aux in for a 97 Explorer with a stock HU with 6cd changer

[selebrin]

hi to all!!

so i have a 97 explorer with stock HU with stock 6cd changer and no sub
i am trying to hook up an aux input to it...

i know there is that PIE thing, but i was wondering if i could do it cheaper

what i was thinking of doing is just cutting into the cd changer connector which is a black square plug with like 8 wires and making a blank cd...

that should work right??
does anyone have a wiring diagram for that connector?

and i was also wondering about the wiring...
so it's cd changer -> hu -> amp -> speakers right??

thanks!!

-Alex

 

[617ricky]

I have a 97 and was just in the same predicament (I was using a cassette aux input thing for a while), and honestly your best bet is to just put in an aftermarket deck.. I did it for $35 incl. shipping by getting everything on fleabay (deck, harness, dash kit).. The amp causes a little hassle, cuz you technically should get a bypass cable to disable it, but that's another $10 and more importantly, a bunch of extra work.. If you get the right harness, you just gotta connect the 2 wires for the amp, and you can use it in conjunction w/ the deck.. You gotta be careful with the vol/eq levels tho, cuz there's alot of extra power using both, but as long as you do it right, it sounds fine - definitely better than stock.. I was looking at the 1 that plugs into the CD changer connection, but it was way too expensive, so in the end I'm happier with this.. My deck has Aux input in the front, plus USB and SD connections which is cool, in addition to playing mp3 CDs, and looks way cooler than stock - so in the end it's way better than having just a 3.5mm aux input jack..

 

[jad2411]

Here you go:

Cut 1,2,7 & 8,
you'll need an RCA extension, one side male, one side female, cut that in half
solder the female side to the HU side of 1,2,7 & 8, that makes your audio in.
solder the male side to the changer side the same way, that makes an audio out.
now, when you want to play a cd, just connect the rca's together, wanna play from some other source, disconnect the rca's and connect something else in it's place.

You should be done in ~15-20 mins, and it will cost you $5

 

[selebrin]

Cut 1,2,7 & 8,
you'll need an RCA extension, one side male, one side female, cut that in half
solder the female side to the HU side of 1,2,7 & 8, that makes your audio in.
solder the male side to the changer side the same way, that makes an audio out.
now, when you want to play a cd, just connect the rca's together, wanna play from some other source, disconnect the rca's and connect something else in it's place.

You should be done in ~15-20 mins, and it will cost you $5

oh my god man! thanks sooooo much!!! that's exactly what i need

cheers!!!

 

[Kriegen]

Like the idea, but won't that leave a CD playing in the changer while your aux source is coming through the speakers?

 

[selebrin]

Like the idea, but won't that leave a CD playing in the changer while your aux source is coming through the speakers?

i believe you have to cut the audio wires between the cd and hu and put a male-female audio jack between them. if you want to connect your mp3 device to the hu side. if you want to play cds reconnect both sides. should be super simple.

and yes i think your cd will keep spinning because all the other wires are connected. if you disconnect them the hu would say there's no cd...

 

[Kriegen]

A possible solution would be to set up a switched headphone/line-in jack similar to what you find on computer speakers where if you plug in the headphone, it cuts the music to the speaker. With this, you would set up a relay that would do two things:
1. Controls a switch to change between the two sources
2. If the HU will still play the incoming music (this is the big if), cut the power to the CD changer.

 

[jad2411]

It will continue playing, so what's the issue? you have the audio out from the changer disconected, so that won't cause interference.
I have an ON/OFF switch on #10 (IIRC) but if I turn it off, HU just says NOCDDJ or Error, don't remember which exactly. So just leave it playing and enjoy

 

[Lzwo]

and yes i think your cd will keep spinning because all the other wires are connected. if you disconnect them the hu would say there's no cd...

I love this post, since I've been trying to figure out how to add an aux jack/3.5mm plug since I got my "new to me" 97 Mounty 3 months ago. I have one twist, however.

My problem is the CD changer won't play a disk - it just cycles through each disk in order, track by track, but won't play. At the end of all 6, it errors out with the "disk error." From searching other posts, that seems to be a common problem with the orange button (clarion) changer. It inserts and ejects the disks fine, and changes between them fine, but it just won't start playing.

So, is there any way I can do this mod if the changer won't play a disk? I'm more than willing to totally disconnect the changer to do this (I can always plug my diskman into the 3.5mm jack to play a cd).
(So, ideally there would be a way to jump/bypass/crossconnect some wires so the headunit thought it was playing a cd?)

I know that the "easiest" solution would be to buy a new headunit, but I really don't want to do that - I'm happy with it, and I get books on tape from the library, so keeping the cassette is nice for me. I don't want to throw down $100+ for a replacement disk changer, and I really want the .mp3 input - I'll listen to my player much more than disks anyhow.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Keep warm.

 

[617ricky]

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Keep warm.

If you're happy with the cassette player, just go buy a cassette "Aux In" adaptor for about $10 at Walmart. I was using this 1 right here before I decided to upgrade my headunit.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=9917088

 

[Lzwo]

Thats how I've been doing it, but its not optimal - I can hear a tapping/swishing noise, which I'm guessing is the little spools moving around (annoying!), and I have to turn the volume up really loud, which starts causing lots of hiss/noise (super annoying).

Plus, because its all about the show, I'd rather have something hidden in the console than a wire hanging down from high up on the dash. Not a big deal, but i figure why not go with a wired-in fix if possible. But I can't see spending $60+ on the PIE adaptor or something similar, when I can get a new headunit for $100 or less.

(Of course I still have the wire hanging down problem with the new HU.)

 

[617ricky]

Thats how I've been doing it, but its not optimal - I can hear a tapping/swishing noise, which I'm guessing is the little spools moving around (annoying!), and I have to turn the volume up really loud, which starts causing lots of hiss/noise (super annoying).

Plus, because its all about the show, I'd rather have something hidden in the console than a wire hanging down from high up on the dash. Not a big deal, but i figure why not go with a wired-in fix if possible. But I can't see spending $60+ on the PIE adaptor or something similar, when I can get a new headunit for $100 or less.

That's exactly why I decided to upgrade the headunit, hissing and having to put it up too loud.. That's when I started searching ebay and craigslist, and I got a GOOD deal on a decent car stereo for $15.99 incl. shipping.. Then after that you can grab the harness and dash kit for $20 on ebay.. That's ALL it cost me, and it was so cheap in the end that I decided to throw another $100 into it and put a nice sub/amp in the cargo area (from craigslist, heh).. If you look around and do you're searching on ebay/craiglist, you should be able to have a deck in there for $50, tops.

 

[BrianDye]

Here you go:

Cut 1,2,7 & 8,
you'll need an RCA extension, one side male, one side female, cut that in half
solder the female side to the HU side of 1,2,7 & 8, that makes your audio in.
solder the male side to the changer side the same way, that makes an audio out.
now, when you want to play a cd, just connect the rca's together, wanna play from some other source, disconnect the rca's and connect something else in it's place.

You should be done in ~15-20 mins, and it will cost you $5

WOW dude, that is one of the best idea's ive heard in a long time! I wish I wouldda knew that when I got my 95, I had to listen to FM only for like a month, my CD changer wouldnt play anything, its the Clarion one. I had to use the cassette adapter for a week or two and hated all the interference, but wow! Thats a great little write up.

Are the power and ground leads on the connection always hot? I would love to use them for my little sound machine (PA/Ice cream man songs/animal sounds, connected to a PA speaker under the hood somewhere)

 

[617ricky]

I just wanted to add something about how you dont like the wire hanging down.. After I put my new stereo in, I got kinda tired of having the mp3 player hanging off too - but that's when I started utilizing some of the nice features of my deck.. Now instead of bringing out the mp3 player, I burn mp3 CD's that hold ~150 songs, which I just play on shuffle mode - so mp3 capability is definitely cool.. BUt on top of that, my deck also has a USB port AND a SD card port, on top of the Aux in plug.. So I have alot more options now, as opposed to just having the wire hanging down..

 

[jad2411]

IMy problem is the CD changer won't play a disk - it just cycles through each disk in order, track by track, but won't play. At the end of all 6, it errors out with the "disk error." From searching other posts, that seems to be a common problem with the orange button (clarion) changer. It inserts and ejects the disks fine, and changes between them fine, but it just won't start playing.

That´s the reason for the switch on mine when it starts acting up, I turn it off, it resets, then I turn it on again and it works ok for a while

As for the wire hanging down, when I had my cassette adapter, I got one with a jack, so that I could hide the wire behind the bezel and into the glove compartment, I think that it was a sony, so the only thing you saw was basically the plug hanging down around 1in

Brian
I do beleive that those are hot all the time, since I can eject the cartridge with the truck off, but you´ll need to check it out, I´m not completely sure

 

[explorerguy89]

i just used a cassette to audio converter =p ugly wire comes out but idc it works

 

[selebrin]

i just did it!!! just cut 1,2,7,8 wires , connected 7 and 8 together. got a headphones wire with a jack, connected R+ to 1, L+ to 2 and R-L- to 7-8. now when i connect my mp3 it shuts the cd sound. but not completely tho. i'll just burn a silent track cd for now. and maybe make some kind of a switch later.
like a on-off switch on the cd 7-8 L- R- line... that should work!!

thanks to jad2411 again!!!

cheers!!

Alex

 

[jad2411]

Credit goes to whoever did it first, I just copied his idea

the way that I did it transfers no sound over from the CD, but whatever works best for you I can connect either RCA or 3.5 using an ipod cable (RCA on one side, 3.5 on the other)

 

[Thallarsen]

jad2411, thanks for the post!
Any idea if this is the same harness for a Mach HU & disc changer?
Thanks in advance.....
J.P.

 

[selebrin]

btw my aux setup still works fine. i might put a switch on a ground wire from cd so there's no sound.