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Thread: MoparMike's 2015 Dodge Durango R/T

  1. Back To Top    #11
    Noob MoparMike's Avatar
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    Re: MoparMike's 2015 Dodge Durango R/T

    Processor board wrapped and mostly wired. A barrier strip will supply power to both processors and the lighting. The LSA-4 are mounted on the back and will be wired inline between the stock wiring and the Fix processor.






    I'm hoping to wrap the amp rack and mount the amps before the end of the weekend. Its been two months and I'm still on this section of the car so I'm really wanting to finish this part up. Thing left to do on the enclosure are: get the plexi cut and attached, install the LED lighting inside the box, and install binding posts and wire the subs. I hope to wire up amps, finish the processors and run speaker wiring up to the front next weekend so that I can finally move on to the front of the vehicle.

  2. Back To Top    #12
    Noob MoparMike's Avatar
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    Re: MoparMike's 2015 Dodge Durango R/T

    Back to work on the box with mounting the subs. Used 1/4-20 allen head socket screws.




    Blue LED lighting run around the underside of the shelf that the plexi glass windows will mount to.





    The subs were wired with 12 gauge Knu Koncepts Kord cable.



    Ring terminals for Dayton Audio binding posts soldered.







    Wiring held against the back wall to block from view when looking though the windows on the top of the box.


  3. Back To Top    #13
    Noob MoparMike's Avatar
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    Re: MoparMike's 2015 Dodge Durango R/T

    Last weekend I tried to run the power wire to the battery along with the 3 runs of 16 gauge wiring for the passenger side speakers. Unfortunately things were not going my way and I reached out to another forum member, Lanson, for advice since he had an easy time running wiring in his Durango. His advice was a big help, I was trying to run front-to-back where the reverse was much easier. Took me less than 20 minutes to have wires peeking out of both sides of the interior.

    Wiring exiting the passenger side rear quarter panel and into the second row seating area.




    Getting wire into the battery compartment under the front passenger seat is rather easy. 1/0 Knu Koncepts cable wrapped in tech flex attached to the positive battery terminal.



    I had bought a 250 amp maxi fuse but was second guessing that decision due to how difficult it would be to remove the fuse if I needed to cut power to the back of the car so I went with a 300 amp Stinger circuit breaker which was mounted to the top side of the battery compartment cover. Its it accessible by reaching under the front seat.



    The power wire enters the cargo area near the 3rd row seats and runs to the distro block that was mounted in between the seat brackets for the passenger-side seat. A piece of 3/4" MDF was cut, sprayed with bedliner, and bolted into the threaded mounting points from the stock subwoofer.




    0 gauge ground run to the bolt for the 3rd row, passenger-side seatbelt.



    4 gauge runs head to the back of the car where the amp rack will mount. There is also a small gauge power and ground that head to the driver's side to supply power to the processors and lighting.



    Because the wires will run right underneath one of the subs, and the clearance is very tight at the font of the box, I made some slits into the factory carpeting and threaded some zip-ties into them to bind the wiring snug against the floor. I'm really happy with how this came out.



    The feet of the box were lined with 1/2" thick foam weatherstipping to seal up the seam between box and floor as best possible. It also helps cushion where the power and ground wires run underneath.


  4. Back To Top    #14
    Noob MoparMike's Avatar
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    Re: MoparMike's 2015 Dodge Durango R/T

    On the driver's side I ran the 3 sets of 16 gauge wire for the speakers up front along with the data cables for the JL Fix 82's volume knob and the 1000.1's bass knob. I also ran a single 18 gauge single wire for the valet switch that the Fix processor offers. No pictures of that side, not much to see anyway.

    I did partially wire up the barrier strip for the component speakers up front. This will allow me to remove the amp rack without pulling on those wires because there is not a lot of slack in them from where they exit the rear quarter panels. I used different lengths of heat shrink to designate which wires were which: Short = Tweet, Medium = Mid and Long = Mid-bass



    That is where I stopped for the day. Getting back at it tomorrow to run the wiring into the front doors and connect the amps and processors.

  5. Back To Top    #15
    Noob MoparMike's Avatar
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    Re: MoparMike's 2015 Dodge Durango R/T

    More progress over the last week. I got the plexi glass windows in the box and opted for 1/2" thickness so that it was recessed. I made a bad choice when choosing the fasteners for attaching the plexi. 10-32 threaded brass inserts and black recessed head socket screws look nice but those brass inserts use a flat head to drive them into wood which was a problem from the start. My largest flat head screwdriver wasn't wide enough so I went to buy another one and the only one that was wide enough had a blade that was too thick. After several hours of fighting the anchors into the box I noticed my second bad choice: fine thread screws. Getting the screws aligned so that they wouldn't strip the brass inserts was another headache. It all ended up fine but took waaaaay longer than it should have.





    3/4" wide x 1/16 thick neoprene tape applied as a gasket. This tape rocks. It is super sticky so it adhered very well.



    Finished. Ignore the messy table, it was late at night by this time and I didn't tidy my workstation for the pic.



    Next some wiring harnesses were made to connect the Fix processor to the factory wiring at the stock amp. The plugs come with the Fix82 and I used 18 gauge wire that was twisted to keep it neat and attractive. The short heat shrink marks the tweeter wires and the longer is for the woofers.



    Connected to the FIX-LSA-4 load sensing adapters. I have two on that board but am only using one.



    Connections to the wiring harness. The front tweeters and woofers were clipped and soldered to the new wires. Finished them off in heat shrink.



    I am leaving the rear speakers connected to the factory amp and will utilize the fader to choose when I want them to play. I didn't want the stock center channel to be on though so I clipped the positive wire for it and capped it in heat shrink as well.



    Wiring harnesses were reconnected to the factory amp and the wires were bound with zip ties and tucked back behind the panel. On the right is the power and ground wires for the led lighting inside the sub box.


  6. Back To Top    #16
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    Re: MoparMike's 2015 Dodge Durango R/T

    Next I moved on to cleaning up the wiring for the tweets, mids and woofers. The barrier strip was mounted to the floor in the center of the vehicle. Wires were bound and run so that they wouldn't interfere with the pass-though for the spare tire tool. The proximity sensor for the doors was attached to the metal at the back of the cargo area using double sided tape.



    I tapped into the 12v socket on the passenger side rear quarter panel. This is a retained accessory power connection so the stereo will stay on if the car is shut off until the doors are opened. This is the way the stock radio worked so I wanted to keep it that way.



    The remote wire runs with the right speaker cables and goes to the Fix82 processor on the other side of the car. The Fix outputs another remote signal to the DEQ.8 processors which then outputs to the amps. Once tested everything powered up well and there was no need for a relay.



    A toggle switch was used to turn on the lighting. There is a small panel on the driver side quarter panel where the button to close the rear door is located. This made a nice spot to place the switch.






    KnuKoncepts Krystal Kables are used to carry signal to the amps. Great quality cables, that are well shielded and flexible.



    Once the amps were all connected I turned it all on to test out and everything came on as it should. I verified that the Fix processor had a signal via the LED status lights and then ran the calibration so it would de-tune the signal and output a flat one via the RCA's. No problems here, it configured the first time around. At this point I connected RCA's to the amps and went to set gains. This is when I noticed that my 4 channel amp was in protect mode. The car was powered down, fuses were checked and nothing was found to be wrong. Turned it back on and still in protect so I pulled it to take a look inside. Two resistors on channels 1&2 were noticeably burned. This amp was last used in my Ram about 14 months ago and worked fine. Not sure what happened to it, could have been this way for a while. Found another one in the classifieds which is headed my way. This was Saturday and I was still planning to work on this on Sunday and get the front speakers in so I decided to push forward and run passive until the new amp showed up.

    Bad picture because it was too bright out. I set the crossovers in place of the 4 channel amp along with the rat's nest of wires until the replacement amp arrives.


  7. Back To Top    #17
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    Re: MoparMike's 2015 Dodge Durango R/T

    Here is a shot of the door panel before removal along with a close up of the tweeter location.




    Started by removing the door panel and the sail panel which runs along the window frame.



    The clips for the tweeter were popped and it came right out. The tweeter comes out first then a second set of clips are released to take out the housing and grill.




    The small flange inside the hole was enlarged using a dremel so that the new tweeters would fit.






  8. Back To Top    #18
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    Re: MoparMike's 2015 Dodge Durango R/T

    Popped the molex out and threaded two runs of 16 gauge KnuKoncepts Kord cable. This went very smoothly. So glad that I changed my mind about running that 12 gauge that I had. Didn't even need to drill the molex, there was a nice gap between the two plugs that worked fine.






    Tweeters connected with blade terminals. Wiring bound with zip ties.


  9. Back To Top    #19
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    Re: MoparMike's 2015 Dodge Durango R/T

    I used 1/2" birch plywood for the baffles for the 6.5 woofers that went in place of the 6x9's. 5 coats of bedliner on both sides to protect them from moisture.




    The inner door skin had 80 mil Noico butyl deadener applied. Didn't go crazy here. Just added enough to be effective.



    Boom mat foam speaker baffles to protect the woofers from moisture and also decouple the driver from the baffle.




    Lower 50% cut out to let the speaker breathe.



    Mounted and more deadener applied around the baffle and the plastic door skin.




    Back side of the door panel before deadening.


  10. Back To Top    #20
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    Re: MoparMike's 2015 Dodge Durango R/T

    After. Paid special attention to an area where a trim piece is installed on the other side. There are two layers of plastic on the back side that can be a source of rattles.




    Mounted the door panels back on. Again the sun wasn't helping with with taking these pics. I'll get some more later to show the finished doors.



    Not sure where the mids will mount yet. Made some temporary pods from a couple of 3" PVC caps so that I can audition them both on the dash and in the kick panel area. Used the dremel again to increase the opening so the mids would countersink. They are press fit in for now with neoprene tape around the outside.





    At this point I was ready to power it on and do some inital testing. I turned off channels 1-4 and bypassed the low pass crossover on channels 5&6 on the processor so that the 2 channel amp would send 70hz and up to the 3 ways being run passive. No point in time alignment or any real tuning until the new amp shows up. Just did some listening to see how things sound. Even running passive I am very pleased with front speakers. The highs have lots of detail and I didn't notice any breakup. The mids come through very clear but were a little too present on the dash. Moved them to the kick panels and was pleased with the added depth. I was being gentle with the woofers until they can break in so didn't get a whole lot of mid bass from them but at higher volume they weren't bottoming out and I didn't notice any buzzing from the door panel. The sub output is great. When they were turned down they blended very well with the fronts but once the knob was turned up a little higher they can really shake the Durango. I don't have all the panels popped back into place since running the wires so I have some vibration there but I also need to address the rear door. From outside the car there is the faintest rattle and the roof does flex some around the shark fin antenna. So the 4 channel amp going bad was certainly a step back but all in all this weekend was very productive and I do have some much improved car sounds for the drive to work tomorrow!

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