Hey there,
I'm looking to replace the factory head unit as well as front and rear speakers on my '95 tomorrow, and I figured I'd prep today by taking off the door panels and rear hatch panel (parts aren't here until tomorrow). Two problems, one larger than the other.

1. Upon removing the rear hatch panel I discovered that I don't currently have rear speakers. This actually came as a surprise. Furthermore, I don't see any wires back there to plug my speakers into. There are two different wires that aren't connected to anything right now, they are both black, one looks like some sort of a female piece, while the other looks male. I don't know much about wiring so I don't know what they are... the female one looks almost like something you would plug a guitar into. The other one was taped to the metal, and had a bit of tape on it that says "S". It is clear that someone has monkeyed around back there before because a couple of the plastic tabs were broken. There is also a mysterious bunch of wires that come up from the back left corner of the cargo floor and just lead to nothing, they say that they are for the turn signal lights, but they aren't connected and the turn signals work.

Is there any way these two mystery wires in the hatch area could be the speaker wires? I know they aren't the right color... but they are in the right places If not, are the speaker wires hiding somewhere else that I can pull them out of?

2. I can't get my window cranks off to remove my door panels. I saw you can buy a tool for it, which I will do, unless anyone knows a nifty homebrew method to get them off.

Thanks for any help or advice, I've done a fair amount of searching but can't seem to find a definite answer. Let me know if I should post pics.

 

Your Jeep is a 95, right? I think you have the rear overhead sound pod, no? Check the rear roof. If its there, you’ll have to remove some of the molding at the rear to remove the pod. Also, there’s a little clip in the rear dome light that is securing the center of the pod.

As for the window crank…..maybe some long skinny needle nose pliers will fit behind there to allow you to pry it up? I have the tool for this, so not sure what else to recommend.

Good luck!

 

No rear sound pod. No rear dome light for that matter either.

Is it possible my car is only equipped for two speaker sound?

 

That's odd.....never heard of just a 2 speaker system in the XJ.

Any pics you can post?

 

I tried to snag some pictures, I hope they are helpful.

http://img204.imageshack.us/i/img3091er.jpg/
http://img17.imageshack.us/i/img3083s.jpg/
http://img825.imageshack.us/i/img3088v.jpg/

You can see obviously where the speakers are supposed to mount, on the left and right closeups I tried to get a decent shot of the spare wires that seem to be kicking around back there. It was dark so I couldn't get my camera to focus for a close-up of either one. I didn't bother taking a picture of the roof because there definitely is no sound pod. Just flat ceiling.

 

Well, you can run wires and install them in the hatch. You can also pick up or make a soundbar. Or, just get some really good speakers up frount and dont worry about the rear.

 

It is possible. My 97 has front speakers only. It is the most stripped down xj that I have ever seen.

 

For the cranks I used an old small screw driver and bent it into an L shape and then was able to hook it on the clip and pull it out.

 

If you arent worried about factory look you could buy a pair of boxes to fit your desired size speakers. I did this to a truck once just so I could have something removable to use when I wanted decent sound outside the vehicle.

 

Thanks for all the responses everyone. I did some more thinking (thinking is good), and figured that tomorrow when I go to replace the head unit I should be able to figure out what all the wires leading from that are, and if there are wires for rear speakers, I'll try and figure out where they are hiding. Could they be stashed in the side paneling in the cargo area, like behind where my spare tire is? If there doesn't seem to be any, I might just toss them somewhere else in my car. There are two spots underneath the front dash that seem like they were designed to have speakers sit behind them, and would be easy to wire to, though I don't know what the point of having speakers that close to the doors would be. The speakers were cheap enough that there is no real point in returning them, I might as well install them somewhere.

 

A nifty little trick for getting the door handle clips off is using a rag. Slide the rag behind the handle and run it slowly back and forth while pulling or pushing against the "open" side of the clip. The rag *should* grab the ends of the clip and spread them while you work the rag, and the clip should pop off. It may or may not work, but it's worked for me on several cars, and it saves the money for the tool for more important things, like new toys for the Jeep! LOL

 

My 98 has the same thing...or so the vin says, is there wires still running to the speakers in the passenger doors? Because i do plan on putting a system in it here eventually...

 

Wow....surprised they would strip an XJ even more.....

You can do 2 things.....

1) Run wires to the hatch (if none are there) and install rear speakers.

OR

2) Get an overhead speaker pod on eBay and run the wires up there.

Option 1 may be cheapest, but I never ran wires to the hatch, so not sure the level of difficulty getting them snaked in there.

After that, you should be uin good shape to do your install.

 

I think if i remember correctly those wires in the hatch are for the uk jeeps for extra license plate lighting and you do not want to plug those in (something about blowing fuses and whatnot). That said your speaker wires will be somewhere in the roof as xjs have the option for the speaker pod in the rear roof. I believe that they are on the passenger side but not 100% sure. Just remove the upper rear trim and see if they are there running towards the center of the roof. Hope this helps

 

my 94 had no rear speakers or wires had to run them