very neat. I bet leaning back and listening is a treat each time. We won't even ask about your amplifier(s) and loud-speakers ..

 

I started listening to car audio with an 8-track, but I have to admit that I've never been happy with the sound quality. The worst problem was the poor head to tape alignment leading to very bad high frequency response. I've tried aligning the head of a deck to a tape, but it never stays. Then there was the wow and flutter distortions that was all too common.

Cassettes tended keep their alignments better. Then when Nakamichi introduced NAAC in their TD-1200, I was in hog heaven. Until one day the unit just stopped working, and Nakamichi had stopped repairing those units. That's when I started giving up on really expensive car audio.

 

yes, 8-track tapes & players never did well in cars, I was referring to Home Audio.

 

I never had very quiet cars, so I was using high power amps and speakers to overcome the car noises. The first "high power" system only had 30+30 watts, driving a pair of DLK Powerdome coaxial 6x9's mounted in the package tray of a 76 Granada, which had a bypassed catalytic converter and a Maremont Turboflow muffler. It was good for rock music, and probably damaged my hearing. This was before my experiments with compression.

I moved up to Sony's first car system that included an AM/FM/cassette head unit and their first PWM amplifier, keeping the DLK speakers, but installed into a newer car. That system sounded great, until it died one day. I dug into it a little but could not figure out what the problems were.

Later I got a complete Nakamichi system that cost more than the 69 Mach-I that I installed it into. It had the best sounding cassette deck designed for a car, lots of power overcame all the noises from the car, and compensated for my declining hearing. I think the bone-crushing suspension I had in that car may have eventually damaged the cassette deck; still don't know for sure. And the amplifiers started to make some weird popping noises before the head unit failed, so I guess they were going as well.

The Nakamichi speakers died of surround foam rot, so the only functioning parts I have left over from my various systems are the DLK speakers. They're way too deep and heavy to install into the hatch of the Aerostar. Plus, they're 8 ohms, so they will sound weak with modern amplifiers, as most of today's car audio systems use either 4 ohm or 2 ohm speakers to get their higher power levels.

 

Thats why sound deadening the doors using a dynamat type material is more important than the type of speakers you use. Eliminating resonance and keeping outside noises out and inside noises in is equal to running a higher wattage because you get better clarity and volume at any given power level.

Running speakers that are efficient is a great way to upgrade. Basically you want a speaker that can handle high power levels, but that does not need a lot of power to produce good sound.

 

I live on Hawaii, the Aerostar's AC is not working and the repair costs $800, so I almost always have my windows rolled down. Thanks to vent shades that's even possible during light rain, but the shades add even a bit more noise, so I dare say in my case sound-deadening the doors would be a wasteful investment.

Khan, what do you think of my rewiring manual ?

 

I'm not sure, you claim that just removing the black connector fixes the issue. From my understanding of how the wiring on these systems works, you still essentially have a common ground system, which is 90% of the problem, plus now your system is a spliced up mess, which defeats the purpose. It becomes a matter of cutting wires every time you need to replace a head unit (depending on how quality your unit is, this is not outside the real of possibility). The common ground does not occur at the connectors, it occurs in the harness somewhere.

I am still in favor of new wire runs to each speaker because you step away from the common ground setup which causes most of the sound distortion. Most aftermarket speaker wire is of higher quality than the stock wire too, though the stock wire itself is usually adequate for most situations.

When I run new speaker wire on my Fords, I reuse the stock black Ford connector, and hook all my speaker wires to that. That way a harness adapter still works perfectly. In fact, the way I did it on my Merkur is was to run new wire to all 4 speakers (it was common ground too), replace the stock Merkur connector with the Ford type connector, both the black speaker connector and the grey one too. I included the remote trigger wire right into the grey connector too, and added the illumination circuit to the Merkur. I then mounted an amp in the trunk, and completed all the hookups there. I ran the speker wires back towards the front, and connected them to a Ford harness adapter, so it plugs right into the black connector behind the radio. This setup gives mea very clean looking setup that is basically foolproof. You can either run the speakers off the head unit, or the amp, but not both. The connections are all in the same place. I can replace components in the future by just pulling the radio.

 

No, I don't. Removing the connector is rather cosmetic, but also consequential because what eventually migrates the wiring 100% from common to floating ground is FRONT: spanning TWO new ground wires, one left, one right, and REAR: a) omitting the control unit b) cutting the blue/orange common ground c) recycling the control wires into ground wires. Since the two new front wires need to get crimped or soldered, I crimped them directly to the aftermarket harness, and then thought that doing the same with the other Ford wires looks cleaner and skips one unnecessary interface.

I was able to figure this out thanks to my ohm meter, so I can testify that following my manual provides 100% floating ground, WITHOUT any extra wires running into the rear.

No. Last but not least the sound itself proves I did right: both, muffled distortions and popping are GONE, the sound is (also thanks to better stereo) now MUCH better with the same speakers.

My new stereo only has 1 front and 1 rear channel out, so no extra rewiring for the tail-gate speakers was necessary.

Mess? It's looking very clean to me

I don't expect to swap the new stereo any time soon. I invested a lot of research time before purchasing it. I also think your logic is wrong because a) the new stereo uses a very common connector which might fit a new stereo, and b) if not, then (if I had kept the Ford harness) would have to crimp or solder a NEW Ford harness adapter to the wires of the new radio (with the two new front negatives crimped to the balck Ford harness) .. which is exactly the same amount of steps and work as when cutting the old crimps in the middle, pull the wires out, and recrimp.

Even more, the advantage of cutting the black harness out is one less interface = less resistance.

Behind the harness. Impossible to get there. That's why I armed myself with the ohm meter and completely circumnavigated both, front and rear common ground wires

What you are promoting here is the THIRD step, because with the existing Ford paper speakers it is simply not worth running new wires, because there will be 0 audible sound quality improvement. I think the next step would actually be to install better speakers, even with the existing wires! Then assess the sound; THEN potentially, if deemed helpful, invest more time and $$ into rewiring ..

With a Van in general and the Aerostar with its 6 speakers (two in the tail gate) in particular it's much more tricky work, so I think the first phase w. an Aerostar may confidently be to recycle the existing wiring.

Yes kudos, a smart, clean, and bulletproof Merkur setup

 

has anyone added subwoofers to the rear hatch?

 

The rear hatch doesn't have enough depth for a woofer of any substance. Plus the fiberglass structure seems kind of fragile, so it may not be able to hold a heavy woofer.

 

i had no idea the hatch was fiberglass.i haven't looked into doing this because i was sure someone else would have tried and would know.

 

Having experienced the weight of the rear door while changing the lift supports, I'm having a hard time accepting that it's made of fiberglass. And mine doesn't have a wiper, heater, or speakers, though the grilles are there. I wonder if the speaker wires are there?

 

Both mine had the wipers, heaters, and speakers in the back, so I don't know whether a van without those options would have the wiring installed. With, the wiring would go through corrugated hoses that connect between the top edge of the door and the rear edge of the roof.

I've had to get into the rear hatch before, and it is definitely fiberglass.

 

the Aerostar Hatch and the Hood are both fiberglass.

The weight of the hatch is because 1) of its size, 2) the added weight of the rear glass, and 3) all other reinforcing hardware added.

if you remove the upholstery interior panels, you can see the rough fiberglass at the cutouts and also the vertical steel reinforcements.

 

I never understood the reasoning behind the heavy as hell fiberglass back hatch door. Expensive glass layup and must have been a high factory blemish defect rejection rate. Hard to get 'glass surfaces to match complex auto paints with steel surfaces.

Love the huge swing up back door for family and traveling uses especially in the rain and loading lots of gear.
But god help the guy that has to change the hold up rams by himself.