Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio Switching radios

I have a 1999 Mystique LS with the premium sound system...

I pulled out the deck today to wire up an amp (waiting for new HU!).. when I plugged it back in, it didn't ask me for a code...

BTW: Mine is a factory CD Deck...

No problem I was out food shopping, doing driver's side tire rotation and brake inspection on my '97, BBQed steak and ate well, then had a good laugh as your successive posts scrolled by disecting the problem.

I do not understand the second quote above since OEM amp has only one input from HU.

Power connector to HU was intact in the '96 and plugged right into the HU from the '95. So do not need connector functions for that. The JVC unit was put in with an odd adapter...there was a single plug for both power and speakers into jvc HU. That adapter had plug that fit into the stock power connector but had speaker output wires just spliced to the amp input wires using wire nuts (maybe the other part of adapter that would have fit speaker wire plug was cut off as it would not fit the amp input plug that went into original HU).

Yeah, I guessed that was what you were getting at with the "stereo" question...until I checked the '95.

I just took a look and verified no amp in '95, btw. Maybe that "stereo" imprint policy changed in later models???

An even stranger thing is the same outputs from the JVC that went to the amp now go directly to speakers in the '95. I did notice that volume has to be turned up more to get same level from the jvc now that it is not going through amp. But it is strange that that the jvc could be connected through amp or not but the stock unit can not.

I believe I just have to decide how to connect speaker wires that are at the amp output back to HU. Whether to cut or not to cut, that is the question.

There are some additional wires in the connector with speaker wires that attaches to amp. I assume they are power supply to the amp??? And should just be left disconnected from it should I decide to cut speaker wires???

Mr. Mystique - yep deternmined that issue was not any kind of code, but just that one vehicle has amp and other does not.

The amp has a single cable up to head unit, but it has 8 separate conductors inside...like a network or telphone cable. That cable was cut at hu and the 8 conductors were connected to speaker outputs from the jvc. Idea would be to cut other end of that amp cable by the amp and splice the 8 conductors to the speaker wires that also go into the amp.

The amp cable conductors are a little thinner gauge than the speaker wires, but seem like they would be adequate.

Agree on strange. Normally you would have "line-out" levels from HU to feed amp rather than using "speaker-out" levels which are intended to drive spkrs.

Connector that goes to OEM amp is 14 pin, with 8 allocated to spkrs and 3 not used. The other 3 are; Enable cd (W)/ground (bk/y) and power (o/y).

The Ford manual fails to show that detail, but my Haynes manual does. Does this cable have rectangular connectors at both ends? I will study spkr wiring changes (from amp to no amp ) and repost later. The important thing with spkrs is to have phasing correct (so they are all pushing air simultaneously)

The cable from hu to amp is more square. The 8 connections are in two rows of four. I only have the connector on the amp end, other end was cut off.

The bigger connector on other end of amp is the 14 pin like you descibe has 3 extra conductors aside from 8 for speakers and 3 unused...the 8 for speakers are in one row and 6 (3 used) more in the other row.

Yep know about phasing...should be no problem since the speaker wires from the big 14 pin connector will just need to be connected to the same colors on the connector that I cut from the '95.

I'm gonna check best buy, etc. to see if they have a reasonably cheap bypass. But I'll never use that amp so don't want to spend much to avoid cutting and splicing. If I could get a connector that would go from the 14 pin on the amp directly to the radio that would be nice...but I doubt I'll find anything like that...it also might be difficult to run the wire with the connectors on there. Or even a connector for the radio with long wires so I could have the only splicing be down by the amp...for easier access in case splices would ever need to be fixed.

OK you seem to have this well in hand so I'll look forward to seeing your success posted at a later date.

If I can be of any assistance just post.

Regards

p.s. Why don't you change topic heading and delete other post.
p.p.s. See other topic I've moved up re bypass amp.

Okay, One other question. On the 95 that I am putting JVC in there are four very small sort of tabs...one in each corner of the opening. The metal sleeve for jvc does not fit because of those. I assume I just file those off?

Thanks for the tip regarding possibility of amp...that was a big help in figuing this out.

I was successful in using the slice and splice method to convert the amp cable into speaker wire extensions.

Also never mind on the filing the tabs question. I went ahead and filed those tabs down.

Both radios are now completely installed and working. My daughter will be happy to have the CD player in her car when she gets home tomorrow night. I am interested to see if she will notice, when I pick her up at airport, that my radio has been changed.

Say, how did you move that other topic up without a post? (I had read that one before but did not really want to spend $20 to aviod cutting, since wires had already been cut in one place anyway).

I left the 3 non-speaker wires intact in the bigger amp connector but did not plug them into the amp.