88 mustang with oem 4-speaker radio...wired for 6 speakers?

Mustang5L5

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell
Mod Dude
Feb 18, 2001
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Is the door speaker wiring present on mustangs equipped with the 4 speaker base radio from the factory?

I'm putting the oem radio back in my car, but want to put the 6-speaker premium radio back in instead. I tried looking for the door speaker wiring in the door but couldn't find it. Has anyone found it present on their 4-speaker mustangs?

Also, wiring diagrams show the dash and door speakers are wired together. Are they wired in parallel? If so, are they 8 ohm speakers, or 4 ohm speakers.

Anyone have their stock door/dash speakers from a 6-speaker setup around? I think the dash speakers are different as I've seen some labeled premium sound and others not. Can you measure the resistance for me or see if they have the ohm rating stamped on them? :shrug:

I have 6 4 ohm speakers...just want to make sure they will work okay when I power up the stereo....after I find the damn door speaker wiring :(


crutch field lists speakers for the 6 speaker setup that are all 4 ohm.
 
Ok, come to start to beleove there are two dash harnesses for premium sound and the standard radio.

I found my door speaker wiring.

Runs from inside of door to kick panel area

Drivers side (connector c409)
View attachment 195940

Passenger side (connector c408)
View attachment 195941

If you notice, they are not connected to anything. According to my ford wiring diagrams, there should be wires between this connector and the radio connector (c261) however they are not present. At the radio connector, I only have 8 wires, so I assume if the wiring was present, I would have 12 with the extra 4 being paired to the dash speakers in a parallel wiring setup.

So, I couldn't find the other female connector for these plugs. Does anyone know formsure that they are not present? Does anyone with a 6-speaker setup have their radio plug accessible? Does the vehicle harness (before the amp) have 8 wires, or 12? I don't mean the plug that plugs into the radio, but then black plug way in the back where the amp is?

Can you tell me if you can trace the wiring in the kick panel and where it goes?

Of course, easy solution is since the door speakers are parallel wired to the dash speakers, I just tap into them up at the dash speakers. .
 
Did the Mach 460 swap not work out? I thought it was pretty slick.


No, had some issues integrating the aftermarket amp. I couldn't get rid of a white noise "hiss" issue that was a constant volume. Only solution was to crank volume up to drown it out. Since I drive with my music on pretty low, I couldn't bear the constant "hiss" that I tried everything to eliminate

Plus, I had a ton of wiring to make this work woth a converter for the line-outs from the head unit and relays for the 5v amp turn on from the head unit to 12v for the aftermarket amp.

In the end, it wasn't what I wanted it to be....wasn't "clean" :shrug:

EDIT: here's the wiring harness i had to make for it. RCA cables connected to the box, amp remote connected to the lead coming from the small box on top. Damn wiring was tight in the back of the console. But in the end, it was the constant hiss i couldnt cure which killed it.
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It's a shame that didn't work out. I like the stock looking mods. I have the stock premium sound system in my 89, and the Mach 460 in the 02. I only use the 89 for shows and cruises, and I'm trying to keep it as stock looking as possible. I'm the original owner, and as tempting as it is I can't bring myself to do any obvious mods to it. The Mach 460 is good enough for my daily driver. I don't like the look and feel of most aftermarket stereos anyway. They may sound good, but they look and feel cheap to me.
 
I'm actually gonna do something a little different than pure stock.

Gonna put a 1993 amp and wiring harness in, and either run the oem 1993 cd player...or the 2 din 94-00 Mach 460 setup. The head unit is 100% compatible with the 1993 amp/wiring.

However, I just discovered the 1993 cd player may have the ability to run the slave cd player too. So I might put both cd players in, or just stash the 1993 player and run the more common Mach setup.
 
I'm actually gonna do something a little different than pure stock.

Gonna put a 1993 amp and wiring harness in, and either run the oem 1993 cd player...or the 2 din 94-00 Mach 460 setup. The head unit is 100% compatible with the 1993 amp/wiring.

However, I just discovered the 1993 cd player may have the ability to run the slave cd player too. So I might put both cd players in, or just stash the 1993 player and run the more common Mach setup.

That sounds good. I'll be interested to see how it turns out.
 
im not 100% sure but i think that if you wire 4ohm speakers in parallel then you drop the ohms to 2 which a lot of amps and cdplayers cant handle. I have mine dash/ door wired in a series connection. i had 2 2ohm subs back in the day that i wired in parallel fried my memphis amp it was not a Class D stable amp:nonono:. i just dont want you to fry that cd player
 
im not 100% sure but i think that if you wire 4ohm speakers in parallel then you drop the ohms to 2 which a lot of amps and cdplayers cant handle. I have mine dash/ door wired in a series connection. i had 2 2ohm subs back in the day that i wired in parallel fried my memphis amp it was not a Class D stable amp:nonono:. i just dont want you to fry that cd player

I don't want to fry it either, which is why i'm asking questions and trying to do a little research.

I actually found a set of 6 speakers from a premium car that someone is sending me. So i'll measure and find out for sure.

I think i can just add a resistor though to bring the resistance up to whatever level it should be? :shrug: