03-04 Center Console/Radio Swap

MR.ADAMS

Member
Established Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2008
Messages
513
Location
Temperance MI
Do you have the wiring for the 01-03 units? I ended up getting the older unit and I'm trying to wire it all up now but I feel I don't need all three of the harnesses.
 

MR.ADAMS

Member
Established Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2008
Messages
513
Location
Temperance MI
I just finally got around to wiring in my 01-03 unit tonight. Because I have the older unit the most trouble I'm having is figuring out which harnesses I need to use and how to wire them to the factory one.

The 01-03 harness I bought is the one above:
METRA 71-5700 The 71-series harnesses are designed to plug into the factory radio 98 Ford Premium Sound into OEM Radio HARNESS;

and I'm trying to wire it to the factory metra pigtail (above as well):
METRA 70-5511 Allows installation of an aftermarket radio using the existing factory wiring and connectors Ford Amp Integration Harness Factory Amplifier Integration harness Power and 4/Speaker One 8-pin power plug and one 8-pin speaker plug A 1.5K O

Right now I'm using the rectangular 16 pin connector on the 01-03 harness which has output for the speakers, and i'm wiring said speaker output to the square 8 pin connector on the factory harness which leads to the in dash amp. Right now I'm just trying to get any audio and after that I will bypass the amp. I'm kind of lost because I don't know what outputs on the back of the 01-03 changer are what.


(Ford really made this awesome by going with non-standard wiring colors as well.... Who the f*** uses YELLOW as 12v Power?)
 
Last edited:

lrall

Member
Established Member
Joined
May 28, 2005
Messages
273
Location
Kearney NE
DSC00784.gif

DSC00783.gif


Ok, here is my problem. I have all the colored speaker wires paired up. But I dont know which of the other wires go together.
From the grey harness the wires i dont know how to pair up are:
Orange/white='dimmer'
Orange/black=dimmer ground
Orange ='dash light illumination'
Blue/white =amp turn on
blue =power antenna

From the black harness:
Black/white =amp ground
Blue/Black =Power antenna
Orange/black=grounding dimmer
Orange =illumination +
Green/yellow=no label 'clk select' is what the sheet says.
I can post up what the sheets say the wires are but no combination has them all connect.
 

COBRA97SVT

Active Member
Established Member
Joined
Aug 16, 2007
Messages
1,519
Location
Southwest MI
I have some gauges below my aftermarket cd player so i wont mess with the bezel but i want cupholders. Will our fog light switch fit in place of the coin holder on the newer center consoles? Has anyone found a perfect color match for our interior?
 
Last edited:

MR.ADAMS

Member
Established Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2008
Messages
513
Location
Temperance MI
Well, today I went ahead and removed the entire harness for the radio, cd player, front amp, and everything in between. This is after several attempts at making a harness with the aftermarket ones mentioned above that I simply was not happy with. I wanted everything to be modular with no splicing so it can be returned to stock easily, however I decided not to compromise the install this way and started making my own harness (arguably easier this way), start with a clean slate, and make the 6-Disc a permanent installation.

In my first attempts I even went so far as to deconstruct the front amp and de-solder the output connectors from the board to make modular connectors, but the sillyness of the circuits in this Mach 460 system led to my frustrations and I've completely taken out everything to indicate the dash amp was even there and made a new harness with the main connectors located on the right side of the radio cavity. I'm on harness V3.0 at the moment with more changes to come, I'm sure. I'll post a picture in a second.
 
Last edited:

MR.ADAMS

Member
Established Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2008
Messages
513
Location
Temperance MI
Here are some pictures for those still interested. I'll probably end up making a write-up of this process when all is said and done so the information is out there for other people to have.

Wiring diagrams:
A must have for both your vehicle and the vehicle from which the radio your swapping to came out of (or at least the radio bits).
IMG00209.jpg


First harness I made with the connectors mentioned in this thread.
IMG00210.jpg


The guts of the dash amp
IMG00211.jpg


The start of the second harness using the output connectors from inside the amp itself.
IMG00212.jpg


Everything leading from the chassis of the car to the first amp, and from the amp to the radio and CD player, and from the radio to the cd player and back again...... chaos. A large portion of all this wiring is done away with in the 6-disc due to the integrated amp.
IMG00213.jpg


The (almost) finished product
IMG00214.jpg


I've tested everything out on the last one and it works great. It was much easier using the existing harnesses from the car to wire to the new radio. I still have yet to make the subwoofer signal harness but that should be pretty simple.
 
Last edited:

MR.ADAMS

Member
Established Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2008
Messages
513
Location
Temperance MI
That's a good question. I'm not familiar with the standard audio system as I've never had one. However, I don't think doing this swap would yield much benefit (if any) as the 6-disc was meant to be used with multiple amplifiers for both the front and rear. The front amp is used to power the tweeters and the rear amps power the front and rear "subwoofers". I don't know how you could tie in just one amp to the factory system and have it power all of the speakers sufficiently.

If the standard audio system just has four speakers it would work but I believe you would only be getting a tweeter signal because the low range uses a different harness and you wouldn't have anywhere to receive the signal (no rear amps).
 
Last edited:

Hodgepodge

New Member
Established Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
962
Location
O-H-I-O
damn. i wanted to swap in the 6 disc for the stock look. maybe i can go with the 6 disc unit from an escape?
 

MR.ADAMS

Member
Established Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2008
Messages
513
Location
Temperance MI
The Escape unit is identical to the Mustang unit other than how it mounts to the dash (also some differences between years). If you could find a Ford vehicle from that time that uses the 6-disc and doesn't have multiple amps you could extrapolate that system and possibly make it work for you. I could be wrong but I belive the 6-disc only came as a "premium sound" option which means it was part of the fancy sound system.
 

Hodgepodge

New Member
Established Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
962
Location
O-H-I-O
What if you dont have a mach 460?

for those interested, i've found that you can swap a newer style 6 disc cd player into a car without the mach 460 system, but it must be a cd player that only has 2 plugs on the back instead of 3.

I'm working on swapping a 6 disc cd player out of an 06 f250 into my 99, I'll post pics if i ever finish lol
 

mysteed

Well-Known Member
Established Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2005
Messages
3,293
Location
Holly Springs, Ga
You. You said you've seen the doubledin work in a non mach460. Do you happen to have pictures of that wiring or am I reading your post wrong?
 

Hodgepodge

New Member
Established Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
962
Location
O-H-I-O
You. You said you've seen the doubledin work in a non mach460. Do you happen to have pictures of that wiring or am I reading your post wrong?

I did some reading up on it on a Ford Explorer forum. Explorers, Escapes, and F-series trucks are similar to Mustangs in the sense that some came with Premium sound systems (and a factory amp) while others didn't. The difference is that some of the non-Premium vehicles had 6 disc CD players. If you can find one of those (they only have 2 plugs in the back), you can use it. Wiring diagrams can be found easily online, and it's as simple as matching up the wires.
 

Users who are viewing this thread



Top