XLSuruaT
New Member
My setup in my taurus:
-polk audio db3000 tweeters
-polk audio ex 572a in front and rear
-mtx 5400x 5 channel amplifer
-image dynamics idq 10"
-mtx ebc
If you noticed, I did not mention I had a head unit, because I decided to stick with the jbl one from ford. Before I installed the amp, I had polk audio ex speakers and tweeters in the car and they did sound better than the jbl speakers in there. However, once I added the 5 channel amp to the system the sound became 10 times better. Then I added the sub and that made a whole world of difference. However, if you look at the rcu, you will notice a crap load of wires. The fact that the rcu is in the trunk makes this quite convenient since you do not need to run wires across your car. Below are some pics of my audio installation. I made my own harness so that I did not have to cut a single audio wire. This harness costed me about $45 more than what I would have spent if I cut the wires. This may seem a bit steep, but it has already paid itself off as I blew the amp within a week of installing the system, so going back 100% factory amp setup took me only 5 seconds. This also helped in the removal of my audio equipment when I sold my car.
I nor the organization hosting this information shall not be liable for any problems, damage, or injuries resulting from this guide. It is your car and you are responsible for what you do. All of this information is based on my experiences with my car and information from the 1996 ford service manual diagrams for the jbl audio system.
Here is the amp with both of my harness connected:
Here is a close up of the harness which plugs directly into the rcu and amp to get the 4 channels of audio. One plug is the output plug from the rcu (RCU BLACK CONNECTOR C1) which I had cut off of a taurus at the junk yard. The other plug is a modified turbo wire 5513 harness. I'll explain later how to modify this harness. You can see that there are wires directly connecting both plugs together. The output harness from the rcu not only has the 8 wires for the 4 channels of audio, but has the signal for the power on (hint hint) for the power antenna and some other stuff. It is important that you bridge these pins between these two plugs.
*If you haven't figured out the hint, this would be a good wire to tap for a remote wire. Unfortunatly, I realized this too late and ended up tapping the exact same wire right near my power antenna plug.
One problem I ran into while installing my amp is finding the bass signal. As advised by many, I tried the rear speakers first. However, being that the jbl system has an amp'ed sub I realized that ford must have cut the lower frequencies from going to the 4 channels. I ended up making this harness up just for the sub. The the rca's go into the amp, the other end plugs directly into the plug which comes off of the sub amp which is mounted on the sub. You can pick this plug up at Circuit city for $10 a pair.
For the harness, I ended up buying the turbowire 5513 for $15 and the cut plug from a junk yard taurus for $25. One problem is that the turbo wire only has 8 wires. Another problem is that the turbowire harness is 100% useless for our cars because it has a plug to bypass the rcu and connect the head unit to the output harness which goes directly to the speakers. If you know anything about our cars, there is only a left and right audio signal coming from the head unit for the tape player. CD and radio are direct to the rcu. The only part we care about this harness is the part which plugs into the RCU Black Connecter C1
If you look at the picture below, you will see a small red plate inside the plug. You will need to pull this out on both plugs of the 5513. It may help to get a very small screw driver and push from the back then use pliers to pull it out from the front.
Here is the fun part, get a hammer. Carefully start hitting the small plug (the one that does NOT fit on RCU Black Connector C1). MAKE SURE NOT TO HURT ANY WIRES OR PINS on the plug. Feel free to destroy that plug, all you need is 4 of the pins. You will need to use 4 of these pins and push them in the appropriate locations on the other plug so that you can plug RCU Black Connector C1 and have all the wires map to eachother correctly. This should give you the extra pins to bridge the 4 non-audio wires which come out of the rcu. If your audio system needs more pins, go ahead and use the unused pins. Push the red plate back into your plug and you now have the other end. You will obviously have to cut the wires on your new connector in the middle otherwise they will loop to other pins and we dont want that.
Here is the RCU Black Connector C1 on the jbl rcu which the harness plugs (right in front, all colorful) into:
Here is a pic of the harness connected to the rcu. It is also connected to the output connector, but it is covered by the harness plug which is connecting to it. That plug in the previous picture, is pluged into the harness. Sorry for the low quality, this was when my digital video camera was my digital camera.
Here is a picture of the sub harness plugging into the jbl amp:
Final product
Ok, I'm done
This was all copied from my post on tcca: http://www.taurusclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5638
Let me know if you have any questions I sold the taurus a month ago, so the harnesses are available if anyone is interested
-polk audio db3000 tweeters
-polk audio ex 572a in front and rear
-mtx 5400x 5 channel amplifer
-image dynamics idq 10"
-mtx ebc
If you noticed, I did not mention I had a head unit, because I decided to stick with the jbl one from ford. Before I installed the amp, I had polk audio ex speakers and tweeters in the car and they did sound better than the jbl speakers in there. However, once I added the 5 channel amp to the system the sound became 10 times better. Then I added the sub and that made a whole world of difference. However, if you look at the rcu, you will notice a crap load of wires. The fact that the rcu is in the trunk makes this quite convenient since you do not need to run wires across your car. Below are some pics of my audio installation. I made my own harness so that I did not have to cut a single audio wire. This harness costed me about $45 more than what I would have spent if I cut the wires. This may seem a bit steep, but it has already paid itself off as I blew the amp within a week of installing the system, so going back 100% factory amp setup took me only 5 seconds. This also helped in the removal of my audio equipment when I sold my car.
I nor the organization hosting this information shall not be liable for any problems, damage, or injuries resulting from this guide. It is your car and you are responsible for what you do. All of this information is based on my experiences with my car and information from the 1996 ford service manual diagrams for the jbl audio system.
Here is the amp with both of my harness connected:
Here is a close up of the harness which plugs directly into the rcu and amp to get the 4 channels of audio. One plug is the output plug from the rcu (RCU BLACK CONNECTOR C1) which I had cut off of a taurus at the junk yard. The other plug is a modified turbo wire 5513 harness. I'll explain later how to modify this harness. You can see that there are wires directly connecting both plugs together. The output harness from the rcu not only has the 8 wires for the 4 channels of audio, but has the signal for the power on (hint hint) for the power antenna and some other stuff. It is important that you bridge these pins between these two plugs.
*If you haven't figured out the hint, this would be a good wire to tap for a remote wire. Unfortunatly, I realized this too late and ended up tapping the exact same wire right near my power antenna plug.
One problem I ran into while installing my amp is finding the bass signal. As advised by many, I tried the rear speakers first. However, being that the jbl system has an amp'ed sub I realized that ford must have cut the lower frequencies from going to the 4 channels. I ended up making this harness up just for the sub. The the rca's go into the amp, the other end plugs directly into the plug which comes off of the sub amp which is mounted on the sub. You can pick this plug up at Circuit city for $10 a pair.
For the harness, I ended up buying the turbowire 5513 for $15 and the cut plug from a junk yard taurus for $25. One problem is that the turbo wire only has 8 wires. Another problem is that the turbowire harness is 100% useless for our cars because it has a plug to bypass the rcu and connect the head unit to the output harness which goes directly to the speakers. If you know anything about our cars, there is only a left and right audio signal coming from the head unit for the tape player. CD and radio are direct to the rcu. The only part we care about this harness is the part which plugs into the RCU Black Connecter C1
If you look at the picture below, you will see a small red plate inside the plug. You will need to pull this out on both plugs of the 5513. It may help to get a very small screw driver and push from the back then use pliers to pull it out from the front.
Here is the fun part, get a hammer. Carefully start hitting the small plug (the one that does NOT fit on RCU Black Connector C1). MAKE SURE NOT TO HURT ANY WIRES OR PINS on the plug. Feel free to destroy that plug, all you need is 4 of the pins. You will need to use 4 of these pins and push them in the appropriate locations on the other plug so that you can plug RCU Black Connector C1 and have all the wires map to eachother correctly. This should give you the extra pins to bridge the 4 non-audio wires which come out of the rcu. If your audio system needs more pins, go ahead and use the unused pins. Push the red plate back into your plug and you now have the other end. You will obviously have to cut the wires on your new connector in the middle otherwise they will loop to other pins and we dont want that.
Here is the RCU Black Connector C1 on the jbl rcu which the harness plugs (right in front, all colorful) into:
Here is a pic of the harness connected to the rcu. It is also connected to the output connector, but it is covered by the harness plug which is connecting to it. That plug in the previous picture, is pluged into the harness. Sorry for the low quality, this was when my digital video camera was my digital camera.
Here is a picture of the sub harness plugging into the jbl amp:
Final product
Ok, I'm done
This was all copied from my post on tcca: http://www.taurusclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5638
Let me know if you have any questions
I sold the taurus a month ago, so the harnesses are available if anyone is interested 
