Deck Wiring

[Joshwfl]

Ok, I'm too cheap to buy a harness kit so I tested and installed my deck directly to the stock wires today. This is what my 1993 has:

Blue/Red- Power
Red/Black- Ground (I also had a plastic plug with a larger ground that I used)
Purple- Accessory power
Orange, Orange/Blue- Right Rear
Green, White- Left Rear
Green/Orange, Green/Red- Right Front
Blue/White, Blue- Left Front

The new deck sounds great, hope this helps!

[GeFeldz]

Blue/Red- Power
Red/Black- Ground (I also had a plastic plug with a larger ground that I used)
Purple- Accessory power
Orange, Orange/Blue- Right Rear
Green, White- Left Rear
Green/Orange, Green/Red- Right Front
Blue/White, Blue- Left Front[/b]

Does anyone know if these colors match the older 88-91 mazdas?
Is there a separate amp for the rear speakers? In that case, do all the other colors match? (for the power and front speakers)
My 9 is an ´89
Edit: Oh btw, did you figure out the polarity of the speaker wires, as in which ones are + and -?

[donbryce]

Does anyone know if these colors match the older 88-91 mazdas?
Is there a separate amp to the rear speakers? In that case, do all the other colors match? (for the power and front speakers)
My 9 is an ´89
Edit: Oh btw, did you figure out the polarity of the speaker wires, as in which ones are + and -? [/b]

Welcome to the forum. This is an oldie thread, but anyway...Yes, there is a separate amp for the rear shelf speakers. If your head unit is cassette/radio, it's in the trunk, behind the panel at the back opposite rear seatback. If you have the radio/CD player, it's up front behind the dash.
As for colors, your easiest route (if you want to scratch make the harness adapter) is follow the previous poster's advice and test for each (power always hot, power switched from ignition, antenna trigger, speakers, etc.).
To find out which speaker lead wire is + and -, touch an AAA or AA battery to the wires and observe the cone movement. When it moves out, you have the + and - leads corresponding to the battery terminals.
A word of caution on these old Mazda radio set-ups: it may not be possible or practical to keep the 'sub amp' (at 25W, who'd want it?) and just change the head unit, due to the complexity of the wiring from HU to amp to speakers and back. Much easier to either keep everything stock, or possibly just change speakers (those stock units are 8 ohm, BTW, not 4), or rip it all out and maybe use just the wiring for the speakers.

[pomes131]

Yeah the HC's stereo is not fun to play with! When I wanted a new head unit I went to circuit city and they were saying exactly what Donbryce said...I ended up going to a "pro" shop, and they intalled the head unit for me no problem and ran all new speaker wires...then a while later, I wanted an indash eq installed and couldn't even get a shop to do it!! They just flat out said that they weren't interested...I thought money could buy anything! So I went with a trunk mounted eq, worked out better in the long run....BTW, I never realized that it was originally an 8-ohm setup..interesting...also I had that factory eq before, that was pretty cool...

[GeFeldz]

Thanks for the welcome and the replies
I have no head unit, because someone on the long list of owners decided to rip it out and cut the harness... I'm going to be installing a cheap sony head unit i have, and i'll probably hook it up to the speakers that are in the car atm. The mid bass speakers on the rear rack are 6 1/2 inch units, however i doubt they're stock as they say coustic on the membrane. I won't be using the factory amp btw This summer the rear rack will get 6 1/2 inch coaxials or component speakers powered by their own amp. I will also be installing a 10" woofer in a cabinet, with a mono block.

I'll have to break out the voltmeter to get to the power cable it seems. Some previous owner already made a new ok ground for the HU. The battery trick is something i hoped to avoid, if someone else already had figured it out

The harness is quite the mess of color coded cables i have to say, and trying to find a wiring diagram online is giving me gray hair at the age of 21!
BTW, the genius who cut the factory harness made sure to not leave as much cable as possible.

[pomes131]

Mounting Hardware: http://www.installer-data.com/item/display....php?it=99-7500

Don't know if you want/need that now but...also circuit city/best buy or local car audio shop would have mounting bracket too...btw, no need to avoid the battery test..it won't hurt anything...but I don't have the speaker wires figured out as far as what is what...if the wires aren't long enough you could solder longer ones on...I'd say find a junkyard with the factory harness, cut it out leaving pigtails and solder it to your wires..and then get the harness adapter to hook to the deck...with the addition of the sub, I'd throw a dynamat type layer of material on the bottom of the rear deck and the trunk lid....lowes sells some stuff called peel and seal for cheap, you can find it in the roofing section..I found that before I did this I had a bad case of the rattles..if you use some of it, it also helps keep the sound in the car!! After all, you're paying for the stereo not everyone else! Also, throw a layer of rtv behind the license plate...that thing will drive you nuts!! Also I'd cut some upside down U shapes on the top of rear deck, those aftermarket speakers will make that floor up there rattle..just be careful not to make it ugly...dime sized should work and the carpet up there makes it barely noticable...I used a wire brush to do like a comb over effect lol..I put one on either side of the speaker cover centered..and one close to the rear brake light housing...good luck...its a good car for a sound system!!

[gangster929]

Ok people, i have the wire allocations for the HC hardtop radio system. Here they are:
Blue/red- constant power
Blue/white- Switched power
The radio runs a chassis earth, you will need to run a seperate earth lead for your new radio
Pink- antenna wire

The other two wires are for power to the rear amp for the rear mounted subwoofers.

Speakers
Front
FL-green/black= + green/red= -
FR- green= + green/white= -

Rear
RL- blue/black= + blue/orange= -
RR- blue= + green= -

To access the radio, you need to remove the lower covver sheild on the passenger side which is cover the blower fan, behind the radio is a 10mm nut, remove this, on the driver side just reach bhind the radio and the other 10mm nut is there two, undo booth and pull the radio out.
Thats it.

[smen]

subwoofers? or are these just the speakers mounted in the parcel shelf?

[gangster929]

yes, thats them.