My 1987 Mercury Colony Park

[Kodachrome Wolf]

depends what was done with the speaker wiring. If it had premium sound the wires run from radio to amp and then to the speakers. With no amp you'll have to make sure the signal gets from radio to speakers at least. Also depends if it was a 2 or 4 channel rig. 4 channel runs all speakers through the amp, 2 channel is just the front speakers. If you can lay your hands on the proper amp it should sound slightly better than without it, but its still not all that impressive even with it. If you feed that radio through a better amp it will give better results, even if its just a fairly ho-hum amp with speaker level inputs.

From what I can tell the “installer”, maybe hack would be more appropriate, cut out essentially all of the stock radio speaker harness and ran wire from the radio to all of the speakers, only leaving a stub of factory wire that had the speaker connector on it. The dash and door speakers were tied together for the L/R front setup.

[87gtVIC]

depends what was done with the speaker wiring. If it had premium sound the wires run from radio to amp and then to the speakers. With no amp you'll have to make sure the signal gets from radio to speakers at least. Also depends if it was a 2 or 4 channel rig. 4 channel runs all speakers through the amp, 2 channel is just the front speakers. If you can lay your hands on the proper amp it should sound slightly better than without it, but its still not all that impressive even with it. If you feed that radio through a better amp it will give better results, even if its just a fairly ho-hum amp with speaker level inputs.

Am I understanding correctly...you are saying one can use the radio in question or even the more normal models (that from factory worked with a ford amplifier) and feed an aftermarket amp the speaker level inputs then out of that same after market amp to your respective speakers? I think this is what you are saying but I am not well versed in all of this audio stuff yet.

If this is the case I am perplexed by this here:

Same guts as the tape deck radio, just obviously without the tape mechanism.

O/lg hash - left front +
b/w hash = LF - and RF +
W/LG hash - RF -
pk/lg stripe - LR+
pk/lb dot - LR -
lb stripe - RR +
dg/o dot RR -


inputs to the tone board are the white and orange wire from the mute board. Right is white, left is orange.

on the power connector
yellow/black - ignition +
gn/y - batt +
o/bl dot - premium sound amp (hot when radio is on)
bl/r - dash lights

You are saying the b/w hash is the left front- as well as the rf +
this hurts my head unless its ran in series or something..still confused. on how to properly get signals back to an amplifier.

I have a want to go back to a factory radio..the factory wiring and amp even are definitely no longer there..Using a factory radio and then feeding an aftermarket amplifier the speaker ins out of the radio and then the amps out to the speaker may be my ticket to a factory looking radio again.

[gadget73]

From what I can tell the “installer”, maybe hack would be more appropriate, cut out essentially all of the stock radio speaker harness and ran wire from the radio to all of the speakers, only leaving a stub of factory wire that had the speaker connector on it. The dash and door speakers were tied together for the L/R front setup.

dash and door speakers tie together in the front so thats normal.

Am I understanding correctly...you are saying one can use the radio in question or even the more normal models (that from factory worked with a ford amplifier) and feed an aftermarket amp the speaker level inputs then out of that same after market amp to your respective speakers? I think this is what you are saying but I am not well versed in all of this audio stuff yet.

Yes. All the radios except the JBL ones can drive speakers directly. Some of them also have an amp in the mix, but its not required. The only difference is the systems that have an amp feed from radio to amp, and from amp to speaker rather than just radio to speaker. You should be able to feed to an aftermarket amp rather than a factory amp if you want, though I guess there might be a question about whether that single wire that is shared between the two front speakers might cause an issue. I doubt it would but I've never actually tried it.

If this is the case I am perplexed by this here:



You are saying the b/w hash is the left front- as well as the rf +
this hurts my head unless its ran in series or something..still confused. on how to properly get signals back to an amplifier.

I have a want to go back to a factory radio..the factory wiring and amp even are definitely no longer there..Using a factory radio and then feeding an aftermarket amplifier the speaker ins out of the radio and then the amps out to the speaker may be my ticket to a factory looking radio again.

Thats how the radio service manual indicates it, though I suppose it might just be drawn that way for convenience, and its really a shared - for both front speakers.

The JBL amps actually do work that way. Half of the speaker + connections actually tie to circuit ground, the other half has the speaker - tied to circuit ground. Entirely possible the radios and premium amps do too but I've never really dug too deep into it. Basically its a phase thing, and the easy way of fixing it was to just invert the wiring.

I'm kinda digging the stock radio gig again myself, but I might use a slightly later one, or just mod it for proper RCA outputs. The 4 button JBL radio does actually have line level out, just uses one of two different odd connectors. The other option is a speaker to line level converter. That just knocks down the signal level with a couple resistors. Exactly how the factory premium sound amps did it, and how aftermarket amps with speaker level jacks do it.

[tjc78]

They also make processors to take the speaker level down to line level with some adjustments for a cleaner output.

[gadget73]

In case you were curious about the originally specified amps in 1987. I have 86, 87, and 92 radio service manuals if you ever actually need schematics for this nonsense.

[87gtVIC]

They also make processors to take the speaker level down to line level with some adjustments for a cleaner output.

Yes I have one picked out already. It will actually make the install super easy as well as that gives me rca outs which I am currently using to feed the amp for the speakers (front and rear) as well as the sub. Would uck it under the passenger side dash somewhere. Gotta test my jy picked radio first. I am really intrigued about this and really love a factory looking radio.

Sorry for the thread jack. Quick thoughts I had to get out of my noggin.

[gadget73]

sort of continuing on this topic though, there is a variant of this type of radio meant to pair with an EQ in the Aerostar. That one isn't specifically useful, but the changes made to the amplifier board are. Looks like changing 4 resistors would convert it effectively from speaker level output to line level. Its just a simple matter of reducing the gain on the amp chips. That could be easily turned into 4 RCA outputs. Getting a non-faded output would be slightly more difficult but perhaps not impossible. I have an extra one of these, maybe its time to experiment with it some.

[sly]

I've seen that + -/+ - 3 wire setup elsewhere. IIRC, It essentially runs one side on the low side of an op-amp and the other channel on the high side. Not great for sound reproduction, but decreases component count and saves on production costs. It may even be cheaper than the common ground setup as it would require one less op-amp to drive 4 channels. I would consider this a "joint stereo" setup as it's unable to completely separate the channels.

[gadget73]

The white/black does actually go to circuit ground, its not floating. Looking further at it, the inputs used are non-inverting so it may just be drawn stupidly. There are 3 chips used, all identical, all 2 channel, only difference is the rear speakers use both sides of it to sneak more power output. Cheating way of doing it too, output of section 1 is fed back to the inverting input for section 2 through a resistor divider network.



Since thats the case, I think it would be easy to re-wire things slightly for all 4 channels to have the same output level using one side of the output amp like the front channels are. The un-used halves of the rear channel amps could be repurposed into a buffer for a non-faded output to drive a sub at that point.

[sly]

The white/black does actually go to circuit ground, its not floating. Looking further at it, the inputs used are non-inverting so it may just be drawn stupidly. There are 3 chips used, all identical, all 2 channel, only difference is the rear speakers use both sides of it to sneak more power output. Cheating way of doing it too, output of section 1 is fed back to the inverting input for section 2 through a resistor divider network.



Since thats the case, I think it would be easy to re-wire things slightly for all 4 channels to have the same output level using one side of the output amp like the front channels are. The un-used halves of the rear channel amps could be repurposed into a buffer for a non-faded output to drive a sub at that point.

Interesting.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Woof. A lot to process to figure out what direction I can go with this now.

Considering the possibility of adding an aftermarket amp, I could also take the time to just rewire the whole system and install new speakers throughout. I guess I still would need to address the inputs to said amp, since I've noted most are RCA input. I guess I could get the converters I've seen that take the +/- feeds from the radio and switch to RCA, or see if I can find a amp that would accept feeds directly from the radio.

I have this radio wiring from a 85ish dash. Has many plugs. It may be for the added on amp?
If you can use it, LMK. Just pay postage. WagonMan

I'll consider it, however I may just hardwire the equipment as it goes. I'd hate wasting the rest of that harness when it might be useful to someone else.

[gadget73]

just whatever you do, have the radio on plugs so it can be removed if needed. Hard-wired things are a pain in the ass to deal with when the thing behind them needs to be worked on. I'd keep with factory plugs just so you have the option of a different radio if that one barfs on you.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

So I've seen early style air dams that mount on the bumper (?), but I haven't seen the one that mounts on the radiator support.





Came off that '88 LTD Country Squire. There was a '88 Marquis present, but it did not have this air deflector present, nor did it look like one was ever there. Were these later deflectors a tow package specific thing? I'm personally curious to see if anything changes having it fitted to the car.

Besides that, I've got a pretty solid dash pad that need to get colored tan from that car. Only bad spot is one of the speaker grilles cracked and peeled upwards a bit. Any good ways to go about repairing that area? I also swapped out the locking rear seat latch. Nice to have that working now, and I can lock it properly too. Final thing I've got to install is another interior headliner roof brace. I need to get the cargo area headliner redone, and when I re-install it, I plan on using the second brace in the center to prevent roof sag back there.

[Brown_Muscle]

So I've seen early style air dams that mount on the bumper (?), but I haven't seen the one that mounts on the radiator support.





Came off that '88 LTD Country Squire. There was a '88 Marquis present, but it did not have this air deflector present, nor did it look like one was ever there. Were these later deflectors a tow package specific thing? I'm personally curious to see if anything changes having it fitted to the car.

Besides that, I've got a pretty solid dash pad that need to get colored tan from that car. Only bad spot is one of the speaker grilles cracked and peeled upwards a bit. Any good ways to go about repairing that area? I also swapped out the locking rear seat latch. Nice to have that working now, and I can lock it properly too. Final thing I've got to install is another interior headliner roof brace. I need to get the cargo area headliner redone, and when I re-install it, I plan on using the second brace in the center to prevent roof sag back there.

I can confirm that my 82 has that exact style air dam. It is not mounted on the bumper

[WagonMan]

The "K" code cars had the air dam AND two gussets to reinforce the radiator support. If you don't know what I mean I can send pics tomorrow. WagonMan.