Upgrading to Mach 460

IMO, it would be sooo much easier to just do an aftermarket head unit and speakers all the way around. the Mach 460 is pretty decent if you have it but if you're going to try and put one in I would just go aftermarket. The Mach would be a harder install than buying aftermarket stuff which you can do things the way you like it. even if you are not much of a sound person, an aftermarket will be so much nicer down the road.

I've already upgraded mine to a Mach 460 system. Hardest part of the installation was finding all the different parts on eBay.

PARTS:

Mach radio/tape player
Optional: CD player
Mach front amp (mounts underneath the CD player, has 3 wiring plug connections instead of the normal 2)

2 Mach door tweeters
2 Mach door 6"x8" speakers (marked with "Z" on the magnet)
Mach rear speaker package tray, containing:
2 Mach rear 6"x8" speakers (different from door speakers by wiring connection)
2 Mach rear amps
Mach package tray wiring harness

Mach radio wiring harness (NOTE: there are separate harnesses for Mach systems with/without CD players)
Mach front wiring harness (runs from driver's kick panel to rear of door frame)
Mach rear wiring harness (runs from rear of door frame to package tray)

Optional: Mach rear package tray cover
Door trim panels with cutouts at the top to fit Mach tweeters

INSTALLATION:

Before beginning, I took out the driver's seat to give me more space to work in. You'll have to remove the driver's kick panel, the driver's sill plate, and the driver's side rear quarter trim panel and lift up the carpet to run the front-to-back wiring. The rear seat and passenger's side rear quarter trim panel need to be removed, IIRC, to get the normal package tray cover off, the speakers out, and the package tray installed. The door trim panels need to be removed to install the door speakers and tweeters.

Step 1: Remove the normal radio, radio wiring harness, and CD player if you have one. REMEMBER which plugs go where on the radio wiring harness. The Mach radio wiring harness is similar - it just has more plugs.

Step 2: Remove the normal front amp inside the dash.

Step 3: Install the Mach front amp in its place.

Step 4: Run the Mach radio wiring harness - it'll go from the center dash radio (and optionally the CD), plug into the Mach front amp, plug into the speaker connections, plug into a (power connection?), run under the instrument panel, screw into a ground on the fuse box under the instrument panel, and end at a spot underneath the driver's kick panel where the Mach front wiring harness will plug in.

Step 5: Remove the normal package tray cover, and the normal rear speakers. The wiring connections for the rear speakers will have plug-in spots on the Mach rear package tray.

Step 6: Install the Mach rear package tray. It comes UP into its rightful place from the trunk, so either have a friend hold it for you or prop it up with some textbooks/phone books (what I did) in the trunk while you screw the nuts on top to hold it from the rear seating space. Plug in the speaker connections to the package tray.

Step 7: Connect the Mach front and rear wiring harnesses and run it from the driver's kick panel to the package tray.

Step 8: Remove the normal door speakers. NOTE: The normal door speaker wiring connections are actually the connections that will go to the Mach TWEETERS. The wiring connections that will plug into the Mach door speakers are actually taped to main door wiring harness, unused until now. If you get this backwards, you will get the interesting effect (like I did) of pumping the bass signal through the tweeters.

Step 9: Install the door tweeters. Mine didn't come with screws, so I had to run to Lowe's and get some metric-sized small, short screws. I don't remember the actual size. Plug the normal door speaker wiring plugs into the tweeters.

Step 10: Untape the Mach door speaker wiring plugs, plug into the Mach door speakers, and install the Mach door speakers.

Now put all of your interior back together. You should be ready to go! It took me about 3 hours to take everything out and put it all back together. A faster worker with help could probably do it in about 1, 1.5 hours.

I don't think I missed anything. I upgraded it over a year ago, so my memory might have skipped something. If you have a question, feel free to ask.

RFMustangGT said:

IMO, it would be sooo much easier to just do an aftermarket head unit and speakers all the way around. the Mach 460 is pretty decent if you have it but if you're going to try and put one in I would just go aftermarket. The Mach would be a harder install than buying aftermarket stuff which you can do things the way you like it. even if you are not much of a sound person, an aftermarket will be so much nicer down the road.

Click to expand...

I definitely agree about a high-end aftermarket system sounding better, and figuring out where everything went for the Mach system was a royal PITA, but there are two upsides:

1) It looks completely stock, because it is, and for those of us who don't like the shiny, flashy Alpine/Eclipse head units or the Pimp-My-Ride sub boxes, it's a nice alternative while still sounding a world better than the normal stereo.

2) It's damn cheap. I got all of the system components and wiring off of eBay for about the cost of a lower-end Alpine head. ~$250.

jasonlee0704 said:

I definitely agree about a high-end aftermarket system sounding better

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I agree. I have a 460 stock. I tried to install a stock replacement CD and ended up just getting an new Panisonic head unit (4 preamp outs). I run the new unit through the 460 amps, but If I were to start from scratch I'd just redo the whole thing and run new wires. You will spend a fortune on ebay getting all the parts and harnesses. You could get the sub-boxes and stuff at a bone yard and use them as speaker mounts.