[azactor]

HOW TO KEEP YOUR MACH 460 SYSTEM WITH A NEW AFTERMARKET STEREO HEAD UNIT – worth the read!!!

Yes, it is possible to keep the factory amps running and NOT have to re-wire the whole system. Directions are within this article.

THE STORY

After a month of aggravation of not have any tunes in my car, I finally figured out how to keep the Mach 460 system in my 1995 Mustang GT with a new Head Unit.

Don’t go to ANY Specialty Stereo Installation place, or even Best Buy, Circuit City, or Ultimate Electronics. They will ALL tell you that you have to bypass the entire Mach 460 stereo system. Which means…new stereo head unit, new speakers, new amps…a lot of money PLUS installation. NOT TRUE!!!

How do I know…well, the guy who had the car before me had an aftermarket stereo head unit in the car. It sounded awesome. My car was broken in to and the stereo was taken. So I decided I would put the stereo I had in my old car, in the Mustang. I’ve installed car stereos before, so I figured it wouldn’t be hard. After wiring it and installing it, I was able to get it to power up, but no sound. Hmmm. So, I started looking on the internet. What I found was the same thing you have been finding…a lot of information on BYPASSING the Mach 460 system. The first place I went was Circuit City and the installer told me to bypass the system.

In order to do that, you have to unplug the 2 connectors from the wall on the inside right of the stereo cavity (one is Gray and one is Black). I did that and installed the stereo. It sounded like crap! It was like an old-day transistor radio that had one speaker…very poor quality. My Walkman from the 90’s sounded better than that!!

I searched more on the Internet and keep seeing people saying “in order to use the Mach 460 system, you need the High/Low level converter”. So I found one made by SCOSCHE and installed it. That didn’t work! I saw others saying that the SCOSCHE worked for them, and some saying it didn’t. Whatever…it didn’t work for me! Here is a picture of the SCOSCHE product that I tried and didn’t seem to work:

http://scosche.com/scosche_caraudio....29&ItemID=SLC4

I drive a lot and couldn’t stand not having any kind of sound coming from my radio, so I bypassed everything until I could figure the system out.

My first stop…I went to a Car Stereo Installation place (Chronic Car Audio). They said they had to bypass everything.

Next, I went to a Best Buy to ask them about the Mach 460…their answer…”we bypass the system, that’s the only way we install new head units”. NOT the answer I was looking for. If there was one in there already, then there must be a way to do it. They wouldn’t tell me how to do it. It’s not like I was going to have them install it. I would understand if that was the case, because if something happened, they wouldn’t want to be responsible for it. OK, I understand that, but I’m installing it. I know there’s a way, but they still wouldn’t tell me. I just really think they didn’t know how to do it.

So I went to another Best Buy…they guy there told me there is a converter but they don’t carry them. He suggested I go to Ultimate Electronics to buy the converter.

I went to Ultimate Electronics, and they didn’t carry the one I needed but the guy there showed me on the Internet which one it was. METRA part number is: 70-5510.

I went home to look up the part. I’ve come across that part number before, but there was no picture of the harness. This time I found a picture. Great! The cheapest I found it for was $30…$30 for a wire harness? So I looked at the picture real close. I already had 2 of the 4 pieces it came with (the Gray adapter and the black Square adapter for the speakers). The only part I didn’t have was the RCA plug integration (the big black box with all the wires coming out of it is just for gain control, you don’t really need that unless you are going to buy the whole thing anyway). If you don’t have the Gray and/or the Black adapter, you should probably just buy this harness, it has all you need:

http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/pro...2C4FDK5-f.jpeg

I went to the dollar store and bought an RCA plug (they ALWAYS have them there!!). I cut off the ends and attached it to the black plug (speakers). You should have 2 Red plugs and 2 white plugs. Here is the way you splice them:

1 Red RCA Positive to the LEFT-FRONT Positive (normally the white wire)


1 Red RCA Negative to the LEFT-FRONT Negative (normally the white/black wire)


1 White RCA Positive to the RIGHT-FRONT Positive (normally the gray wire)


1 White RCA Negative to the RIGHT-FRONT Negative (normally the gray/black wire)

1 Red RCA Positive to the LEFT-REAR Positive (normally the green wire)


1 Red RCA Negative to the LEFT-REAR Negative (normally the green/black wire)


1 White RCA Positive to the RIGHT-REAR Positive (normally the purple wire)


1 White RCA Negative to the RIGHT-REAR Negative (normally the purple/black wire)


NOTE: When cutting off the RCA plugs…after you strip the outside wire (usually black) there should be some copper wires and another insulated wire. The exposed copper wire is the POSITIVE. You have to strip the other insulated wire and that is the NEGATIVE.


After wiring those together, you can plug the RCA’s in the “PRE-AMP LINE OUT” RCA jacks supplied on the back of your new Head Unit. Make sure you have a unit that has 2 of the “PRE-AMP LINE-OUT”.

So, for a Buck (unless you had to buy the black speaker harness) you are all set.

My new Head Unit is in and it sounds awesome.

Don’t trust the car stereo shops if they tell you it can’t be done…it CAN!!! If I can do it, you should be able too.

If you have any questions, email me at: azactor@hotmail.com