1993 Mustang Radio, CD, Wiring HELP

Do exactly as MOB did. PLEASE DO NOT CUT your wiring up. You will regret it later

If you have to, just call crutchfield and they will help you out. They have all the diagrams you need to get you through too. Like the demented one said, PLEASE DO NOT CUT YOUR WIRES!!!

mob said:

I have a cd player without a factory amp. I threw my factory amp away when my cd player didnt work.

Click to expand...

I take it you have an aftermarket headunit? The 93 headunit did not have an internal amplifier. He's also asking how to put a 93 headunit into a pre 93 car. That means he wants to hook a premium sounds system headunit to a non-premium setup. That is a different game than just hooking up an aftermarket unit.

91FoxSaleenGTLX said:

Yeah im doing what Quick91LX said. Im trying to get the 1993 Factory Cobra Cd player in my 91 lx. They haven't different wiring harnesses as most of you know already. But what i got is the Factory cobra cd player. Then the factory cobra cd player wiring harness. And im gonna buy a plug in that plugs in to my factory radio wiring harness i got in the 91 so it shows bare wirings. then cut the other end off the Factory 93 harness and match up the wires. ANY HELP WOULD BE GREAT! I've never been a fan of best buy. Around here they do ****ty work so.

Click to expand...

heres what the problem will be

the wires coming from that 93 harness do not include speaker wires. all that you will have is wires for power and to send signal to the external factory amplifier.

the harness that you buy aftermarket with the bare wire ends has 2 flat plugs. one has the power/acc/ground along with a couple other functions and the other plug has the speaker wires. what you will run into is no way to send signal to the speakers because that factory CD player relies on the amp to produce the power that makes the sound. the CD player sends signal to the amp which in turn sends it to the speakers, so your speaker wires are coming out of the amp, not the head unit.

heres what i did to hook up my pioneer deck in my 89...this will make more sense when you actually do the job and are able to see what im describing

1) remove original cassette deck
2) use aftermarket adapter harness for power/acc/ground (do not use other plug)
3) unplug and remove factory amp from under dash
4) cut the plug for the speakers that is attached to the amp off of the amp. (DO NOT cut the main harness that goes under the dash) be sure to leave enough of a pigtail to splice into!
5) plug that connector you just removed back into that main harness.
6) with the deck on and playing, test each lead with one of the speaker leads out of the deck. take your time to be sure the proper speaker plays so you have no trouble with fade/balance. once you have everything correct, splice the wires together.

what this does is uses part of the OEM speaker harness as your "adapter" harness. unless you have a diagram that tells you which color wires run which speakers, its a test of trial and error to get the speakers set up properly. take a positive lead from the head unit and temporarily splice it to a wire on the harness, then take the corresponding negative lead and test against each other wire to see which speaker you get sound out of. then be sure to hook the proper head unit leads to those wires. (for example, if you choose the leads for the LF speaker as your test and get sound out of LR, make sure the wires you permanently hook up are the LR leads out of the head unit.) if you have any further questions feel free to PM me. its quicker, easier and better to just use a decent aftermarket head unit.

QUICK91LX said:

heres what the problem will be

the wires coming from that 93 harness do not include speaker wires. all that you will have is wires for power and to send signal to the external factory amplifier.

Click to expand...

This is my point. How can he use a 93 headunit (which relies on an external amp) in a 91 setup (which does not have an amp) w/o a factory 93 external amp?

tunedin302 said:

This is my point. How can he use a 93 headunit (which relies on an external amp) in a 91 setup (which does not have an amp) w/o a factory 93 external amp?

Click to expand...

the 91 probably does have a factory amp...my 89 does...my old 91 did...

i will post up later with a full description of how i did it...its basically making an adapter harness out of one of the factory plugs and it works really well.

ok gotta run and do my stuff for the day...check back later if you are that interested

Quick91 - thanks for the info. I'm still very interested in making a 93 premium sound headunit (made for the sony amp) work with a non-premium setup. I will stay tuned.

It is my understanding that the factory amp location and harness changed in 1993. Im surprised no one else has jumped in here to give a definite answer. I wont go thru the whole thing of posting the procedure i used for an aftermarket setup if its not really needed...

QUICK91LX said:

It is my understanding that the factory amp location and harness changed in 1993. I

Click to expand...

That's what I've been saying. 93 is the only year of the premium sound system which uses a completely different wiring and harness set up. Hooking up an aftermarket headunit to a pre-93 car is a snap since the headunit has a built in amp and you don't have to worry about making the amp work. A 93 headunit has no amp and the wiring harness goes directly to the amp. ANything you put through the wires will go through the amp ...... I just don't see how it can work easily. When I did my 93 GT w/ aftermarket I had to bypass the amp and rewire the entire system. If you have a NOS cobra CD player you should put it away and NOT use it. They are worth serious cash (an easy $350 right now) and are known to break very easily. If I were you, I would by an aftermarket headunit, get better sound and put the 93 CD player away for when you want so serious cash.

91FoxSaleenGTLX said:

Well i want the factory cd player in my car. ha. im not for the sound. but the factory appearance. I figured out my exsisting wiring harness in my car turns the power on for my cd player. just no speakers. So i wonder if i cut my speaker plug in off and hook up the 93 speaker plug in. might work? Yeah its NOS cd player. Brand new, still have the little sticker on the screen and everything. Ha

Click to expand...

if the 93 harness has 8 actual speaker wires (4 sets of 2) then you will be able to splice them into the speaker wires which come out of your factory amp. ok the pics i took are useful after all now i just need batteries for the camera lol