OEM Double Din Radio Upgrade for 94-98, How To

Ohgami · Nov 14, 2008

OK as I mentioned in the "Navigator Thread" (http://sn95forums.com/index.php?topic=25571.0 for those of you that read it before) I think I got it down so far.

As most of you know reivaxtorres Who did the Double Din Bezel install write up also threw in a 04 Mach 460 6 CD changer. He was going to do a write up on it but I reciently did this upgrade too. Before you go out and grab that 05 Mustang 6 Disc MP3 Changer there's a few things you need to gather info on concerning your stang.

-Do you have Mach 460 or not?-
This is a big one as this changes which head units you can use and which you cannot. If you do NOT have Mach 460, You MUST get a HU that does NOT have the extra plug for the additional speakers. If you do you will have NO lows. This is because the main plug will handle the Highs and it Internally amps those signals it receives to the speakers. The other plug Sends non AMPed Mid/Lows to the amp and subsequently the Speakers.

In this Picture you can see all 3 plugs are there but the one i the top left has no pins. This would be the radio you would use if you did NOT have mach 460 as it only provides 4 speaker Audio.
If you find one like above WITH the pins this would be the Mach 460 unit. Ebayers like to label these as "Audiophile" units

-Which HUs can you use-
Here comes a bit of a prob. Once you know which one you want you need to get the correct HU. I will admit I jumped in head first and didn't do ENOUGH research as well. So here is where you get to learn from my mistake. There are at least a few different sizes of HUs. there are ones that are Smaller than the Bezel opening. A good way to tell if it is going to "fit" is to look at the outer edge. There SHOULD be a lip recessed from the face going around the the radio. Here look at these 2 Radios:

This one has no Lip and is too small for the Bezel opening. It was made to be held in place by a similar Rail bracket and Din Mount like the ones that holds the Setup in our 94-00 Stangs (Notice the holes on each side like the ones on the Stock radios in our 'Stangs).

This one has the lip as well as 2 mounting holes on the bottom.

You COULD make the smaller radio work but it does leave a slight gap and looks out of place. And aren't we trying to go for "Original Looking" Getting the right Radio will save you lots of hassle and wasted money. (Just so you know I got the Mach MP3 for a really good price cause the guy had no way to know if it worked. I took a Gamble and now that I KNOW it works I can re-Ebay it for more than I spent.)

There is One more HU Item I need to bring to light.
-The interface Plug.-
Ford changed the Plug on the majority of their radios around 98 and again in 04. In the pictures above I have the radios that have the 98-03 Plug. reivaxtorres used one from an 04 Mustang so he got the Newer Plug set up.
For the 98-03 Plug You will need Metra 71-1771 for NON-Mach 460 and Metra 71-5700 for Mach 460
For the 04-present Plug You will need Metra 71-5220 for NON-Mach 460 and Metra 71-5220-1 for Mach 460

Also again in 07 Ford Changed the Antenna cable and input to the radio so IF you decide to go that route be advised that you'll need the Metra 40-FD20 Antenna Adapter.

NOW once you decided on the radio you want here comes the most hardest and annoying part...
-The Wiring-

I wrote this as 94-98 because I *Think* there was a change in the radio harness (I'm not talking about the front amp harness I mean the one hard wired into the car's wiring) for 99 and 00. You 99 and 00 owners can correct me if I'm wrong.

Again from reivaxtorres' Bezel Thread.

See those 2 plugs on the right side? There's a Black one and a Gray one (The Gray one is hiding behind the tab in the Pic) that's what we'll be working with.

What you'll need is Metra 70-1770

So Let's start with NON-Mach 460 Cars.
My car was a Non Mach 460 car but it had the "Premium Sound" Option which was the under dash amp and a 4 speaker set up. Don't worry if you don't have that premium sound or not. The cars are Wired for 4 Speakers in the main harness. If you have Premium sound you can just remove the  Amp Harness (and amp if you feel like it) since we are doing a complete amp bypass because the radio has that Amp Built in. You MUST bypass the amp or you will get no sound.

You have 2 Plugs you will need to wire into a single Plug.
From the Gray plug you will have 5 Wires you will be using. Don't go by what it says on the Metra Wires. Go by these Illustrations. The Pin Descriptions are correct except Pin 3 Is Audio Ground and Pin 7 is "True" Ground.

Using the Metra colors Pin 1 is the wire that is Blue with a White Stripe.

and on the 16 Pin Plug

Pin 1 on the Metra is Lt Blue with a Red Stripe.
How I'll do this is, the 1st Pin I will mark will be for the Gray 70-1770 the 2nd will be on the 71-1771. For Example I'll go Pin 8 to Pin 9 Which is Pin 8 on the Gray 70-1770 and Pin 9 on the 71-1771.
OK Got it? here goes.

Pins 1 and 2 on the 70-1770 are Unused. Pin 3 goes to Pin 11 or 16 your pick. Pin 4 70-1770 is Unused. Pin 5 goes to Pin 1. Pin 6 goes to Pin 10. Pin 7 goes to Pin 2. and Pin 8 goes to Pin 9.
What you did is set up Power, Ground, Audio Ground, Illumination/Dimmer and Memory.
That was the hardest part on that on. The Black Plug which is the Audio is pretty Straight forward. All the Pins should go where they're Listed in the Instructions on the Plugs.

For the 5220 24 Pin Interface Plug we'll use this Illustration

and it should go like this:
Pins 1 and 2 on the 70-1770 are Unused. Pin 3 goes to Pin 13 or 24 Your Pick. Pin 4 70-1770 is Unused. Pin 5 goes to Pin 3. Pin 6 goes to Pin 2. Pin 7 goes to Pin 4. and Pin 8 goes to Pin 1.

Gimme a week and I'll do the Mach 460. It's a whole different Beast so I'll have to wait til the rest of my set up comes in to do that part...
...TO be Continued.

reivaxtorres · Nov 15, 2008

the mach 460 that the 94-00 cars got is truely a different beast.

i kinda gave up working on it even tho i still have one last bug to fix in my double din setup. but basically, here is what you need to do if you plan on using the 04 mach460 radio in the pre 00 mach460 systems.

before that tho, let me give you a brief break down on the difference between the 01-03 headunit and the 04 headunit, as well as the 05+.

the 01-03 headunit is a 6disc indash cd player with basic functions. its nice, but after using it in my truck, i have found a few things about it dont like. first and foremost, the shuffle feature. there is a feature on it where you can choose to wither shuffle music from one cd or accross all the CDs that are loaded. well the feature works as its supposed to, but there is a brief lag when it goes from one CD to the next, even if its not on shuffle. on the 04 unit, there seems to be a larger buffer on it to the point where when it changes CDs, it seems as if it were just going from one song to the next.

also, im sure this has changed by now, but when i first got the idea for this project, i had originally choosen the 04 unit because there are many more Ipod interfaces for it than the 01-03 unit. while you can buy an interface and connect it to the back of the 01-03 unit to play the ipod, you are still going to have to control the ipod from the ipod itself. on the 04 unit, there are several interfaces that will allow you to plug in the ipod to the back of the radio, charge the ipod, and even better (which is what sealed the deal for me) you can control the ipod from the head unit itself.

the 04 headunit is also the only one of the mustang headunits (that will fit with our cars and still look original) that will accept a satilite radio option. that is the only way to tell the difference between the 01-03 units and the 04 units when looking at them from the front. the 04 unit has a "SAT" button while the others dont.

anyways, now onto the wiring. i recomend you go to www.installer.com and get these harnesses from them, they sell the true metra harness and their shipping is quick. a little bit more $$ than ebay, but worth it.

the harness you need to plug into the factory car harness is Metra 70-5511. this comes with a square black connector and a longer gray connector. these plug into the harness that unplugs from the back of the top radio (the am/fm/cassette player, NOT the CD player nor the wire leading to the CD player). http://www.installer.com/item/display_item.php?it=70-5511

the harness you will need for the back of the new 04 headunit will be 71-5520-1. you MUST get this one. it will come with three connectors, a long gray rectangle one, a shorter gray rectangle one, and an almost square one. the only ones you will need are the long rectangle one and the almost square one. http://www.installer.com/item/display_item.php?it=71-5520-1

from these for pigtails (2 from the 70-5511 kit and 2 from the 71-5520-1 kit), you will need to splice them together. dont worry, this is easy as it is all color coordinated. just match the colors from both kits and splice them together. i believe the orange one (or orange white one) will have 2 wires from one harness going to one wire from the other harness. this is ok. the only time you need to deviate from color matching is when it comes to the amp turn on wire. on the gray connector from the 70-5511 kit, there will be a blue wire that should be labled "AMP ON". this wire MUST be spliced in with the red wire on the same gray connector in order for you to get sound. (what this does is that it sends power to the amps so they turn on when the radio is turned on).

now for the fun part. if you plug in the radio as-is, it will not work perfectly. you need to connect the "AMP OUT" signal from the new headunit to the rear amps. there are two ways of doing this. the first way is to plug in the small almost square connector from the 71-5520-1 harness into the back of the radio. Then, from the amp thats located under the radio, you have to find out which one of the three connectors in the back leads to the amps in the rear of the car. then simple splice the wires from the new almost square harness into the factory harness and you will be set. i wasnt able to find a connector to do this, one that could plug into that part of the factory harness, so here is what i did:

i found a totaled 04 mach1 that had the 460 in it. the interior was taken apart already, so this made it so much easier. you just have to find the wire that goes into the "almost square" connector in the back of the radio and take the entire thing from the donor car. then, simple plug it into the back of your radio and then unplug the original one in your car (located behind driverside kick panel) and plug this one in. this is much easier since it will be using a factory harness, but much more time consuming trying to find the donor car and gettng the cable.

i didnt take pics of this part of the install, but i will be tearing into it eventually because the only thing i have yet to figure out is how to make the speed volume work with our cars. im sure i can just intercept the signal coming from the speedo gear, but i have to look into it.

Ohgami · Nov 18, 2008

OK I think I have an adapter created for the Rear Amp Plug. I'm waiting to hear back from Installer if what I found is right. If so it'll make things go a lot smoother for the Upgrade install. Just wire the Square from the 71-5520-1 or 71-5700 to the Plug and it's good!

Ohgami · Nov 19, 2008

OK the Plug Idea was a bust. However I came up with an alternative. This is a way of converting your Rear speaker signal plug. When you order either the Metra 71-5700 or 71-5220-1 you will get the 8 Pin Plug. Use this "Amp Bypass" Kit http://www.installer.com/item/display_item.php?it=70-5605 to wire the 8 Pin Plug to. Then unplug the Large plug from behind the kick panel but LEAVE the 2 Prong plug alone. The 2 Prong supplies Power and ground for the Rear Amps. This is essentially how I wired my Mach 460 6 changer out of a 01 Mustang exactly like the Detail I wrote above to install the Newer radio in a non Mach But just added the back harness and Viola I got it working. From the back harness you have 2 plugs one big one and 1 small 2 prong. If you trace the 2 Prong you'll notice that it essentially splits out of the main wrap and goes to a Ground Eyelet to screw to the Chassis of your car and the other terminates to a 1 prong plug which plugs into the mate under the Steering column on the right hand side facing the steering wheel. This is a Power wire. The rest of the wires are all Audio signal with a Audio Ground.