L6 Cd Player Installation

[Builder]

I have recently purchased a new Nakamichi CD 400 for my 1987 L6. My L6 appears to have only 4 speakers installed at least that’s all I can locate. Everything speakers and cassette deck are original equipment. I have installed many new CD player in the past with very little trouble but the L6 has me stumped. The L6 has a remotely mounted fader control which is located just under the CD player opening. It appears the fader feeds a separate OEM amplifier but I am not sure. This fader has a modular plug that has 8 wires feeding. So naturally I assumed that these eight wires feed the four speakers. But the color coding does not match coding at the speakers. In fact the speakers have 3 wires run to them and contain what appears to a crossover. I’m very confused can someone please help me or point to some documentation that clarifies this installation. Any comments suggestion or advice would be greatly appreciated.

['89 635 csi]

When I put the Eclipse in my 6er I had to run all new wires from the radio to the (8) speakers!
This has also held true for the other bimmers I have had!
You will have to bypass the fader switch on the dash and the factory amp, there is no way around it!

[Builder]

I appreciate the response and I kind of figured that would have to be my route however the CD-400 does have preamp outputs so im wondering if i can utilize the existing amp. I also noticed this device that Crutchfield sells to allow me to use the existing amp:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-fScxnXGJ9T9/c...w.asp?i=127OEM2

But I'm not sure if I even need this if i simply use the per amp outputs to the existing amp. If anyone has the factory amp wiring diagram it would certainly help me.

Thanks again

[jllphan]

First off, great choice of head unit. I'm a big fan of Nakamichi, and doubt I will ever own much else


I don't know the older 6er layouts, but I did have a similar dash mounted fader on a previous car (1986 Porsche). I didn't need to bypass it, as it was had a built in impedence matched circuit.

I could speculate on the wiring, but couldn't tell you for sure. You can use your amped (not preamp) outputs to feed the oem amp, as the Nakamichi has a relatively low voltage output via it's speaker leads. That is currently what I am doing, and have had no problems. That hi/low inverter you posted from crutchfield is a good product, but not necessary in this instance.

If I were in your shoes, the first step I would take, would be to purchase four new speakers. I'm sure your oem drivers are in pretty bad shape, and even if they aren't, they are not capapble of taking full advantage of your new head units ability.

Once you have your new speakers, you can use your existing speaker wire, you just need to find the leads that run from the dash area to each speaker location (you said they didn't match, something should).