[Ladenblowfish]

Hey guys, I know this has been beat to death but I have searched all over and not found a definite answer for my problem. I recently bought a 97 GT w/ the mach 460 system. It had an aftermarket headunit already installed in it. The problem is the is no sound coming from the two lower door speakers. Only the door tweeters were working. So I pulled the headunit out and discovered the harness they had connected did not have the rca plgs on the end of the square black plug 70-5511. I was going to change the harness out for 70-5510 but instead, I just soldered 4 rca plugs onto the end of the square black plug. Now both the door tweeters and the rear speakers work but still not the lower door speakers. I have also swapped the rear amps around but it hasn't helped. Also the sound from the speakers is horrible. Sounds like an old radio w/ no bass. Any ideas what I can do. I'm definitely not wanting to spend a pile of money replacing everything. Just a simple plug and play type deal. Thanks. Sorry for the long post.

[AdaBoNGT]

Have you tried playing with the settings of the stereo? Fade/balance and bass/trebble to improve the sound. Also are the speakers in the door stock or aftermarket? If they are after market its possible that they have the wrong ohms specs.

[damon4192]

man i have so many problems with my mach 460 speakers and it sucks. no bass comes out of then and i too have a diff head unit. i was told that its the wriing harness thats changed that makes no bass come out of them but i have no idea so im changing the wiring harness back to stock and going back to the stock radio and hopeing that they start working again. hope you get the help you need tho man cause i understand where your coming from and it sucks!

['97'Cobra]

thats why i havent changed my stock unit. My last Mustang got jacked up because of changing stuff out. The 460's are very picky.

[97mustanggt]

the lower door speakers are only for bass i dont think they are there for voice..and yea once you change your stock unit out some speakers wont work no more you have to cancel them out.

[tfofkyle]

honestly its worth it to swap everything out to get rid of the headache mach 460.

crutchfield.com has the wiring harness and can answer any questions you have about it.

sonicelectronix.com also has some speakers and such that you can use to replace your lower door woofers. the size is 6x8 all around.

you will have to lose the tweeters unless you find some way to wire them in.

my pioneer deck/pioneer speakers combo sounds great and was simple to wire in.

to be honest the loss of sound is probably due to a fried woofer amp from the aftermarket head unit. putting an aftermarket deck in is like a death sentence to the stock mach 460 woofers.

[OFM]

It's the wiring.

Just cut off your old Stock connector and wire the stereo wires to the correct wire by color and it should work fine. Right now I'm running a Sony Blue tooth stereo in my car.

[YeloPony]

One of the best write ups on dealing with a Mach460.. it's around replacing it, but it has the harness, that you need to make everything work, if your previous owner used the wrong one, it won't work, there are only a few that work with the amps and set up on that system

Guide to replacing your 2001 Mach 460 head unit - Mustang Forums at StangNet

[Ladenblowfish]

Thanks for all the responses guys. I removed the drivers side door panel and it still has the factory speaker. Doesn't seem like there is cheap fix for the stereo. Just to get some sound to the lower door speakers, could I just wire them directly to the headunit since I'm using the rca's for the other speakers?

[Ladenblowfish]

How are the front door speakers wired? From the headunit, to the amps, then to the speakers? Could I just bypass each amp by splicing into each connector at the rear amps? I had the same similar problems when I had a 97 Lincoln Mark VIII w/ the JBL sound system. The two lower door speakers didn't work until I just bypassed the amp just for those speakers but left the rest. Does anyone know what color wires the lower door speakers are going into and out of the rear amps? Thanks

[Ladenblowfish]

Hooking up to each amp in the back is a gray plug as well as a small black plug. I assume the gray plugs are the speakers and the black plugs are the power to the amps. Could I just wire both gray plugs together to bypass the amps?

[Ladenblowfish]

OK guys, I've done a little more tinkering. All 4 tweeters are playing. The upper doors and the rear deck but not the lows (lower doors and rear deck speakers). How I found this out is I unplugged both of the rear amps and it made no difference in sound. Someone told me to check the plug behind the drivers side kick panel but it was plugged up. What could be my problem? Both rear amps are bad or a power/ground problem?

[Ladenblowfish]

Just for the time being so I can get some sound out of my lower door and rear deck speakers, is there a way I can wire them directly to my headunit using the factory wires? Do the door and rear deck speaker wires come together at one point near the dash where I can splice into them and wire them to the headunit? Thanks guys

[OFM]

You just splice the upper side speaker with the lower ones and It should work I had to do that before to get bass and sound. Later I just rewire all str8 to my head unit.

[Ladenblowfish]

So splice the lower door speakers into the upper tweeters and the rear deck speakers into the rear tweeters? Can I splice into the door speaker wires without removing the door panels?

[Ladenblowfish]

Instead of wiring both speakers together, can I just cut the harness at each of the rear amps and run new speaker wire from there to the headunit? Would that work?

[Ladenblowfish]

Without having to wire them directly at each speaker?

[OFM]

Okay 1st off...

I have my amps running directly to my headunit. Every speaker in my car is running right to the headunit as well. You can cut anything as long as you run it back to your headunit correctly.

If I where you I would hit up walmart buy that blue speaker cable they have for cheap and run all new wires to the headunit thats the only way i was able to fix my speaker issue when my bass was off.

The stock connector in the car suxs when using a un-stock stereo.

[Ladenblowfish]

I'm just trying to find the easiest route and not have to remove the door panels and run new wire through to boots on each door, etc. Do you know the simplest place I can splice into the factory lower door and rear speaker wires?

[OFM]

Well to be honest the door panel will be the easiest way to do it. Because most of the speaker cables run behind the dashboard near the gauges and are heavily taped, so its hard to track them.