If you could barely hear the speakers, something is installed wrong. The factory wiring is fine to run that power pack, no need to upgrade the wiring with that level of power.

Something you might try is to pull the headunit and run a seperate speaker wire straight to a "test" speaker and not through any factory wiring. See if that speaker plays correctly. If it does, there's a wiring issue somewhere in your install. If you can barely hear it, you likely have an equipment problem.

 

Also, everyone seems to be jumping to needing to buy new equipment to solve the problem. It seems everything you have currently is fine to run a decent system. There's nothing you need to buy at the moment IMO, you just need to diagnose what's going wrong. Once you correct whatever the problem is, you might be perfectly happy with the power pack you already have and won't need to spend any more money.

 

The OP isn't going to use the power pack, but instead he's going for an amp. Otherwise I wouldn't have suggested the the different wire gauge. He probably didn't connect the metra adapter correctly/disconnected the factory amp.

 

Yes thats correct i'm not using the power pack, I just got a clarion amps, puts out 100 watts rms at 4 ohms pretty nice. Now I just need to figure out how to hook up the wires going to the old amp to the new one.

 

"Now I just need to figure out how to hook up the wires going to the old amp to the new one."

Since you're going with a new, more powerful amp, I'd suggest a heavier gauge wire from the new amp to the speakers. Follow the instructions on the link to install the metra interface adapter to the new radio/amp so your onstar will work. Remember to adjust the volume of the chimes and onstar before you reinstall the radio, otherwise you will have to remove the radio to adjust the volume and it can be a PITA.

http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/Man.../120GMOS01.PDF

The directions are super simple.

 

Would it be easier to just not keep the chimes? I mean my OnStar isn't even activated and losing the chimes isn't really a big deal. The diagram also shows that I need a door chime speaker as well?

Say I'm going to be running all new speaker wires to the speakers and i've got two RCA cables that i'm running from the head unit to the amp and I want to forget about all the old factory wiring, i'm unsure about what I need to do with the harness going from the head unit to ignition (the switched 12v). The directions say to run the ignition wire (red, switched 12v) from the head unit to a fuse box terminal or to where it only gets power when the car is on?? I've read about tapping into fuse boxes and what not, but I don't know exactly how to do that?

thanks a ton for all the help.

 

I guess it could be a matter of preference but the chimes can come in handy when you leave the lights on, the E-brake is on while you put the car in gear, etc, and a chime speaker isn't all that much. I tapped the switched 12v wire right into the radio fuse on the passenger side.

2000 Chevrolet Monte Carlo Stereo Wiring Constant 12V+Orange
Switched 12V+ Yellow
Ground Black/White
Illumination Gray/Black
Dimmer Brown/White
Antenna Glass
Front Speakers 5 1/4" Doors
Left Front (+) Tan Left Front (-) Gray Right Front (+) Light Green Right Front (-) Dark Green
Rear Speakers 6" x 9"
Rear Deck Left Rear (+) Brown Left Rear (-) Yellow Right Rear (+) Dark Blue Right Rear (-) Light Blue
Use the yellow wire, which is the 12v switched into the fuse box.

 

I bought a fuse tap and wired it up into the PCM. Now, I have all my connections made, constant, switched, ground, and illumination but I can't get the radio to turn on with power on the car. It's not a blown fuse so thats out, could it be i'm trying to use the stock wiring for things like constant, ground and illumination???

Also I don't have any black/white or brown/white wires, just brown and black. same thing?

 

Hmm maybe I missed something, but I never had to run any new wires to install my aftermarket headunit. I did use a different module, but I would think they all wire up pretty much the same. To get the power, switched +12, and ground, all I needed to do was make the necessary connections to the module I had. I know that, at least for the PAC module, this was the way to do it, and it also gave you the retained accessory power feature that keeps your radio playing for up to ten minutes after you shut the car off. I took a quick look at the link provided on wiring up the Metra adapter, and I didn't see where it said to tap into the fuse box or anything.

Aside from that, I just ingnored the factory speaker wire connections since I wasn't going to use them, and ran my RCAs and remote wire like for any other amp install.

 

I didn't use the PAC interface, but my connections were a bit different since i kept the factory HU in the trunk.