North American Turbocoupe Organization



Disconnecting Factory Amp Wiring
Thunderbird88 Offline
Member
#1
When you disconnect the factory radio...the black and grey plugs...does any one of these wires work the amp because I'm trying to disconnect mine and I can't see where it's supposed to be plugged into another connector as stated in the FAQ's. Can somebody please help b4 I throw this radio out the window because it sounds like crap after a few minutes. Thanks.
Reply

philS Offline
Senior Member
#2
With the two plugs, one are the wires INTO the radio (Y/BK for power, LB/R, LG/Y, etc), and the other plug is the separate channels sent to the amp (PK/LB, PK/LG, etc). Can't remember which plug is which, but if you look at each using the colors above, you can tell.

------------------
86 TC, 73 Austin Mini, 72 Austin Mini Van

Click here to beat a ricer.
Did you hear about the Lucas powered torpedo? It sank.

86 TC, 73 Mini, 64 Mini Van, Saturn wagon
Click here to beat a ricer.
Reply

thndr_chicken Offline
Member
#3
What are you trying to accomplish? If I know what you want to do I will help you through it. I am very familiar with the stereo wiring so let me know.

------------------
88 TC
Salvage yard long block doing fine
5-lug / big brake M-2300 kit coming soon
Gillis valve
3" ATR downpipe / 3" single with Dynomax 3" Super Turbo muff
Fuel pump, adj. regulator coming soon
Boost and fuel pressure gauges are now in and functioning on the pillar
Just did the heater core, what a pain!
Want to build an Esslinger aluminum headed V8 eater
88 TC
Salvage yard long block doing fine
K&N in the fenderwell
5-lug conversion done / 17" Momo's on and looking good
Coil-overs up front, cut springs out back
Gillis valve
3" ATR downpipe / 3" single with Dynomax 3" Super Turbo muff
Fuel pump, adj. regulator coming soon
Boost and fuel pressure gauges are now in and functioning on the pillar
Did the heater core, what a pain!
Sequential flashers, thermostatically controlled forced air IC fan, and water injection all coming soon.
Reply

Thunderbird88 Offline
Member
#4
I had put in an aftermarket cd player and after about a half hour it sounds so bad I have to turn my radio off for a few minutes and I read in the NATO FAQs about disconnecting the amp and I was just trying to figure it out. I believe one plug is just for the speakers and one plug is for the power and the amp and I was wondering which wire(s) powered the amp.
philS....the Thunderbird vs Civic had my cracking up....Thanks and good job on that.
Reply

philS Offline
Senior Member
#5
Yeah, you may get opinions to the contrary, but the factory amp is so low-wattage it is not worth it (IMO). My Sony deck is only 25 watts per channel and it's still more than the factory amp. So I disconnected it altogether, and ran new wires from the new deck to the speakers.

If you didn't want to redo the wiring to the speakers, you will have to cut the power to the factory amp and run a bypass harness, so when the line-level speaker signals get to the back of the car, instead of going into the amp, they go around it and back to the individual speakers. At the radio end, you could cut off the connector and splice the wires to your new deck, unless when you bought the deck, it came with a harness ... Crutchfield usually does that.
Did you hear about the Lucas powered torpedo? It sank.

86 TC, 73 Mini, 64 Mini Van, Saturn wagon
Click here to beat a ricer.
Reply

thndr_chicken Offline
Member
#6
There is an easier way. These cars are bi-wired. In other words they are set up from the factory to have the premium sytem with the amp or to have a more basic system without an amp. You can verify this by looking at the wiring at any of the speakers. The easiest to check is the rear deck speakers because you can see the connections from inside the trunk. Bi-wired cars have two wires going into each pin on the speaker connectors or more simply put, 4-wires at each speaker. If this is the case there is an unused speaker plug with 8 wires on it stashed in the dash behind your radio. In most cases it is hidden behind and to the right of the radio in a big tangle of wires. It may be easier to find from the glove box side. You can release your glove box so that it will hang all the way down to gain access to the area in the dash between the glove box and the radio cavity. This plug connects straight to the speakers in the car. You will simly not use the speaker plug with the 3 or 5 wires in it. Before you fire things up, you will want to unplug the factory amplifier also. It is the football shaped silver box mounted to the swing down metal panel behind your back seat. It is on the left side panel. Just unplug both plugs and you are good to go. Hope this helps.
P.S. To make sure you get the speaker polarity right, I would recommend stopping into your local Wal-Mart or auto parts store and picking up a Ford radio harness adapter. This also avoids cutting off the factory plug and makes for a very neat install.

------------------
88 TC
Salvage yard long block doing fine
5-lug / big brake M-2300 kit coming soon
Gillis valve
3" ATR downpipe / 3" single with Dynomax 3" Super Turbo muff
Fuel pump, adj. regulator coming soon
Boost and fuel pressure gauges are now in and functioning on the pillar
Just did the heater core, what a pain!
Want to build an Esslinger aluminum headed V8 eater
88 TC
Salvage yard long block doing fine
K&N in the fenderwell
5-lug conversion done / 17" Momo's on and looking good
Coil-overs up front, cut springs out back
Gillis valve
3" ATR downpipe / 3" single with Dynomax 3" Super Turbo muff
Fuel pump, adj. regulator coming soon
Boost and fuel pressure gauges are now in and functioning on the pillar
Did the heater core, what a pain!
Sequential flashers, thermostatically controlled forced air IC fan, and water injection all coming soon.
Reply

Fox ThunderCats Offline
Member
#7
I've got the stereo diagrams on my website: www.foxthundercats.com/tech/wiringdiagrams.htm

------------------
Sam's Fox ThunderCats ... Your home on the web for fox Thunderbirds and Cougars
Sam's Fox ThunderCats ... Your home on the web for fox Thunderbirds and Cougars
Reply





Users browsing this thread:
1 Guest(s)



Theme © iAndrew 2018 - Software MyBB