Well I finished the install. Still more pics to process and some other things I may tweak later but for the most part its done.

The reverse camera wire stuff I gave in and just tapped into the reverse wire for the passenger side taillight assembly. I noticed when I was tracing down the wires I wasn't but 3 feet from the wire coming from the tail lights so I just grabbed that wire.

I still have one problem to resolve and that one I think will be handled best by replacing the cigarette lighter housing with one that isn't as long as the factory one. I haven't seen anyone mention this but I noticed no matter what I did when installing the shifter console plate the cigarette lighter was cocked to the side some in the hole.

Also I noticed when looking at the pictures the plate is being pushed over too. The lighter is to long and is pressing against the shifter assembly itself. So I can replace the lighter with something shorter to keep if from touching or I can grind the shifter assembly. I think the lighter needs replacing

Here is what it looks like without being forced over.




This following pic shows the shifter plate being forced over to line up right.




Last but not least a shot of the stereo actually in the dash. Im waiting on the trim ring to get here to fill in the gap around the stereo.

 

Just viewed this thread from the start there.
Nice job sharing your info and pics !!
George would be proud of how much you share here with all of us.
He did the same and I really enjoyed my time with him at the Dragon each year.
I'm happy you have kept his Crossfire and are enjoying it as much as he did.
I hope you will come join us at the Dragon in the fall.

Gary

17th Annual Fall 2022 Dragon Event - September 29 - 3, 2022

 

This right here is the best advice I too have given to a couple of owners before when trying to explain how to take the ash tray out. It is also the best way for making sure the switch plate lines up gap wise with the shifter ring. I’m glad you documented it with a picture as I didn’t when I installed mine. Well done

 

If you have fitted the paddle shifters you can open it up even easier as the rear of the console has had the cross piece taken out. You endup taking out the two screws shown here plus the two rear screws where the cross piece was.

 

Thanks !

We want to make it next year since this year its happening during the breeding time for our yorkies. Hopefully the wife and I can attend next year.

 

Thanks !

I had watched some videos of others battling with the ashtray removal and figured it might help others in the future doing the removal.

 

The weather was pretty today so I backed the crossfire out and aimed the backup camera. Heres some pics from that.




Next shows the backup camera install. Notice the frames upside down to clear the trunk handle. You have to do this or you cant reach the handle to open the trunk. The camera doesnt show the bumper cover even mounted like this so it worked great.




Last is a shot of the interior showing the stereo install finished and the drink holder I added (love that drink holder). The drink holder does not move at all under normal use. Was a god send during the stereo install for holding bolts and stuff.

 

Now if I just figure out why the subwoofers don't work. George had installed new pyle speakers so I know the speakers are good but they make no noise. I turned the stereo up pretty loud while having my finger touching the cone. So I know they are not moving at all. The wires seem to be connected correctly color wise from what I can tell. Red / Black on one side and grey/green I think on the other side.

One post mentioned that the factory speaker has both positive leads on one side and both negative leads on the other. This would cause problem with the pyles since they have positive and negative on each side. But all of the pics I can find of people installing the pyle speakers match what George did wiring wise from what I can tell.

Im going to try removing the plugs at the amp one day and feed a separate audio source in there and see what happens.

 

It looks like your backup camera is part of the license frame, so I see why you flipped it. Mine was independent and I was mounting it to my existing frame, but I ran into the same problem. If I mounted it top & center it was in the way of the trunk-release-lever. I simply moved the camera to the left-side of the license-frame. The only drawback is that it is no longer symmetrical. But it works, and I'm never really in a position to see it, so...

 

Well I figured out the problem with the subwoofers. They do in fact work. IF you run the stereo at FULL volume. I put some hard hitting songs on a usb stick and set the eq to heavy bass and blew the speaker grill off the passenger side subwoofer. So they do work.

The problem seems to be the 600 watt subwoofer doesnt like being driven by the weak factory amp. So I guess I'll have to look into an aftermarket amp one day if I want to achieve balance between the front and back speakers. But its workable with now.

The weird part is that half volume they do no move at all. Above that they start playing and hit pretty hard at full volume. But its not really fully utilizing them since they are meant for a larger amp.

 

My woofers can be set so they feel like a punch in the kidneys using the OEM amp they would not last too long at that setting. I am using four of the six RCA outs.

 

The factory amp will probably make the factory subwoofers bounce off the housing. But the factory amp does not impress the pyle subwoofers george put in there which are the ones I have seen several threads on the forum about.

They are rated at 600 watts for one thing and are much larger magnet and voice coil wise vs the light weight factory subs.

 

I am pretty deaf so as long as can hear something it is good for me.

 

Do you have pyle replacement speakers or do you still have the factory rear speakers?

 

I have the factory speakers, they are good enough fo me and my lead ears.

 

I imagine they are. But that was the entire point of my post.

The problem I am having is because george replaced the factory subwoofers with aftermarket pyle subwoofers. The factory amp is not large enough to drive the aftermarket pyle speakers correctly.

If the car still had the factory subwoofers I would not be having this problem.

The rolled eyes you did seemed to reflect that you thought I was saying the factory subwoofer woofers were not big enough or something or that the factory amp wasnt big enough with a factory speaker setup.

I personally would of been happy with the factory subwoofers but since they were replaced before I got the car that isnt something I can do anything about.

So the logical solution is the replace the factory amp considering the amps easier to change than the speakers are honestly. This will also allow me to use higher quality door speakers when they fail from old age eventually.

 

Rolled eyes was me being sarcastic about my deafness and having lead ears. No more no less.
I am from the UK, sarcasm is our humour or some of our jokes have two layers. The first layer is what you read the second layer is the real joke.

 

I have the Pyle speakers on the factory amp. They hit plenty hard. Hard enough that I dial them down in the EQ on the head unit. I think the coil wiring is broken out on those speakers, and you could wire them in series or parallel. That could be your issue, but I may be remembering the connection wrong.

 

They are wired the way I have seen others wiring them on the forum here. That doesnt mean they are wired the same way you have them though. Red and black on one side and green and white on the other best I remember. Only possible issue could be plus and minus being off on one side vs the other.

They do nothing till 3/4 volume on up. I had tried messing with them originally but didnt have the radio but at around 1/2 volume and having my finger on the woofer cone I couldnt feel any movement at all.
Once I turn the radio all the way up they hit pretty hard. But its like the amp isnt putting out enough or its a wiring thing. I'll dive into it later. To much of a hassle trying to get to them right now. Tight space behind the seat does not lend to fun removal with the carpet pulling back and all.

 

You can wire your new stereo to the OEM amp using a 4 wire connection so you can have a 4 channel hookup which then will drive the subs stronger and also fade front and back to your liking
With the stock wiring you only have a 2 channel hook up to the OEM amp and don't have front and rear fader control
I don't have the knowledge or experience how to do this but I had it done on my Roadster
I attached PDF file from the Facebook pages that show how this wiring is done posted by Robert McCubbin

I added some new information to some existing information to create this file.
Should be helpful for people doing the double din radio install and also want to convert the 2 Channel system to a 4 Channel system and still use the OEM amplifier.
He added this comment as well:

Below is some additional information that I will eventually add to the write-up on how to install the new head unit using the RCA preamp outputs and connecting the rear speakers to the Subwoofer RCA outputs for better volume and bass control to the rear subwoofers.
I just installed a new head unit in a fellow Crossfire owners car and did the following.
I cut the 4 wires, at the amp, that tie the rear subwoofers to the front speakers and ran 4 new wires from those cut wires to the new radio's subwoofer RCA preamp outputs. The 4 wires cut at the amp are from the Power Amplifier Connector A and the following positions in that connector, pin 3 (left sub -), pin 8 (left sub +), pin 9 (right sub -), pin 10 (right sub +).
The front speakers were connected to the front RCA preamp outputs and the rear subwoofers were connected to the Subwoofer RCA preamp outputs.
I believe that this connection method allows the most volume and bass from the rear speakers without having to over bass the front speakers.
With using the RCA preamp outputs, the volume has to be at a much higher setting than if the speaker wiring is used from the wiring connector on the back of the head unit.
I had recently wired my head unit using the speaker wiring from the connector on the back of the head unit and feel that using the rear speakers wiring doesn't allow the subwoofers to operate properly even with cranking up the bass, which I felt overwhelmed the front speakers. When I used the speaker fader and changed it to be only the Subwoofers, I had very little volume compared to what the volume was on the front speakers.
I've since changed my speakers to be connected to the RCA preamp outputs, using Front Speakers and Subwoofers. Note: This arrangement didn't allow the Fader to work, on my double din radio, because there are no speakers connected to the rear RCA outputs. Apparently the Subwoofer RCA outputs are not part of the Fader feature, on my radio.
I do however believe that on the other radio that I did the same arrangement, that the Fader feature worked.