it through the existing hotwire and ground that my original set up was hooked to, tomorrow I am going to wire directly from my harness to my battery, can't get a better power feed or ground then that. I'll update when I do this

I think you're asking too much from the head unit. I'd suggest you put in an amp and let the amp put the volume out that you are asking for. If you overwhelm the head unit and it cant draw the current to put out over four speakers, that is a huge load for a head unit that is not able to power all of that at such a volume. Buy a decent amp. You can get one on Craigslist if you're on a serious budget but go with a name brand and something that has four channels. I bought a super nice Alpine PDX amp w/ 150 watts per channel.

You will then totally disconnect all the speakers from the head unit and run wires (probably standard red/white RCA cables) from the head unit to the amp (hopefully your head unit has amp outputs). Then wire the speakers to the amp. You will need to wire in the power and ground to the amp itself, and it's generally a good idea to run a thick guage wire from the battery to the amp with a good strong fuse at the end. To get the right guage wire, Google "amp wire calculator". There are tons of EBay sellers that sell amp wiring kits...careful you don't go with a cheapie no-name brand but you can get a good one for not much $$. Run the power and ground from the battery up to under the dash. The kit will include a fuse block, terminals, etc...everything you need to wire the amp (and stereo) and give them the power they need. Most will include the RCA cables to connect the amp to the head unit.

Then you will have plenty of power for the amp as well as the head unit. You will need to connect the blue wire from the head unit to the amp so the amp will turn on when you turn on the head unit.

That is really the only fix for your situation. You're overloading your head unit. It doesnt have the power to drive all the speakers at the volume you're asking for.

Good luck.

Dave

ok thanks for the info