Problem Installing Alpine Head Unit

95riosnake · Feb 22, 2007

Ok so I have come to a point of utter frustration with this car yet again.

I bought an Alpine head unit a few weeks ago, and put it in the mustang this past week. I ordered the correct mach-friendly wiring harness with the radio from crutchfield. I wired everything up correctly, then turned it on. Only the passenger side rear speaker had sound, along with my subwoofer. I checked, rechecked, cussed, rechecked, etc... I then hooked up a book shelf speaker to each individual lead coming out of the head unit itself to verify that it was outputting signal to every channel and it was. I then called crutchfield support and we came to the conclusion that the problem was the wiring harness adapter (it has a gain box to adjust the output and not have bad results with the factory amps). So they sent me a new harness.

I put the harness in yesterday, I now have sound coming only from the driver side front speaker (the one by the mirror), and the sub. I have run out of ideas as to what the hell is wrong, I've checked EVERY connection time and time again. All speakers worked perfectly before I pulled the factory head units. I hope someone can give me some advice cuz I am fed up.

Thanks in advance everyone.

tkelley · Feb 22, 2007

If I remember right theres a blue and pink or some stupid color on the adapter harness that isnt hooked to anything. That hooks to the blue amp switching wire on the Alpine to turn on the factory amps. Take it fwiw, this may not be your problem, but it was mine.

T

69clark · Feb 22, 2007

I'll read this post later as I don't have time now but:

LOOK WHO HASN'T BEEN AROUND LATELY!!! THEY WILL DO IT TO YOU EVERYTIME!!! lol

1TallMF · Feb 22, 2007

I had the same problem as previously posted. Forgot the amp wire (the one that says "not used" in the instructions ). Except I had NO sound whatsoever.

cbarr300 · Feb 22, 2007

when I did mine....I got everything hooked up right......but it was reallly loud, even at lower volume levels.

no complaints though......I hardly even listened to the cd player once the borlas went on

69clark · Feb 22, 2007

Okay, I read it this time, and I am stumped. I bought the kenwood I have and called crutchfield for the harness as well. Plugged everything in and it work perfect. If I remember correct, (if you have the 460 mach), doesn't crutch field actually give two adaptors. One being for speakers and power and such and the other was some device for the amps. Does this sound familar.

95riosnake · Feb 22, 2007

Yes there are two adapters. One for power, illumination, etc... and the other for the speakers. They both tie into one plug to go into the back of the head unit. I really am stumped, I will take a look tomorrow for the "not used" wire. I hope something didn't fry in the factory amps or something, cuz i was not wanting to get into alot of expense for this. I was just tired of having a cd player that never worked and having my sub rigged up using a line level input box for the amp signal.

95riosnake · Feb 22, 2007

69clark said:
LOOK WHO HASN'T BEEN AROUND LATELY!!! THEY WILL DO IT TO YOU EVERYTIME!!! lol

Haha yes that's true tom. She's still very much a distraction lol. I just wanted to get this damn car to the point that if I wanted to take her out in it I would have a radio lol.

95riosnake · Feb 24, 2007

Well I looked at the "unused" wires, there are two. One is orange with a white stripe, the other orange with a black stripe. I tried hooking them up to the remote wire, nothing changed. I really don't know wtf is going on with this thing. I'm about to take it to an audio shop and have them frustrate themselves with it, I've had enough.

69clark · Feb 24, 2007

Hey Dan, you gonna make it to the All Ford Nationals at Carlisle this year, I would love to see your car in person.

turbogt · Feb 24, 2007

95riosnake said:
Well I looked at the "unused" wires, there are two. One is orange with a white stripe, the other orange with a black stripe. I tried hooking them up to the remote wire, nothing changed. I really don't know wtf is going on with this thing. I'm about to take it to an audio shop and have them frustrate themselves with it, I've had enough.

You don't want your amp turn on hooked to your orange with anything wires.. THose are for illumination and dimmer..

Crutchfield techs generally don't know **** about what you need, because they aren't installers, they just read the computer like a cashier at walmart.

I do have a sheet giving detailed instructions on the Mach Install, but, it is unfortuanately at my shop, 500 miles from me..

I use Stinger/Aamp/BestKits products for all my installs... You can call their customer tech line and they will be very helpful to you..

The number is 1-800-477-2267...

If you can take a picture of your harness, I may be able to help you.

95BlueStallion · Feb 24, 2007

I had to splice two wires to the amp lead. I believe there was blue and orange, and a black with white. Its been a couple months though, so I could be off on the colors, but I took mine up to best buy and they told me I had to wire up a amp turn on to make the factory amps work. Once I did what they said, mine has worked great.

AaronG · Feb 24, 2007

Subscribing...

I am planning on doing an Alpine head unit soon, I would like to see the outcome.

The Green GT · Feb 24, 2007

Im about to ust bypass y amp completely. I dont have the 460 unit, but its the next best. My drivers door speaker hasnt worked in forever.

Nagash01WS6 · Feb 24, 2007

The Green GT said:
Im about to ust bypass y amp completely. I dont have the 460 unit, but its the next best. My drivers door speaker hasnt worked in forever.

Thats what I did. Pulled the amp out and never looked back.

Works great and less wiring in the dash.

95riosnake · Feb 25, 2007

turbogt said:
You don't want your amp turn on hooked to your orange with anything wires.. THose are for illumination and dimmer..

Crutchfield techs generally don't know **** about what you need, because they aren't installers, they just read the computer like a cashier at walmart.

I do have a sheet giving detailed instructions on the Mach Install, but, it is unfortuanately at my shop, 500 miles from me..

I use Stinger/Aamp/BestKits products for all my installs... You can call their customer tech line and they will be very helpful to you..

The number is 1-800-477-2267...

If you can take a picture of your harness, I may be able to help you.

These aren't the illumination wires. I have the illumination wire hooked up correctly. The solid orange wire was the illumination/dimmer. These other two wires are not accounted for in the wiring schematic that came with the harness. I'll take a picture tomorrow

95riosnake · Feb 25, 2007

Here are a couple pics of the harness.

The whole harness:

Closeup of the part of the harness in question. This shows the two unused wires, the orange wire with the black stripe is somehow used from what I can see as there is a blade in the factory harness to connect to the adapter harness, the orange/white one does not line up to a blade in the factory harness. The only problem is I can't figure out what this orange/black wire is or what it needs to be hooked to.

95riosnake · Feb 25, 2007

69clark said:
Hey Dan, you gonna make it to the All Ford Nationals at Carlisle this year, I would love to see your car in person.

Oh and yes Tom I plan to make it there, weather and car permitting.

95riosnake · Feb 26, 2007

Any insight from anyone?

Chythar · Feb 27, 2007

I used to have a complicated adapter like that with my Mach 460, but I found a cheap one from Metra that's designed for the Mach 460. It's model number 70-5514. I use that exact one with a Pioneer in my Mach 460 without problems.

Of course, this sends the amplified audio from the head unit to the amps, so I wouldn't crank the volume too high. The fancy adapter from Crutchfield will simply help keep you from shooting yourself in the foot and cranking the volume too high.

Careful you get the 70-5514, not the 70-5519. The 70-5519 is for the 99-04's, and won't work with the 94-98. I made that mistake.

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