TigerXJ

So I was picking around the JY this morning, found a sound bar out of a 95 cherokee. I'm wanting to add it to my 1999 behind the B pullers for when the doors are off.

From reading another thread I understand the best way to go about this is a new head unit, small 6 channel amp. Run amp off head unit then to each speaker - front doors, rear headliner sound bar, and middle sound bar. It has currently has stock speakers in it, they are in good shape, but I haven't tested them yet, so I think I'll stick with them as long as they are good.

Can anyone recommend a reasonable (affordable) head unit and amp to run 6 speakers. No plans for a sub ever, wife and kids won't tolerate it and I'm not a huge fan myself.

I've never done any audio wiring before, so is it tough to match a head unit/amp? For me, fewest number of buttons on a HU would be best! Don't need a CD player, but an iPhone aux hookup would be nice. Am I missing anything here?

And obligatory pics. Certainly needs to be recovered. May try to find a 97+ rear dome light to replace this one with, it looks pretty dated.

Demonoid369

Why are you going to wire the door speakers if you are getting the sound bar for doorless? Wire the front sound bar to the wires that the front door speakers use. Did that with mine so that with doors off or on, I have full music front and rear

TigerXJ

Actually after I posted I realized that I should probably just use the bar to take the place of the front door speakers. In fact I only have one front door speaker that works.

Now I need to find some material to recover this with.

Demonoid369

I spray painted mine and called it good lol

Look for your year model stereo diagram so you know what wire colors yours are for the positive and negative, then route it up through the B pillar. Takes a bit to fadangle with but it'll work

Fred/N0AZZ

Those are nice don't guess that I had saw one before, may have to look for one myself.

TigerXJ

http://www.modifiedlife.com/1999-jee...iring-diagram/

found this, and IIRC from when my driver front door speaker quit working, then this is accurate.

Running the wires is no problem. Should I just pick up some similar gauge speaker wire, cut the front door speaker wires, splice the new wire in, and run that up the pillar to the bar, and then splice it into the bar with a quick connect? That way I don't have to worry about crimping on any special kind of speaker wire? Sorry this is my first time doing speakers, I've done tons of wiring on the jeep, but know jack **** about sound systems.

unfortunately I didn't think to grab the chassis side of the speaker bar connection which would have been easier to splice. Oh well.

I did get it wrapped in a headliner material. It's a pretty close match to my headliner which I replaced a few years ago. It is a bit of a challange to get it to conform to the curves. Definitely needed more clamps. It turned out ok, you can tell which side I started on.

Its got 5.25" speakers now, that came were in it at the JY. They almost look brand new, in good shape. Haven't tested them yet of course. I'm not an audiophile, just want to be able to hear it. Is it really worth it for me to spend $ on 6.5" speakers? I suppose I can always do that later if I want to.

Just need to head back to the JY and find another 99+ rear dome light to retrofit into the bar for the light. I'll just run it off the front dome light, so that way it goes with the doors. My lights are all LED inside, so shouldn't be a problem with current.

TigerXJ

Well I finally got this done. I had most of the interior trim at the doors torn out to prep for painting the door jambs of the jeep - I'm in the prep process for monstaliner on the exterior, and decided to just spray paint the jambs the closest color I could find, which was an enamel from TSC.

Anyways, part of this process involved pulling all the door seals for paint, and the overlying trim, so I was half way to getting the sound bar in, figured I'd just finish it up. I used the above referenced link to locate the correct color wires in the footwells for my front door speakers. I had pulled some speaker bar wiring harness from the JY, and used those to wire the new sound bar into the front door speakers. I used a drill to spin the two wires together to make them more rigid and neater for routing behind the trim.

Soldered and heat shrinked to the existing wiring, tucked behind A-pillars and the header trim. The sound bar sits a few inches behind the front seats, right about wear the metal trim piece starts on the late model cherokees. It doesn't sound as good as the door speakers, because now all 4 speakers are behind you, but when the doors are off, you can actually hear the music now, and as I mentioned, one of me speakers had already lost the wiring to the front driver side. so this is an improvement. I'll get pictures tonight.

I cut the hole for the light larger to fit a late model rear dome light, which looks great, and replaced the bulb with two LED panels, which is much brighter, and preserves the click on/click off function of the light.

I do need to find a solution to take up the gap between sound bar and headliner. Bar isnt shaped exactly like the roof, so it sags a bit

SteveMongr

Originally, the center of that speaker bar is secured by fittings that hang from roof, dome light attaches to fittings and holds up soundbar.
I cannot think of an easy solution for that..

#99cherokee

Ive been looking into doing this for a few weeks now and In all the threads ive read nobody has mentioned that. good to know.


My xj is also a 99 and im curious whether you can add in 6.5 inch speakers on the newer xj sound bar (97-01) and not just on the older xj sound bar.

unidentifiedbomb

Here's my sound bar that I redid with matching interior spray paint and 6.5" Kenwoods.

SteveMongr

I am sure they will fit as long as they are not too deep/tall.
The problem I had with 6.5" speakers with big magnets is the weight. Driving through whoops or getting airborne, the soundbar would fall down along with the overhead console.
The other place folks relocate speakers to go doorless, is the kickpanels.

TigerXJ

That's interesting. When I pulled it out a few months ago at the JY I don't recall seeing anything like that. But now I can't remember if it was already partially removed...I remember the headliner was torn, and I had to remove a good bit of it and the trim back there to get the bar out. It's not enough to make me concerned, and I may address it the next time I have the headliner out. I think it could be easy enough to build something off the front dome light mount, of even just build a new one with some heavy duty adhesive like the front mount.

TigerXJ

The headliner material is a touch too light, but it doesn't bother me.





Here you can see the gap. My only concern is if it will be too weak without that center support when driving down the road.





With all three LED dome lights on