I have a 1996 XJS with the AJ16.


If I wanted to connect an amp and power it from the battery instead of going through the thinner wires brought to the OEM radio, is there a post I can grab it from somewhere under the hood?


Most cars that have batteries in difficult to access areas (like the trunk?) have posts that can be used to jump start the car. Is there anything under the hood that I can access through the firewall to tie in an amplifier?


Thanks.

 

Should have a firewall post each side of bellhousing. Do you have room for amp inside anyway, another option would be amp in boot/trunk.

 

I'm using the Alpine KTP-445u amp. It's tiny and does the job. I'm experiencing some cut out and I'm suspecting that it is starved for power as I get to the upper end of the volume on my radio.

 

Those posts go right through the firewall so it is possible to pickup the power inside the cabin, but l am not sure how easy it is to access them inside.

 

Yes, the facelifts have the posts.......

I have an amp and compact powered subwoofer in the car, powered from a cable that runs from the battery into the cabin underneath the conv. top.

 

I have the same amp. I thought they are designed to work directly from the radio power. Please follow up if you have improvement giving it power from the post

 

I've looked but never found them. I think they're pretty well buried behind the blower motor assemblies.

Cheers
DD

 

And probably well insulated to avoid inadvertent
contact with other stuff under there.


On my somewhat similar, and somewhat very different car, I found a thin
patch of metal over the pedals and just over one of the posts. I needed to
slip in a couple of wires from engine bay to the cabin. Not from the power post,
though. Works fine.


I don't mess with "fawncy" sound. Ears are not anywhere good enough.
Now, the Jaguar system does just fine as the "weird" system in my Jeep.
Just center all toggles!!!!!


Tuning from station to station is extra unneeded fawncy. Scan and seek????


Carl


Carl

 

Without specifics I can say that any brown wire of higher gauge, such as a 12 or 10 gauge, that's inside the firewall is a wire coming in directly from that side's battery post. When you use one of those brown wires is very much like going directly to that side's battery post. If you oberve the electric diagram, you'll see that there are several non-fused brown wires, all coming in to the left fuse box or to the ignition switch. You can tap a connection from one of those wires and properly fuse it for your application...and don't forget...documenting what you have done.

Needless to say, make 200% sure that you disconnect the battery to do this work. I must warn you that soldering rather thick wires with a heavy duty iron is no joke under that very limited room environment down there. Also, remember that highly reliable insulation of your job is paramount. When I did my engine start button install I had to work under there with those big wires and it was testing, but totally doable.

 

Or you can always find a path through the firewall somewhere and then just run a wire from that side's battery post to inside where your amp is. It's doable; by now I must have at least three points of entry on my firewall with all the jobs l've done, so maybe this is the easier way to do this.

Cheers,