The NOOB Stereo install write up for dummies!
 

Okay my fellow Noobies!!! I decided to give a write up attempt for the fellow's that are going to get rid of that BOSE system head unit but keep the speakers.
First my thankx to the Vetrans that gave me the little tips to look for that helped me.

1.) Alright, first, to do it right, you'll need a ford DIN removel tool (so you don't break anything I got lucky without it)
2.) On the Sides of the Radio Head Unit and the CD player, there are two 1/8" plastic strips, remove them w/ a small screw driver or pocket knife.
3.) There will be 4 holes visible per unit (4 on the cd player and 4 on the Radio)
Use the DIN removal tool to take the CD Player out FIRST. There is only one connection from the CD to the Radio, and it is long enough to remove without much problem. IF you try to tremove the Radio Head Unit before the CD player, you are going to find the Factory harnesses are NOT long enough to get the deck all the way out.
4.) With the CD Player out, you will be able to reach behind the Radio and unplug the CD player.
5.) Reach behind the Radio now, and unplug the main harnesses. You may have to unscrew the anteanna, I did.
6.) Now that Both units are out and you can see your harnesses, this is where the fun part comes in.
7.) Now, for those of you that think that the FC harness will work w/ the FD Bose harness. NO IT WILL NOT! They are the same clips, but there is a wire missing, and it's a VERY IMPORTANT ONE!
8.) Purchase the Scosche MA02B Harness kit from a auto-sound retailer.
9.) You will notice that unlike the FC harness the Smaller harness has 5 wires instead of 4. There is Green, Green w/ Black, Violet, Violet w/ Black, and also a Blue/White wire. Viola! The Remote Wire for the Amp to Activate.

(intermission)
See what mazda did with the stereo in the RX-7 w/ the Bose sound setup is put a group of amplifiers in series. The problem with this is, if one doesn't work, NONE OF THEM WILL. There is a central amplifier connected to the Factory harness, and with out that Blue/White Remote wire, that amp WILL NOT TURN ON, Hense NO SOUND TO SPEAKERS!

10.) Okay, the first half of this is simple, It's play the COLOR MATCHING GAME!
Splice your wires in your desired fashion, color to color.
11.) Now is the fun part. Since all of wires have been spliced, you will notice a problem. The factory harness for the Rear Speakers, only has 4 wires connected. The Harness kit from Scosche has 5. That Blue white wire will need to be clipped from the Rear Speaker harness and attached to the Remote Amp Turn on wire (Blue/White) on your Deck's Harness.
12.) The Factory harness in the car will have 5 wires on one side, and 4 on the other w/ a 5th wire in the middle of the harness. That wire will be a Pea Green and Black color. Cut that wire CAREFULLY YOU DON'T HAVE A LOT TO WORK WITH! Remember the Blue wire you spliced into the Stereo harness? Splice that with the Green/Black wire you just cut.
13.) Ground the harness. I Took my shiift knob off, removed the center console and grounded to the shift plate dust cover thing. (sorry for no tech term)
14.) plug in your deck and give her a test, you should hear music!!
15.) Get a beer and Kick back, you have beaten one of the biggest pain in the butt's in the Auto-sound industry!

This is my first write-up, edit's are welcome, and If I'm way off, Admins! Feel free to flame me, call me names and never let me do this again! - But I'm perdy darn sure I'm right!


Comet
SHE TOUCHED MY WANKEL!

Good job! It's pretty straightforward, but it sure is nice to have a NOOB guide :).

Dale

Noobs like photos! Post 'em if you've got 'em!!


-s-

I will get my friends digi' camera and get pics in there!

There are a few major things you left out, and a couple things said that would mess up a NOOB too.
For starters, if your equipment has never been removed before, the factory has the harnesses routed behind (or around) the back brace, and it will be quite a task removing the decks the first time (since you will not know the techniques yet). Most owners of Bose equipped cars will likely have virgin systems...every one I have worked on so far has been like this, but judging by the writeup here, yours was not. Anyway, if the decks have never been removed before, one may not be able to use the procedure mentioned above or it may be extremely difficult. You may find that the CD player will only come out just a little bit and stops. However, if the equipment has been out before, then most likely the installer didn't run the wiring in the factory way, and simply pushed the wiring to the left of the decks (hopefully not behind them or friction against the raw brace will eventually cut into the harnesses). If this is the case, teh CD player will simply slide right out...but so far I have not been so lucky on any FD's I have worked on.
The trick is to remove both units at the same time slightly...and then you can wiggle them both back and forth until the CD harness comes loose to give you more slack. Then you may be able to pull it out of the dash...but trust me, this will take some serious time if you have not done this before and your decks have never been out...so don't get frustrated and tear stuff out. Once you get the CD player out, you will still want to move the cassette deck out as far as it will go initially to get access to the back of it and remove the CD pin connection.
You do NOT need to unscrew the antenna connection from the factory deck! There is a little cover on the right side of the center console that can easily be removed by removing the one pop fastener...then you will have access to both antenna seperation points - simply unplug. Another thing that will be needed that wasn't mentioned is a male to male antenna adapter - at least on most RX7's...some may not need this however.
Anyway, once the CD player is out and you have access in the dash and the cassette deck is out slightly, you will have access to the harnesses that are more less stuck behind the back brace. If need be, remove these first patiently, and then there will be enough slack to get the deck out most of the way where you will have generous access to remove the 3 remaining harnesses. If you are really dilligent or already know what to do (blind) you can reach behind the deck and unhook the harnesses first as was originally suggested, but this may prove difficult for a noobie.
About the harness wiring...I really didn't dig into everything you wrote, because it is really not necessary...
The politically correct method is to get an adapter, like a Soundgate for example which is pre-wired on the end that plugs into the car's harnesses, and color coded industry standard on the other end, but there are many other methods, but for most people, they should simply buy an adapter, which is about $29-49.
If you have a (substancially) low powered deck, or one that has level output adjustability, you can simply wire its speaker level output directly into a standard adapter harness, as if there were no Bose system (as you speak of). Yes you are correct that the amp turn on lead of your aftermarket deck will need to drive the Bose amp turn on relay...but this is pretty much the way any deck will interface with an amplified factory stereo. If you have a high powered deck, then it may be a little dangerous to do a "straight wire" - the volume becomes very touchy and the system will become overdriven easily...seriously...the factory amps are fragile...don't tempt fate.
There are quite a few more points I could easily cover here, but I will leave it at this, and put a full fleged writup on my site when time permits.

My Bose CD deck keeps spitting out CDs (doesn't want to play them) and want to buy an aftermarktet deck soon. Does the bose system crank better with an aftermarket deck? So which adaptor is best suited and will I be able to buy it in Australia? Thanks.

Joseph

You have not lived until you realize your new in dash changer will not fit without complete removal of that steel back brace. I had to eliminate it as my Eclipse 56050 uses up every fraction of an inch to fit back into the console. The chassis of my car now has my blood type :)

The Bose amps are designed to use high voltage audio input...around 4V, but not speaker level, so in theory sound quality is already down somewhat when using an aftermarket deck unless you can find some type of RCA to wire adapter with level matching (I've seen these before). However, these are quite expensive...
The Bose system is only designed to put out a preset amount, so looking to push it to "crank" more is not the best idea. Sure, more than the correct input range will force the amps to work a little harder, but at the expense of distortion and reliability.
However, as I mentioned already, you can drive them with speaker level input if you have a low powered deck or a deck where you can drop the level in some way to compensate (for example, built in eq, or independent level faders). Even then it can overdrive them easily, so one has to be extremely careful if you are doing this technique, and once again, this will hurt sound quality somewhat. Then again, in the current mp3 dominated market, people don't really seem to care or even notice the difference in sound quality anymore.
Either way, I really recommend someone using an adapter when adding an aftermarket unit to the Bose system...any major brand should be OK - Scosche, Soundgate, etc.

just curious if it does it all the time or just during warm-up?

You say on the sides of the radio head unit. I cant see the sides of my radio only the front face. Do I have to remove anything to get to the side of the radio?

Heres a list of the major components you will need to replace your Bose Headunit with an aftermarket one.

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showthread.php?t=358142

I had to remove my whole cluster, to get those darn things out.

Yes, if you don't use the technique I mentioned - it is VERY difficult to remove them. This is why I said that the original post would likely get some people in trouble!

HAHAHAHAHA me too, got my D1 and slid it in for the first time and it stuck out 2 inches. I was like SHIT! So i got out the air saw and cut that bracket apart.

IMO I would simply get a shorter deck before I would hack up an FD. However, I am one of those warped people that still thinks the FD is something that it may not be any longer - the kind of car NOBODY would hack up, particularly over a radio. But then again, I have even heard of people converting FD's into drift cars, as well as repainting original yellow R1's other (goofy) colors. etc, so on those lines, hacking support / structure brackets is pretty mild, I guess.