Trying to get a new head unit installed

[csledd]

I bought a Alpine CDA-9855 today and was trying to get the Best Buy mobile install guys to install it. Well all sorts of problems went on and to say the least they just can't figure out how to hook it up with the stock wiring, stock speakers because of the amps. I understand that I'll probably have to bypass the amps, but they want me to replace all of my speakers and run new speaker wire. Does this sound right? Do you have any information I can give these guys so I can get this working

 

[modem]

I would think there would (should) be a wiring harness to direct connect right up to your new cd player, i wouldnt say youd have to run new speaker wires and such thatd be a pain for ya honestly, id say there is a wiring harness, there was for mine a 2000 gt

 

[devildogr6]

Your first error is having it installed by Best Buy. I install at Circuit City so maybe I'm bias however Best Buy did a good job of putting four holes in my gas tank in my 1971 Mach 1 Mustang back when I was in highschool. If you have a Circuit City, run over there. They'll have a wiring harness that should plug right up to the factory stuff. Do you have the Mach sound system in your ride?

 

[Infinity]

You do NOT have to bypass the amps. You'll simply have to add a resistor to the remote turn-on lead going to the factory amps to reduce it from 12v to the 8v (I think) of the Ford system. In fact, I think the proper harnesses have circuitry included to do just that. http://www.crutchfield.com/S-W6kzqYOQiBr/cgi-bin/prodview.asp?i=120705700

 

[csledd]

Your first error is having it installed by Best Buy. I install at Circuit City so maybe I'm bias however Best Buy did a good job of putting four holes in my gas tank in my 1971 Mach 1 Mustang back when I was in highschool. If you have a Circuit City, run over there. They'll have a wiring harness that should plug right up to the factory stuff. Do you have the Mach sound system in your ride?

It is a Mach460 with the 6 disc cd changer. I got a different wiring harness made by metra and had them use it today. The problem now is the top speakers in the door only work and the back ones sound like they're working. It sounds terrible. The speakers in the bottom part of the door aren't working. Why in the hell is this so hard to do. I posted this question on 4 different forums and got 4 different answers. Nobody seems to really know. What I need is somebody who has done it and can tel me exactly what it calls for.

 

[jduncan_69]

Ok, first off you don't need to replace your speakers in your car. The ones that you have will work just fine. There are a couple of different ways of doing it however. The easiest way would be to buy what is called an amp integrator. Basicly what it does is takes the wattage that the aftermarket stereo puts out and converts it to a low level voltage signal that the Mach amp can understand. When you do this it is a good idea to put a 4.7Kohm resistor on the remote turn on wire for the factory amps to keep them from popping, although I have done several of these cars and not all of them will pop when turned on and off. Another way you could do it is to take a set of RCA's and cut the ends off of them, leaving about 3 inches of wire to work with on both ends. Strip them back and use the wires on those to wire to the aftermarket harness that plugs into your factory wiring. Then just plug your RCA's into the back of the headunit and you are good to go. And then you could also just run new speaker wire to the factory amps in the back and unplug the plugs from them and take the time to figure out which wires go to which speaker and hook the wires that you ran accordingly. The final way would be to leave it hooked up the way it is, take your door panels off and run wires from the tweeters to the woofers in the doors, and then take the Mach 460 amp rack down and run wires from the tweeters there to the woofers in the back, and then you should have perfect sound once again.With that being said.......It sounds to me like the Best Buy that you had install you radio just unplugged the bypass harness from behind the dash and used it to wire up your stereo. The only problem with doing this is that plug is only for the Tweeter amplifier behind the dash and thats why the speakers in the bottom of the door are not working. I know this is a lot of info but I hope it helps. By the way I am an installer at BEST BUY, so I hope you don't think I am a dumb ass just because I work at Best Buy and not Curcuit City. Theres nothing that pisses me off more than one shop talking **** about another shop, just my .02.

 

[csledd]

Ok, first off you don't need to replace your speakers in your car. The ones that you have will work just fine. There are a couple of different ways of doing it however. The easiest way would be to buy what is called an amp integrator. Basicly what it does is takes the wattage that the aftermarket stereo puts out and converts it to a low level voltage signal that the Mach amp can understand. When you do this it is a good idea to put a 4.7Kohm resistor on the remote turn on wire for the factory amps to keep them from popping, although I have done several of these cars and not all of them will pop when turned on and off. Another way you could do it is to take a set of RCA's and cut the ends off of them, leaving about 3 inches of wire to work with on both ends. Strip them back and use the wires on those to wire to the aftermarket harness that plugs into your factory wiring. Then just plug your RCA's into the back of the headunit and you are good to go. And then you could also just run new speaker wire to the factory amps in the back and unplug the plugs from them and take the time to figure out which wires go to which speaker and hook the wires that you ran accordingly. The final way would be to leave it hooked up the way it is, take your door panels off and run wires from the tweeters to the woofers in the doors, and then take the Mach 460 amp rack down and run wires from the tweeters there to the woofers in the back, and then you should have perfect sound once again.With that being said.......It sounds to me like the Best Buy that you had install you radio just unplugged the bypass harness from behind the dash and used it to wire up your stereo. The only problem with doing this is that plug is only for the Tweeter amplifier behind the dash and thats why the speakers in the bottom of the door are not working. I know this is a lot of info but I hope it helps. By the way I am an installer at BEST BUY, so I hope you don't think I am a dumb ass just because I work at Best Buy and not Curcuit City. Theres nothing that pisses me off more than one shop talking **** about another shop, just my .02.

I actually also work at Best Buy, lol.. but on the Geek Squad. Anyways the wiring harness I got was an amp integrator and it turns out everything was working fine, a fuse just had blown. So everything is back to normal and thank you all for the help!

 

[devildogr6]

Ok, first off you don't need to replace your speakers in your car. The ones that you have will work just fine. There are a couple of different ways of doing it however. The easiest way would be to buy what is called an amp integrator. Basicly what it does is takes the wattage that the aftermarket stereo puts out and converts it to a low level voltage signal that the Mach amp can understand. When you do this it is a good idea to put a 4.7Kohm resistor on the remote turn on wire for the factory amps to keep them from popping, although I have done several of these cars and not all of them will pop when turned on and off. Another way you could do it is to take a set of RCA's and cut the ends off of them, leaving about 3 inches of wire to work with on both ends. Strip them back and use the wires on those to wire to the aftermarket harness that plugs into your factory wiring. Then just plug your RCA's into the back of the headunit and you are good to go. And then you could also just run new speaker wire to the factory amps in the back and unplug the plugs from them and take the time to figure out which wires go to which speaker and hook the wires that you ran accordingly. The final way would be to leave it hooked up the way it is, take your door panels off and run wires from the tweeters to the woofers in the doors, and then take the Mach 460 amp rack down and run wires from the tweeters there to the woofers in the back, and then you should have perfect sound once again.With that being said.......It sounds to me like the Best Buy that you had install you radio just unplugged the bypass harness from behind the dash and used it to wire up your stereo. The only problem with doing this is that plug is only for the Tweeter amplifier behind the dash and thats why the speakers in the bottom of the door are not working. I know this is a lot of info but I hope it helps. By the way I am an installer at BEST BUY, so I hope you don't think I am a dumb ass just because I work at Best Buy and not Curcuit City. Theres nothing that pisses me off more than one shop talking **** about another shop, just my .02.

Simmer down now. Hey to each their own. I'm sure you joke about CC in your shop. I've had some bad expirences with Best Buy personally and seen their work and I'm not to impressed. To be fair though I've had cars from other CC's come in with problems to find a mess also. Just depends on the guys that work in the shop.

 

[chrisbudl1]

my problem with circuit city is their lack of customer attention, you could probably watch a whole football game before anybody wants to help you!!!!

 

[chrisbudl1]

ok so sat I did some calling around. My stock cd player decided to stop ejecting cd's. Best buy said that they would have to re wire each speaker, at $30 a piece. C.C. said they had a harness for 17 bucks that would work. and to other stero specific shops said 1) 17 dollar harness, 2) 40-45 dollar harness. so to crutchfield I go. I printed off the two wiring harnesses they say will work on my cobra, with the mach stereo. only problem they don't look the same. I took the pictures to circuit city, and they said I needed one with a line converter. they had last years model for 15 bucks, so I got it. I ended going to best buy to look at cd players, and free install. picked up a pioneer, and some rca cables. The harness with the line converters ended up being the wrong one, and surprisingly they had one for 18 bucks, not 30 dollars a speaker. oh well, it's installed, and sounds great, especially since I got to hook up my 12's again. good luck and there is my two cents.

 

[SilverStallion]

OK...so, to sum this all up then, if I have a 2000 GT with a MACH 460 System, and I want to add a new head unit, what do I need to buy - specifically...

~Darren

 

[1BAD93]

I actually also work at Best Buy, lol.. but on the Geek Squad. Anyways the wiring harness I got was an amp integrator and it turns out everything was working fine, a fuse just had blown. So everything is back to normal and thank you all for the help!

Ok so what harness exactly did you end up using? I have a 2003 GT with the MACh 460 and i'm trying to find out exactly what works to do the swap. All you needed was a harness? No resistors or anything?

Thanks

Joe

 

[USMstang]

1BAD: I only utilized part of the factory harness from what I can remember. I am a bit of a perfectionist though. I only used ignition from what I recall and re-wired the whole thing, replaced all speakers, and chunked the Mach 1000 junk. (Some idiot paid me a pile of cash for that stuff!) Anyway, I used the Alpine CDA-9833 (this was last year BTW). I find the factory wiring to be a little lightweight. The Alpine deck calls for an amp wiring kit anyway due to the current draw. So, in summation, I say toss the factory stuff and spend an entire day to do it right. Good Luck!

 

[1BAD93]

sorry, my question was directed at csledd. He did the install using the factory amps, speakers and wires. I'm just trying to figure otu the correct harnesses to make it work.

From what i understand so far. You need a metra 70-5519 to integrate the amp..this harness has the RCA connectors already on it. But what other harness do you need? And from what i understand the best bet would be to get a radio with a low-pass and high-pass crossover built in that way you can set the frequncy you send to the tweeters and subs. correct?

 

[USMstang]

I searched real hard and couldn't find any harness to use back before I did mine. Keep in mind that I had the Mach 1000 (6 amps). Even so, I got several different answers in my search of local sound shops. I don't mess with the big-box guys for anything other than CD's (not a diss to the employees but to the lack of specialization). I would check Crutchfield. For the past 25 years if I had a question at least they would answer it whether or not they could help. Good Luck.

 

[csledd]

sorry, my question was directed at csledd. He did the install using the factory amps, speakers and wires. I'm just trying to figure otu the correct harnesses to make it work.

From what i understand so far. You need a metra 70-5519 to integrate the amp..this harness has the RCA connectors already on it. But what other harness do you need? And from what i understand the best bet would be to get a radio with a low-pass and high-pass crossover built in that way you can set the frequncy you send to the tweeters and subs. correct?

Some people told me some harness to use from crutchfield but I didn't want to wait.. so I ended up using the Metra 70-5519 because I found it locally and it worked just find. I just had to mess with the settings on the headunit for awhile to get it to not sound like **** lol. It doesn't sound as clear as with the factory head unit because of the stock speakers and the frequency being changed now. I'll probably eventually change the speakers out, it doesn't bother me that much right now

 

[1BAD93]

Thanks Christie,

By the way, Awesome Car