Hey everybody it’s my first post here! I have been restoring my 97 GT to all stock and was currently working on the audio. Now I’m far from having nearly any understanding of electrical hence why I’m here. I had an aftermarket head unit in that used adapters coming off of the factory harness, I removed it and put in the old stock tape deck stereo and using a Bluetooth cassette it sounded fantastic! I then found out many 460s were sold with a slave CD player. I couldn’t find a 97 model player and patch harness but I found ones that looked exactly the same and seemed compatible. When they arrived from eBay, I hooked up the slave CD player and harness to my factory stereo and it all connected just right. I used the ground tabs on the stereo and cd player units for the black wires also (my stereo never had a ground connection before, but two black wires came with the slave cd harness so I assumed both grounds needed connected? Why wouldn’t my stereo on its own need a ground?). When I fired it up, the audio quality was terrible but it still worked. I shut my car down and started it again and there was no sound from any speakers unless the volume was maxed out. This made me think the amp(s) or a fuse leading to them was shot. I removed the cd player and harness and fired up the car again in the original setup and still no sound. This made me worried. I checked (removed and reinstalled) every fuse in the car and all were looking great. I took the dash trim apart and disconnected every wire from stereo and the amp and reconnected them. Next time I fired up the stereo it worked just fine. So now I have the CD player in the dash slot but with nothing plugged in, it’s essentially decoration lol. I was wondering what you all think about this. Is my car wiring and amp not built for the CD player? Is the year 2000 CD player incompatible with my 97 car for some reason? Should I look for a specific 97 model at the junkyard with a cd player and harness and get those or will it still mess up my amp? Curious to what you all think I should do. Thank you.
Added CD to 97 Mach 460 system and amp stopped working
- Thread starter ClarkDV
- Start date
A guru resident here by the screen name ttocs has mountains of experience with these stock audio systems. Im sure he will chime in shortly.
Im thinking your best bet is to replace everything audio, amps included. From what ive read here, the stock amps dont fair well with aftermarket head units. The sound is less ti be desired. I could be wrong tho. Also i do believe the stock amps create more problems other than audio related scenarios, like battery drain.
Im thinking your best bet is to replace everything audio, amps included. From what ive read here, the stock amps dont fair well with aftermarket head units. The sound is less ti be desired. I could be wrong tho. Also i do believe the stock amps create more problems other than audio related scenarios, like battery drain.
ttocs
Forum's #1 poster
well thankya blak.
Its been for ever since I saw one of the slave cd systems and I do remember that there was a ground that was on the back that went to the deck. The schematic from the factory manual shows that there should be a light green/yellow wire that is separate from the harness but it show that as a constant 12v. I am willing to bet that yes while it fits in size and the harness is the same, the mach was completely new and I would not be surprised that a slave cd from a thunderbird or some other car had a slightly different sound type of output on it. The mach system basically takes the usual high voltage speaker level out and fed that into the amps where most stereos if they are going to use amps will feed a low voltage level for the amps to then amplify. If my hunch is right your feeding the low level from that slave cd into the amp and its just not a hot enough signal for the stock amps to work with.
Its been for ever since I saw one of the slave cd systems and I do remember that there was a ground that was on the back that went to the deck. The schematic from the factory manual shows that there should be a light green/yellow wire that is separate from the harness but it show that as a constant 12v. I am willing to bet that yes while it fits in size and the harness is the same, the mach was completely new and I would not be surprised that a slave cd from a thunderbird or some other car had a slightly different sound type of output on it. The mach system basically takes the usual high voltage speaker level out and fed that into the amps where most stereos if they are going to use amps will feed a low voltage level for the amps to then amplify. If my hunch is right your feeding the low level from that slave cd into the amp and its just not a hot enough signal for the stock amps to work with.
So this is what I ordered off eBay which says it was pulled from a ‘99 GT with a Mach 460 system. https://www.ebay.com/itm/2555648975...e6y6PYnSWa&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
The CD player came out of a ‘99 mustang as well but doesn’t say Mach. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1252806570...e6y6PYnSWa&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
So you think if I found a Mach CD player from 97 I would be ok? Do you think that harness truly supports 94-00 mustangs? The CD player says 99-04 but I bought it since the fitment was the same. Thanks for the help guys
ttocs
Forum's #1 poster
I am not positive but pretty sure that by 99 they were sticking the double din/6 disk changer in the mustangs/mach systems. So saying that there was a slave single disk that would connect to them seems off to me since there would not be space, nor need for another single disk player? You probably need to aim for one made to fit from 94-98ish
I am not saying that one will work for sure, I just did a search and it came up.
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I am not saying that one will work for sure, I just did a search and it came up.
I’m going through 460 problems myself. Left bank speakers fade in and out. My CD player works but no sound most likely the kenwood head unit doesn’t plug into it
badass98svt
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Pretty sure the double DIN didn't arrive until 2001. The 98-2000 radios may have been unique for some reason as well. I dont remember.
I installed a 99 model cd unit in my 95 and it works great.Mine had the from the factory cd slave/tape head unit,so mine has the factory harness. I wonder if the harness is damaged or the connector pins are not connecting.
I suggest ohming out the harness if you have not done that already.I guess the slave cd unit could have an internal problem if all else checks out.
I suggest ohming out the harness if you have not done that already.I guess the slave cd unit could have an internal problem if all else checks out.
ttocs
Forum's #1 poster
Looking at the 94/95 oem electrical manual it really doesn't show much about it. I might have been imagining things but I thought I remembered at one time that the radios with the slave cd if you looked on the back there were actually 3 of the small square plugs that usually feed the input to the mach amps. One was the for the amps, the other went to the slave and I thought there might have been a 3rd plug that was plugged into the amp but there were no wires coming off of it, but when unplugged it did kill the sound. I think it might have just been some jumpers from one pin to the other or something like that but check out the back of the radio and get a pic if you can.
I went through a similar experience a few years ago (there's a thread on it on here somewhere...).
In the end I found a complete system on ebay, head unit and cd player and the seller also threw in the wiring loom. A little splicing into what the car had (only 2 wires I think) and it worked first time.
Might be an easier option to try and get it all in one hit than bits here and there.
I was also able to sell the old head unit I didn't need any more on eBay to get some cash back.
TMW
In the end I found a complete system on ebay, head unit and cd player and the seller also threw in the wiring loom. A little splicing into what the car had (only 2 wires I think) and it worked first time.
Might be an easier option to try and get it all in one hit than bits here and there.
I was also able to sell the old head unit I didn't need any more on eBay to get some cash back.
TMW
