Sub install how to for 99-04 verts (CAUTION, PICS!)
05-11-2007, 03:08 AM
#1
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: VA
Posts: 1,676
Sub install how to for 99-04 verts (CAUTION, PICS!)
(MODS, I wasn't sure the best place to put this, and since it pertained to an 03 GT Vert I put it here! Please move to where best appropriate!)
I don't know if the verts are the same as the coupes, but i think anything with the mach system is going to be relatively the same. Here is my best attempt at a how-to! I found the MustangWorld sub install tough to follow. Maybe a contributor tag could be in the works?
First thing, MAKE SURE THE BATTERY IS DISCONNECTED!!! Undo the negative terminal and make sure it stays away from the frame of the car. You don't want any shorting or sparks or electrocutions!
For my install i used a Kicker wiring kit which came with some nice wires already with connectors on one end of the power and ground wires. I started by connecting the power wire to the positive terminal of the battery. I attached the fuse block to the fuse box with industrial velcro, making sure to leave enough slack in order to still open the fuse box. I then ran the wire back past the Caster Camber plates and down into the back corner of the driver side engine bay.
This part took me a bit of patience but love it being this way. Some people drill a hole through the firewall and silicon around it or grommett the hole with the wire through it. With some patience and EXTREME CARE, I used a very sharp exacto and pushed the knife into the VERY LARGE grommett that is already there for some wires and made a square hole slightly smaller than the diameter of the wire. I forced the wire through with the help of a screwdriver and once through into the footwell I WD-40ed around the hole and the wire slipped right through. Now i have an extremely tight seal around my wire without silicon or anything else. I think it looks quite nice.
This is a pic inside the car where the wire comes through.
If you put your wire through this grommett your wire will be in the very left corner of the foot well. You will notice my Dead pedal in the pic at the bottom and the rust colored rod at the top right is my clutch pedal.
Now may be a good time to hook up your remote wire. I used fuse location 30 which is for day lamps. Of course American Mustangs don't have day lamps so this is a perfect spot. Simply feed the wire into the fuse location and wedge in the fuse that was there. Mine has never fallen out or given me issues.
Now that you have these two wires hooked up, I ran them together behind the kick panel and then under the door sill. Careful leading from the kick panel to the door sill that you don't pinch the wires. Run them under the door sill up under the rear interior quarter and up behind the back seat. For those of you that do not know how to remove your back seat in the vert, there are two buttons under the bottom cushion, directly in the middle of each seat, that will release the whole seat. Pull that out. To get the back rest to move forward so you can reach in the back, you need to pull up on the back of the seat to release the two clips that keep it in place. I think you coupe guys have a seat release button.
This first pic is showing where my wires lead behind the rear interior quarter. The big blue wire is my power, and the little silver wire leading next to the seat belt bracket is the remote wire. I screwed up and didn't put them together, but it is not a big deal, I just like to keep it neat.
Now comes the PIA. You need to splice into the systems speaker wires so there is a signal going to your amp. This will either be done with a line out converter or direct wires leading to your amp. If your amp has a sensing feature then you do not need a line out converter. My amp has a sensing feature so you will not see a line out converter, but the idea is the same. In place of my wires would be the wires from the line out converter.
Whether line out converter or sensing feature, you want to find the plug that is on the front of the two amps under the convertible top. You will be splicing into the two bottom right wires. The one on the very bottom right is Green/Black and the one next to it on its left is Black/White. G/B is the positive and B/W is the negative. Be careful when cutting these and splicing as there is not a lot of wire to play with. BE SURE TO DO THIS TO BOTH AMPS for both channels.
Here are the two wires separated from the others on one amp.
And another angle. The bottom two coming from the plug.
Here is what it looks like behind my seat now. I ran my power wire, remote, and signal feature wires all from the driver side to the passenger side since my sub is on the passenger side in the trunk. To keep things neat i ran what wires I could underneath things.This is a big pic so you can see it a bit better.
Now go in the trunk and take out the boot panel and the floor carpet! Pull your wires into the back. I found two good places to hook up the ground. One is the nut that holds down an amp, or if you snap that off like i did by overtightening, there is a ground wire behind the passenger trunk panel that you can also put your amp ground.
Here are those two options. First is the amp where i snapped off the bolt (the circle on the middle-right is where it would be)
or this ground wire i found behind the passenger trunk panel. It's the green nut in the middle of the pic.
Now hook everything up in the trunk, connect the battery, test it to make sure all your connections are good, replace all body panels, and enjoy the music!
(If anybody can help me to make this better please let me know or chime in!)
I don't know if the verts are the same as the coupes, but i think anything with the mach system is going to be relatively the same. Here is my best attempt at a how-to! I found the MustangWorld sub install tough to follow. Maybe a contributor tag could be in the works?
First thing, MAKE SURE THE BATTERY IS DISCONNECTED!!! Undo the negative terminal and make sure it stays away from the frame of the car. You don't want any shorting or sparks or electrocutions!
For my install i used a Kicker wiring kit which came with some nice wires already with connectors on one end of the power and ground wires. I started by connecting the power wire to the positive terminal of the battery. I attached the fuse block to the fuse box with industrial velcro, making sure to leave enough slack in order to still open the fuse box. I then ran the wire back past the Caster Camber plates and down into the back corner of the driver side engine bay.
This part took me a bit of patience but love it being this way. Some people drill a hole through the firewall and silicon around it or grommett the hole with the wire through it. With some patience and EXTREME CARE, I used a very sharp exacto and pushed the knife into the VERY LARGE grommett that is already there for some wires and made a square hole slightly smaller than the diameter of the wire. I forced the wire through with the help of a screwdriver and once through into the footwell I WD-40ed around the hole and the wire slipped right through. Now i have an extremely tight seal around my wire without silicon or anything else. I think it looks quite nice.
This is a pic inside the car where the wire comes through.
If you put your wire through this grommett your wire will be in the very left corner of the foot well. You will notice my Dead pedal in the pic at the bottom and the rust colored rod at the top right is my clutch pedal.
Now may be a good time to hook up your remote wire. I used fuse location 30 which is for day lamps. Of course American Mustangs don't have day lamps so this is a perfect spot. Simply feed the wire into the fuse location and wedge in the fuse that was there. Mine has never fallen out or given me issues.
Now that you have these two wires hooked up, I ran them together behind the kick panel and then under the door sill. Careful leading from the kick panel to the door sill that you don't pinch the wires. Run them under the door sill up under the rear interior quarter and up behind the back seat. For those of you that do not know how to remove your back seat in the vert, there are two buttons under the bottom cushion, directly in the middle of each seat, that will release the whole seat. Pull that out. To get the back rest to move forward so you can reach in the back, you need to pull up on the back of the seat to release the two clips that keep it in place. I think you coupe guys have a seat release button.
This first pic is showing where my wires lead behind the rear interior quarter. The big blue wire is my power, and the little silver wire leading next to the seat belt bracket is the remote wire. I screwed up and didn't put them together, but it is not a big deal, I just like to keep it neat.
Now comes the PIA. You need to splice into the systems speaker wires so there is a signal going to your amp. This will either be done with a line out converter or direct wires leading to your amp. If your amp has a sensing feature then you do not need a line out converter. My amp has a sensing feature so you will not see a line out converter, but the idea is the same. In place of my wires would be the wires from the line out converter.
Whether line out converter or sensing feature, you want to find the plug that is on the front of the two amps under the convertible top. You will be splicing into the two bottom right wires. The one on the very bottom right is Green/Black and the one next to it on its left is Black/White. G/B is the positive and B/W is the negative. Be careful when cutting these and splicing as there is not a lot of wire to play with. BE SURE TO DO THIS TO BOTH AMPS for both channels.
Here are the two wires separated from the others on one amp.
And another angle. The bottom two coming from the plug.
Here is what it looks like behind my seat now. I ran my power wire, remote, and signal feature wires all from the driver side to the passenger side since my sub is on the passenger side in the trunk. To keep things neat i ran what wires I could underneath things.This is a big pic so you can see it a bit better.
Now go in the trunk and take out the boot panel and the floor carpet! Pull your wires into the back. I found two good places to hook up the ground. One is the nut that holds down an amp, or if you snap that off like i did by overtightening, there is a ground wire behind the passenger trunk panel that you can also put your amp ground.
Here are those two options. First is the amp where i snapped off the bolt (the circle on the middle-right is where it would be)
or this ground wire i found behind the passenger trunk panel. It's the green nut in the middle of the pic.
Now hook everything up in the trunk, connect the battery, test it to make sure all your connections are good, replace all body panels, and enjoy the music!
(If anybody can help me to make this better please let me know or chime in!)
05-11-2007, 09:54 AM
#3
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location:
Posts: 3,062
RE: Sub install how to for 99-04 verts (CAUTION, PICS!)
Wow NICE writeup & pics, thanks! I'm planning on doing the exact same thing to my '02 vert this summer, your photos help a lot!
Q: you ran the remote on from a 30amp fuse.. isn't that WAY too big a fuse for a remote lead?
Q2: did you mean you spliced into BOTH rear amps for a sub feed? I was under the impression just the driver side one was used for the factory woofers(?)
Q: you ran the remote on from a 30amp fuse.. isn't that WAY too big a fuse for a remote lead?
Q2: did you mean you spliced into BOTH rear amps for a sub feed? I was under the impression just the driver side one was used for the factory woofers(?)
05-11-2007, 11:11 AM
#4
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: VA
Posts: 1,676
RE: Sub install how to for 99-04 verts (CAUTION, PICS!)
Thanks a lot! Glad I could be of some help.
Question 1: I ran the remote lead to fuse #30 which is a 15 amp fuse.
Question 2: Yes I spliced into both. I have the Mach 460 without the subwoofers. In order to get proper sound from the sub you need both channels. In theory i would think that you could get away with wiring it all from one, but if the stereo is putting certain sounds from one channel and different sounds from the other at the same time, then you won't get the right sound. My one wire came undone from one amp once and i immediately could tell the difference in the sound. Try it and let me know, and i'll add it in here!
Question 1: I ran the remote lead to fuse #30 which is a 15 amp fuse.
Question 2: Yes I spliced into both. I have the Mach 460 without the subwoofers. In order to get proper sound from the sub you need both channels. In theory i would think that you could get away with wiring it all from one, but if the stereo is putting certain sounds from one channel and different sounds from the other at the same time, then you won't get the right sound. My one wire came undone from one amp once and i immediately could tell the difference in the sound. Try it and let me know, and i'll add it in here!
05-11-2007, 11:51 AM
#5
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: South Jersey
Posts: 2,489
RE: Sub install how to for 99-04 verts (CAUTION, PICS!)
Getting a nice sub box in a vert is a PITA!!! I wound up using a smalled sealed wedge style box with a 12" JLw6. I wanted to use the 15's from my truck but there was no way that was happening.
JLaudio makes a nice Stealth Box with a 10 that fits in the right corner and sounds decent...i might get one someday.
JLaudio makes a nice Stealth Box with a 10 that fits in the right corner and sounds decent...i might get one someday.
05-11-2007, 12:26 PM
#6
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: VA
Posts: 1,676
RE: Sub install how to for 99-04 verts (CAUTION, PICS!)
I know! I lucked out and my box just fits in through the trunk opening. I have to muscle it a bit but it goes. I am going to make a new box when i get a new sub. Right now i have a 10" Kicker L5 in a vented box, and i am going to replace it with an Elemental Design 13Ov.2 in a sealed wedge box along with a Clarion MAX675VD and CDT ES-610's. I can't wait! If you guys ever need stereo help, talkto Preal and ttocs in the audio section. They are extremely reliable and upfront.
DTP, are the 96-98 vert trunks essentially the same as the new edges?
DTP, are the 96-98 vert trunks essentially the same as the new edges?
05-11-2007, 12:48 PM
#7
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: South Jersey
Posts: 2,489
RE: Sub install how to for 99-04 verts (CAUTION, PICS!)
yeah they are basically the same size/shape with that small *** opening to squeeze a box through.
My problem wasi wasn't willing to ditch the spare tire so mine had to clear with the spare in the car and be able to be removed easily if i had a flat and need access to the tire/jack.
My problem wasi wasn't willing to ditch the spare tire so mine had to clear with the spare in the car and be able to be removed easily if i had a flat and need access to the tire/jack.