mach 460 double din to 6 disc

Hi people, im new to the site but i could really, really use your help.

i have a 98 mustang that came factory with the mach460 sound system, which is basically 4 tweeters, 4 subs, and 3 amps. the radio consists of the am/fm cassette as a single din and a seperate single cd single din.

i want to go from this set up to the newer mach460 system, which is an indash 6 disc cd changer. i already have everything set up for it, used metra wiring harnesses 70-5514 (which is plugging into the factory harness) and 71-5520 (which is plugging into the back of the new headunit). the wiring was simple, everything was color coded and the radio turns on and everything, only problem is that i have no bass. i already checked (myself and took it to a radio shop) to make sure the 2 rear amps (1 controls the front subs, the other controls the rear subs) are getting power and they are. i really like the new radio and would like to make it work, but not if its gonna cost me a lot more time or money to make it work.

so here is where my problem comes in:

-the new head unit is internally amplified whereas my factory headunit was not. ive been told this would cause problems, but ive also been told its not going to cause any issues.

-ive been told the mach460 (01-04) models have a seperate output for the subs and that the 94-00 mach460 systems have the lows/mids/highs all going to the amps together via the same wires, which im starting to believe is true. if so, does any one have a wiring diagram for a 2004 mach460 system from a mustang? or better yet, can anyone tell me how to wire the sub output to the amps/subs?

-other than this im all out of ideas. i would really appreciate any help you guys can offer. im still a noob at the audio part of the car, but im decent with electrical.

thanks,

xavier

yup, its got three of them. looks exactly like this one:

http:////04-FORD-MUSTANG-EXPLORER-CD6-DISK-INDASH-CD-CHANGER_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ43948QQihZ006QQitemZ160182132270QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWD1VQQtrksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

would you happen to know how i would need to modify to fit the 70-5512 harness?

these are the two harnesses i bought:

and the one that plugs into the stock harness:

now, ive plugged everything in, color matched the wires. the gray connector and the black connector from the 70-5511 harness connects perfectly with the 24pin plug of the 71-5520-1 harness. now, the smaller 8 pin plug from the 71-5520-1 harness, i have that as well but cannot figure out where it gets connected to. do you happen to know how i could do that? i thought about just trying to match the colors, but that doesnt work as the secondary harness (the 8 pin of the 71-5520-1) has 8 wires, 2 are RED / yellow, 4 are black, and 2 are red. (r/y - b - b - r on top, r/y - b - b - r on the bottom row). from the diagram that came with the metra harness, it says " r/y = subwoofer (+), black = subwoofer (-), black = Shield, and red = unused" and the entire bottom row as being unused as well.  thanks for your help so far

-xavier

here are some diagrams i found:

the 04 headunit im trying to make work:

and the one for my current set up (i know it says taurus, but its the same set up as my car):

Not sure if you got this figured out but I will throw in what I have figured out.

My 99 Cobra had the same setup as your Mustang came with, Mach 460 with the tape deck then the single din cd player, My 03 Mach had the newer Mach system with the 6 disc in dash.

Your factory setup had 3 amps, 2 mounted to the box under the deck and 1 in the dash below the CD player forward of the shifter. The two rear amps powered the "subwoofers".....really just 6x8 woofers. One amp for the rear, one amp for the front . The amp in your dash powered all 4 tweeters.

The newer system only had 2 amps in the rear again powering the four woofers, one amp running front, one running rear. The 6 disc changer powered all the tweeters eliminating the amp mounted in the dash.

Now I am not sure what you mean by the mids and highs sound good but you are not getting any bass, if the 4 6x8's are working and sound is coming out of them then the rear amps are functioning.

I am not sure how exactly you went about connecting the wires of the two harnesses but I do know this, the 6 disc changer's internal amp has a built in crossover on it as it was powering the tweeters. So there is a good chance that your wiring simply used the tweeter outputs to give the rear amps their signals. If this is the case the signal they are getting has some of the lower freq. taken out via the internal x-over hence you have upper mids and highs with no bass.

Now at this point you have two options, the smaller 8 pin plug is what you need connected to the 6 disc changer and thoes wires connect to the amps sending a full spectrum signal(not crossed over) to the sub amps. When I replaced my 6 disc deck with an aftermarket, the harness I got came with the 8 pin plug but it had RCA's on the end of it to hook into the back of my aftermarket radio.

Second option would be to leave everything the way you have it now. Use the 8 pin connector and put RCA ends on the wires, then run a patch cable to the trunk, throw a small sub and amp in the trunk and be done. This way your highs would be crossoed over and your sub setup would handle the bass. Trust me the Mach 460 system even when hooked up and running properly is nothing to write home about anyways.