audio wiring for 1986 mark vii

[shaylynree]

I have a 1986 Lincoln Mark VII. I am desperately looking for some info on the audio wiring. Original wires are as follows: 2 lt.grn, 2 lt.blue/red stripe, 1 yellow/blk stripe, 1 orange/blue stripe...2 pink/blue stripe, 1 drk grn/yellow, 1 wht/red, 1 blk/wht, 1 pink/grn, 1 lt. grn.
Anyone know what each of these wires represent (power, ant.,ground, ect.)? Also, how do you get through the dash from the battery if you run new wire instead of factory?
Any advice or info would be greatly appreciated!!!! ty smile.gif

[pro-five-oh]

http://blizzard.he.net/~foxbody/pics/misc/83-87stereo.jpg

That might help.

BUT...

Why not just get a $6 wiring conversion harness from WalMart to put an aftermarket stereo into the Ford wiring? It just clicks into place.

There is a rubber grommet on the driver's side firewall where you can get a power wire through the firewall for an external amp.

[shaylynree]

problem with the harness is that the harnesses on my new system have now been cut off...was told that i couldn't use one because of the built-in amp...then a couple different people got ahold of it with their ignorant ideas and well i got a mess on my hands and a husband who's wanting to play dumb. i've been w/out a sound system for toooo long! original system is ford premium sound. thanks for the link and the idea. if anyone has any additional ideas...bring em on!!!! ty

[ April 21, 2004: Message edited by: shaylynree ]

[pepsi2185]

One word rewire!!!!!

That sound system is right on the border line of the old common ground system and the new amp system.

Ok first up, where do you live, there are a lot of audio professionals on this site that do side work and if you would like us to help you im sure many of them would be glad to help. I myself live in michigan.

Second on the car. A good idea is to put the origional plugs back on, they are called reverse harnesses. If you decide to do this on your own on the reverse harness or radio harness you have

Constant - yellow - hot in all key positions including off

ignitition - red - hot in accessory, ignition, cold in start and cold in off.

Ground - Black - Negative lead and chassis or metal.

you facotry wiring may have a combination of the following

negative dimmer - hard to call sometimes ground when parking lights are on, sometimes always negative. If always negative it is smaller gauge wire.

Positive illumination - hot when parking lights are on, and when dashboard illumination goes brighter and dimmer it stays at 12 volts.

Positive dimmer - hot when parking lights are on, will change voltage when dashboard illumination goes brigher and dimmer.

Power antenna - allows power antenna to go up when positive is applied

amp power - allows amplifier to turn on when positive is applied.

If you have common ground, look in the trunk, when you lower the upper trunk panel along the lower deck there is either a square amp or a football shaped amp. The football shaped amp is the common ground.

Non common ground amp you can get a plug for and run the wires back to the front.

Common ground amp, sometimes you can grab all speaker wires uncommon grounded at the amp. If you can run those wires up front and check for polarity. If you cannot grab speaker wires uncommon grounded you may have to run the front speaker wires from the kick.

While your at it run yourself a nice subwoofer. Get yourself a radio with a high pass and low pass crossover to optimize sound. The guys in the forum love alpine. But the rest arent that bad. for me last years pioneer is second to alpine. not 600 this year it sucks.

Keep us posted.

Big Joe