1993 Premium Sound Amp Wiring

93CalypsoConvert

Active Member
Nov 26, 2020
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Virginia
In the process of replacing my carpet and decided to take a closer look at my radio stuff. The only thing I've done is connect the radio when I first bought the car. Nothing else.

I would like to make my factory amp to work. I am aware that this system won't blow me away, but I'd like to have the factory equipment working. I just need some help figuring out how to connect it.

Here is the all the stuff that connects to radio. I've labeled what I think everything does:
Radio7.jpg

Nothing was connected except those two I labeled as originally connected.


Here is the amp wires connected to the original speaker wire:
Radio5.jpg



Here is the front and back of my radio:
Radio1.jpg
Radio2.jpg



Stuff going to the amp:
Radio6.jpg


Finally, here is the inside of the amp. I took it apart to make sure there was no signs of failure:
Radio3.jpg

Not a whole lot to it, huh?

Again my goal here is to make the amp work with the original speakers and head unit.
 
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I think all your answers are covered in @Mustang5L5 post.


One thing that sticks out to me is it looks like your radio is a 87-92 but you amp and wiring is 93? Does the radio have a plug for the blue amp cable? I could be wrong. Either way post above will help you get it sorted out.
 
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Ah ok. So It looks like I'm fully equipped other than the premium radio. Are there any aftermarket radios that are compatible with this system? Is it even worth it at that point? I don't particularly want to spend over $100 on a 30 year old radio that may or may not work.
 
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Ah ok. So It looks like I'm fully equipped other than the premium radio. Are there any aftermarket radios that are compatible with this system? Is it even worth it at that point? I don't particularly want to spend over $100 on a 30 year old radio that may or may not work.

Nope. If you want the factory style radio, it is what it is.

Otherwise you can fit a nice DD touchscreen in it these days
 
It would work but the issue is mounting. That one has rounded edges and no mounting plate for the cubby under the radio. It wouldn’t fit in perfectly.

You can see on these two the edges are square and the cubby is directly bolted to the bottom
Of the radio.

Now you can get parts to do this. That cubby plate can be removed from any 87-93 fox radio and installed on that radio, but you still have to deal with the round edges vs square

9616BB3C-84F3-4C35-9CB0-6901812B7700.jpeg
 
Ok so I went and got the radio from the salvage yard. They wouldn't let me pull it, one of their guys had to. In the process of removal, he managed to completely shatter the front face of it... Now it looks awful. He just gave it to me for free at that point. Kinda POed about it, even though it was free.

Anyways, I hooked it up just to see if it would work. It does but its very quiet. The think the reason is I do not have a 6-pin jumper plug. This is referenced in the forum from above. Response #6

Does anyone know which pins this actually jumps? I messed around with jumping them with a pair of pliers and only managed to get the driver's side speakers to work normally. I might just use this one until I can find one that isn't broken... :mad:
 
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The radio will be very quiet without this.

Part number F2DF-14A464-AA


You can kinda see where you need to short the pins, or just get that.


How bad is the face mashed? I might have a spare faceplate but don’t quote me on that, I ebayed a lot of parts and that might have gone out the door. I’d have to look
 
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You can just swap the clock and 6th preset button




Here’s another with the correct preset
 
Unfortunately those two don't have the holes for the cassette buttons. I'm in the process of swapping the faces. It will be a sleeper radio I suppose.

I swapped the front metal structure from my old one to this new one. Has four torx on one side and two rivets on the other. Drilled the rivets and replaced with some short self-tapping screws. I also bent all the cassette player tabs and buttons out of the way so my old face will actually fit. I bent the rest of the case straight again. Test fit in my dash and seems to do just fine.
Rad1.jpg



I also figured out which pins needed to be jumped, so I just bent them together and soldered them:
Solder.jpg



The only buttons that won't work after switching the faces are the Scan, AMS, and Dolby button. I doubt I'll be using any of those... What does the Dolby button do anyways?
 
Ah I didn’t look too closely at the button layout.


Dolby is used for noise reduction. Specifically it removes the “hiss” you hear when you listen to cassettes. It changes the sound somewhat, so that’s why it’s a selectable button.
 
Right those premium sound ones with the little square cable need the amp
I wired around mine in my 94 van when I put 3 Fosgates in it
You should be able to find one easy? All car lines had them I believe
Square plug came around in or about 1995
I have a few radios kicking around
Upload pic of the miffed front screen
We used to have to remove those screens to replace the illumination bulb behind there
They are hard wired in with a ribbon cable
Not sure if they can be replaced