Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

I managed to get it to turn on, but I can't get anything to play through the speakers. There's 2 wires plus the red wire with the loop that aren't used... I'm really confused, I already blew the fuse for the radio, amp, etc. Someone help me! I still want to use the amp, the head unit is a cheap one, and doesn't have a lot of power and it was free...soo, I want to get something out of it.

I just need to know how to wire it up so I can make it work! I got a sheet on what the wires from the car do... Help me! I'm so lost!

87 ls with premium sound, no eq, eq was on the radio.


I went out to replace the fuse, and it did nothing, the clock and radio still don't work...I'm ****ing pissed. I hate this car.

There's the problem.  Have you ever seen it working? Cheap decks... you get what you pay for.

It works...that's not the problem, I had it turned on and it was tuned to a station and the visual EQ was boucning around... I just don't get why I can't get audio...There's a blue wire from the head unit used as a remote to turn on an external amp, is this why i'm not getting music? no power is going to the amp in the trunk?

Tell us how your speakers are set up.  If you're trying to use the factory amp then there's part of the problem, I think.  If it's an aftermarket amp then yes, the blue remot turnon wire needs connected to the amp.

It's setup with the factory amp... God this went from a 1 hours thing to an all day project....

Factory amps do not play friendly with aftermarket decks without a special harness.  There's your problem.  Just hard-wire the audio outputs on the deck into each of the speakers or get a bypass harness.

Wait, so you're telling me I have to re wire my entire system? This is bullshiznit.

Alright, is anyone going to provide me with any help that actually helps me? Hard wire each output to each speaker tells me nothing. I don't have the time or parts to rewire the entire  car.
I see 2 harnesses on the amp, i'm assuming one is input and the other is output and some power wires thrown in? I don't want to rewire my entire friggin car. This is only a temp head unit until I get the money got a better one and new speakers.

Isn't there some way to get the amp to work?! This radio doesn't put out enough power!

(http://img21.exs.cx/img21/6519/img20801yp.jpg)
Power is hooked up. I have 3 extra wires, i'm assuming these are for the amp?

(http://img21.exs.cx/img21/3420/img20817kh.jpg)

Listen to what I said.  On the back of the deck there are eight speaker wires, two for each speaker.  ONE option is to connect each pair of those to it's respective speaker. That, by the way is NOT rewiring your whole car.  The other option is to buy the bypass harness or manually bypass the factory amp.  If you don't feel like cutting and splicing any wires then you might as well plan on driving in silence for a while because there's no other way to get around it.  If you're not keen on simple wiring tasks then you shouldn't be installing a used head unit into a car with premium audio.

Now, someone else respond with the magical answer that actually helps.  You seem to be getting awfully pissy over a cheap head unit.

PS - I don't know that there's a way to make the factory amp work. I'm pretty sure the outbput power of the deck, albeit very low, is still too high for the amp.  In other words, the deck already has an amp in it, running it through another amp won't do too much, if anything.

I still don't understand what you are trying to say that's why you're not helping me. Yes, I got the wires coming out of the deck. But where do I connect them to. The harness in the dash or what? If you mean, connecting to each speaker, from deck to speaker, won't that require rewiring? cause the wires go from the deck to the trunk and to the speakers...or am i wrong?

If I used the preamp outs would I be able to use the amp if I was able to wire it to work?

If you can't figure out how to install a headunit, no wonder you have a hard time doing basic tune up work.

I'm gonna let you in on a little secret for not blowing fuses. DON'T TOUCH THE RED OR YELLOW WIRES TO THE METAL.

Can someone just tell me how to ****ing do this? I have yet to get any help that has actually helped me. I do not understand how the hell I can bypass the amp manually without know how to do it. What wires do I cut and connect? this is what I want to know. I know how to splice and connect wires i'm not stupid. It's just theres so many  wires and I've already blown a lot of fuses from connecting the wrong ones.

I can't and will not send wires from each speaker to the head unit because it's not worth it and the  wires are already there!

Maybe ThunderChicken will chime in as he's well versed in this area.  I can't think of another way to put it, so I'm done trying to help.

The red wire with the loop is your ground wire. Obviously you'll need to attach it. It's been reported that all cars with the factory Premium Sound setup also have a spare, pre-bypassed radio harness laying behind the dash somewhere. Personally I've never seen it...then again, I've never looked for it either. But many people have told me it's there, so start hunting behind the radio, or above the radio (remove your storage bin), or look over between the radio and the glove box. When/if you find it, you can use any of the aftermarket Ford wiring adapter harnesses at the local stereo store (or Wal*Mart) for $10 US, and wire your radio into that. This will get your aftermarket radio working with your stock speakers, while bypassing the factory amp. If you want to run your own amp, you will need to run new wiring throughout the vehicle, plain and simple.

You have two choices with the factory Premium Sound setup: get jumper harnesses and use your stock amp, or bypass it and use your own amps. Since you are bypassing this you cannot mix the stock amps in with your amps...it's one or the other.

also...how much power do you think the stock amps are putting out? they are trash.

what did ya do, cut the factory connector off?

i would get the 10 dollar ford connector and run new wires. its realy easy and not a big deal at all. it would have been half the trouble you have allready gone through. its realy not worth messing around with the stock stuff. most aftermarket radios dont work well with a common ground anyway. use the power, switched power and ground from the harness and run speakerwires from the new harness to each speaker. it beats having nothing like you do now.

first thing...disconnect the  battery if you havnt been doing this.


if you realy want to mess around with the stock wireing...5 wires for the speakers, common ground leaving the radio into the amp and then from there each speaker has its own ground. i have the schematics for an 88 if you can use them.

i have in Mikeys car. it was taped to the between the glove box and the radio..if you find it you still have to dissconect all the plugs going to the factory amp or you will fry you new deck.. and like Eric said instead of cutting the factory harness i would get an factory harness to aftermarket radio adapter..from auto zone or pep boys or wal mart..

Eric, I love you! That loop of colored wires in the first pic, I pulled on that and out dropped the bypass harness. Well, now I just need to figure out why my clock and day time back light for my dash only work when I touch the two orange wires together....

No no no no no! You can either use the stock amp (stupid, because the head unit is probably more powerful), replace the amp with an aftermarket unit, or go ampless, and none of these options require rewiring the car. Regardless, you do need to know a bit about wiring, because if you can't trace wires or have trouble understanding color codes you're gonna have trouble.  Having the wire colors handy is a good thing. Here they are:
http://www.foxthundercats.com/tech/wiringdiagrams.htm
Print off the system that is appropriate for you car and take it with you into the car.

If you want to go ampless (bypassing the stock amp) you will need to find the harness that Eric is talking about. Taped up somewhere in behind your radio or around the glove box you should find this elusive harness, and like Brian said, when you do, you can get the adapter from a stereo shop and plug it in. You'll know you have the right harness because it won't be connected to anything and the wire colors will match the ones in the "Non-premium,non-EQ" diagram at the location listed above. You MUST disconnect the factory amp in order to do this. Simply unplug it.

You can also use the factory amp but this involves making custom adapters to connect your RCA pre-outs to the factory premium sound harness. This would sound the shiznits, however, as your new deck, no matter how cheap, almost certainly has a better amplifier circuit than the stock, 16+ year old Ford amp.

The third (and best) option is to use an aftermarket amp. This is what I did, and you can do so using all stock wiring (as long as you don't go too big, even the factory premium sound power wire should suffice. The info on how to do this is also at the website noted above.

Regardless of the way you want to do it, you do not have to rewire the whoole car. Everything you  need is already in the car. It's just a matter of finding it.

I found it in my TC as well, its how I have my head unit connected and it plays great. If you can find it it will have 8 wires in it, 2 going directly to each speaker. Thunder Chickens wiring diagrams should show where each color connects(make sure you look for the non premium system). IF you go this route BE SURE TO UNPLUG THE FACTORY AMP IN THE TRUNK, AS IT IS WIRED PARAELL TO THE NON PREMIUM WIRING

I think I should've waited for TCs response cause this deck has very little power, stock unit provided more bass without being overly bassy, but it's good enough for the time being. I really do need a new one because this one, I used that clip thing from the stock unit, the mounting brackets wouldn't fit on the new deck so it's a little loose in the console, it's bouncy. I plan on buying a pioneer deck and speakers after my birthday...

I'm glad you got things working.  If you want help around here, try to have a little patience and remember that we can only help you if you're thorough in explaining what you need.  You can't be vague when it comes to wiring.  I was going to jump on this topic, but you seemed too pissy to listen to what was being said and became even pissier when no one replied.  If you want help, don't be an ass about things.

I'm sorry my idiot-ass responses were no help.

Pioneer, yea baby.
Best decks out there,all i ever run.
Curently running a 960mp and love it.
Check out my picks of it and my car on users rides.

pwn3d!!!  :spit:

Hi,
'87 with Premium Sound huh?  Well, Lincoln puts factory amp boxes in the trunks of their '80s towncars for Premium Sound systems and I bet you have a Ford amp box?  If so, then you may have to bypass the amp box to get a head unit to play---I know because I had to do it and I have an '89 Towncar as well.  This is a not an uncommon thread on the lincoln site.  Find the amp box--it is a steel box about the size of a medium book and could be mounted on the back wall of the trunk (the back of the rear seat)---that is where Ford put the the Towncar ones.  You need a patch cord which is sold by better auto stereo stores.  It is 2 feet long and made for this purpose.  You unplug the 2 amp cables and plug the patch cord into those ends bypassing the amp. Total time to do this task: less than 5 minutes.  Cost maybe $15 if I recall----if this is the problem, I hope this tip was the answer.  Looks like you already beat up the wiring at the radio. 

JR