88 xlt radio help

[TonyLittell]

Fixing up this old truck and would love to get the radio working. I pulled the radio and it had two harnesses going to the radio (pictured) I found something online that had 86-88 wiring colors but most of it doesnt match what is in these harnesses. Can anyone either shoot me a link for the correct wiring descriptions OR tell me what each each color is? My truck has 2 dash speakers, 2 door speakers and 2 small factory boxed behind the seat with a speaker in each one if that helps identify anything. As always, thanks for all your help!!!!

 

[Brain75]

In the tech library, under wiring, the 83-90 stock wiring is listed and looks like this:

https://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/EDiagrams/files/Diagram_radio_typical_1of2.JPG

https://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/EDiagrams/files/Diagram_radio_typical_2of2.JPG

having just been in my 90 recently I can give you the big big shortcut... the one with 8 wires is the speakers (4 pairs), the one with 6 or 7 and a wire married over to an extra pin is the voltage/accessory/dimmer/etc - everything else. So just by number of pins what you have there doesn't make sense at all... I am gonna say some PO (previous owner)... butchered things... you got some work cut out for you now.

 

[TonyLittell]

In the tech library, under wiring, the 83-90 stock wiring is listed and looks like this:

https://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/EDiagrams/files/Diagram_radio_typical_1of2.JPG

https://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/EDiagrams/files/Diagram_radio_typical_2of2.JPG

having just been in my 90 recently I can give you the big big shortcut... the one with 8 wires is the speakers (4 pairs), the one with 6 or 7 and a wire married over to an extra pin is the voltage/accessory/dimmer/etc - everything else. So just by number of pins what you have there doesn't make sense at all... I am gonna say some PO (previous owner)... butchered things... you got some work cut out for you now.

the harness plugs you see are the stock plugs that I unplugged from the main factory harness when I removed the radio. and the cut ends are the ends that I cut tonight that wire inside the radio because they don’t un plug at the radio end. Nothing was hacked at all. It was all stock. The truck is an unmollested 1 owner truck that has been sitting for about 6 years that I talked my father in law out of (original owner)

 

[Brain75]

ignoring the fact it has 6 speakers instead of 4 (I know 2nd gen came with 2 door and 2 behind seat... the 2 extra in the dash I don't know enough about 1st gen to claim authority).... you need 2 wires to run each speaker... you got 6 wires on the connector that looks more likely to be speakers... that's not even enough to run 4 speakers.. so you are missing wires for sure. unless your picture just doesn't show some hidden wires tucked underneath each other.

the 6 or 7 pin one that is battery/accessory/illumination(dimmer)/etc has a married over pin in some years and a redundant in other years and missing in some years... it has 2 leads that are both marked illumination in the pinout.

The PO of my truck made a mess out of the wiring so I looked at junkyard examples to help figure it out and yours doesn't look like any other truck I have seen in the junkyard including an 88 (that I took the behind the seat speakers out of and sent off to a fellow user here).

 

[TonyLittell]

ignoring the fact it has 6 speakers instead of 4 (I know 2nd gen came with 2 door and 2 behind seat... the 2 extra in the dash I don't know enough about 1st gen to claim authority).... you need 2 wires to run each speaker... you got 6 wires on the connector that looks more likely to be speakers... that's not even enough to run 4 speakers.. so you are missing wires for sure. unless your picture just doesn't show some hidden wires tucked underneath each other.

the 6 or 7 pin one that is battery/accessory/illumination(dimmer)/etc has a married over pin in some years and a redundant in other years and missing in some years... it has 2 leads that are both marked illumination in the pinout.

The PO of my truck made a mess out of the wiring so I looked at junkyard examples to help figure it out and yours doesn't look like any other truck I have seen in the junkyard including an 88 (that I took the behind the seat speakers out of and sent off to a fellow user here).

nothing hidden in the harness but if you look close at the bottom harness the upper 2 have a jumper between them and then the bottom 2 have a jumper between them like maybe sharing grounds? Maybe that’s how ford wired it to get 6 speakers operational out of that plug?
My wiring knowledge is super basic so I’m definitely lost. But each of those wire bundles were wrapped in factory sheaths. One was black and the other was gray. And then the plugs that went down into the factory harness was wrapped in a black factory sponge/foam that I pulled off to be able to access those plug ends

 

[RobbieD]

I think that you're looking at an aftermarket dealer-installed radio and wiring.

In your picture, the lower plug is the speakers, and the upper is the power plug.

I can't remember the aftermarket radio brand, but do remember memorizing "yellow, red, white and blue" to be the positive speaker outputs starting at the passenger rear speaker, then going clockwise, with green and purple as grounds. The jumpered wires are the left and right speaker grounds. That's your lower plug.

The lower speaker plug is definitely aftermarket wire colors; the upper plug mimics the factory wire colors, but not exactly (example is the blue in the illumination circuit is way too dark). In fit and function, the plugs are compatible with OEM sound equipment.

Some pictures of the radio face, and any labels on the head unit, may jog my memory as to brand, but I'm sure that you've got an aftermarket "factory look-alike" radio. Hell, we're looking at what was put in the truck 36 years ago, so cut me and my memory some slack (plus, installers from that era were notorious as party animals). I'm thinking either Clarion or Automatic Radio ran those wire colors and plugs; there were several other aftermarket brands, such as Audiovox.

The aftermarket dealer-installed sound equipment at that time was designed to look like the OEM stuff. It didn't cost the car dealer near as much as the factory stuff, so it was very common at the time to be pre-installed by the dealer before the vehicle was sold; it was more profit for the dealer. The harnesses used in the installation kit would be accordingly sleeved, or bundled, to mimic an OEM install.

Whether or not you can get the radio to work, depends on what the problem is. Again, pics of the head unit would be helpful.

 

[Brain75]

While Robbie was beating his brain trying to remember I ran out and took a picture of my connector (since my dash is all still apart) to help you with the orientation and key and if you take that and combine it with the 1st tech library wiring schematic and read the colors you can line up what should be what (it's a mental exercise cause like robbie said, those are aftermarket connectors not Ford's)

I misread your first post and thought you cut those out of the truck side - so those are radio side, well from the 1st wiring schematic just going pin to pin to pin and ignoring color mismatch and getting function you should get it.

The speaker connector on the truck side (factory unmolested, note the key in the connector head to make the two connectors distinct)

look at the wiring schematic and fold/cut it in half in your brain, only look at the RIGHT side (speakers) and nothing else...Pin 1 is O/LG - that is Orange with Light Green stripe - check, and so on and so on (pin 4 doesn't match colors Tan/Yellow versus my Pink/Blue, but it is the only one and it is the same function (left rear speaker -).


and the power/illumination/etc.... mine is butchered and I haven't done anything to fix it beyond what the used car dealer did to "just get it working" - basically the key in the connector and a few pins are all that are useful here..

only looking at the LEFT side of the same schematic now we see pin one is LG/Y (Light Green/Yellow stripe) - check... and so on and so on (and this connector only has 6 pins).


The only way you are going to get a guide for the aftermarket radio side is to figure out what it is and google that radio up.

 

[TonyLittell]

I think that you're looking at an aftermarket dealer-installed radio and wiring.

In your picture, the lower plug is the speakers, and the upper is the power plug.

I can't remember the aftermarket radio brand, but do remember memorizing "yellow, red, white and blue" to be the positive speaker outputs starting at the passenger rear speaker, then going clockwise, with green and purple as grounds. The jumpered wires are the left and right speaker grounds. That's your lower plug.

The lower speaker plug is definitely aftermarket wire colors; the upper plug mimics the factory wire colors, but not exactly (example is the blue in the illumination circuit is way too dark). In fit and function, the plugs are compatible with OEM sound equipment.

Some pictures of the radio face, and any labels on the head unit, may jog my memory as to brand, but I'm sure that you've got an aftermarket "factory look-alike" radio. Hell, we're looking at what was put in the truck 36 years ago, so cut me and my memory some slack (plus, installers from that era were notorious as party animals). I'm thinking either Clarion or Automatic Radio ran those wire colors and plugs; there were several other aftermarket brands, such as Audiovox.

The aftermarket dealer-installed sound equipment at that time was designed to look like the OEM stuff. It didn't cost the car dealer near as much as the factory stuff, so it was very common at the time to be pre-installed by the dealer before the vehicle was sold; it was more profit for the dealer. The harnesses used in the installation kit would be accordingly sleeved, or bundled, to mimic an OEM install.

Whether or not you can get the radio to work, depends on what the problem is. Again, pics of the head unit would be helpful.

it is not an aftermarket harness and radio. It had a ford part number on the side of the radio. Also as I said before those harness plugs on the plug side plugged into the factory harness about 18-24inches behind the dash. The cut side was actually inside the radio. I disassembled the radio and cut the wires at the circuit boards they were wired to, so that I woul have a long pig tail to work with when I plugged the plug ends back into the factory harness. The colored wires were inside of sheaths that I cut off so that I could see the wires and colors better. And the plug ends were wrapped up in a sponge/foam on the main harness I had to remove to be able to unplug them. This is definitely the Stock ford am/fm with cassette and stock harnesses. The truck is bone stock untampered with. The radio and the dash surround trim have never been off of the truck.
I’ll try to get some pictures of everything tomorrow am as the truck is at work.
Sorry if what I’m saying, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Trying to explain it the best I can. I am sure pictures would do a lot more.

 

[Brain75]

Everything, and I mean everything even hose clamps that Ford puts in a vehicle has a Ford oval on it (stamped, pressed or on a non-removable sticker).

Flip the radio up side down side ways, etc and find that stamp and near it should be the part number, we can try to go from there for working forward...


the whole oval stamp has to go back to WW2 and them making jeeps and not wanting to replace willy's jeeps / honoring military warranty on mismatched mongrel trucks.

 

[RobbieD]

it is not an aftermarket harness and radio. It had a ford part number on the side of the radio. Also as I said before those harness plugs on the plug side plugged into the factory harness about 18-24inches behind the dash. The cut side was actually inside the radio. I disassembled the radio and cut the wires at the circuit boards they were wired to, so that I woul have a long pig tail to work with when I plugged the plug ends back into the factory harness. The colored wires were inside of sheaths that I cut off so that I could see the wires and colors better. And the plug ends were wrapped up in a sponge/foam on the main harness I had to remove to be able to unplug them. This is definitely the Stock ford am/fm with cassette and stock harnesses. The truck is bone stock untampered with. The radio and the dash surround trim have never been off of the truck.
I’ll try to get some pictures of everything tomorrow am as the truck is at work.
Sorry if what I’m saying, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Trying to explain it the best I can. I am sure pictures would do a lot more.

It's OK. More pics will help, and if it's something fixable we'll try to help.

 

[TonyLittell]

Everything, and I mean everything even hose clamps that Ford puts in a vehicle has a Ford oval on it (stamped, pressed or on a non-removable sticker).

Flip the radio up side down side ways, etc and find that stamp and near it should be the part number, we can try to go from there for working forward...


the whole oval stamp has to go back to WW2 and them making jeeps and not wanting to replace willy's jeeps / honoring military warranty on mismatched mongrel trucks.

I’m not saying it’s a ford part because of ovals. I’m saying it because it has the standard part numbers on the sticker on the radio AND was bought brand new by my father In law in 89 and I’ve been married to his daughter since 91. I have every reciept for any work ever done to it all the way down to 25 year old tire reciepts and state inspection reciepts dating back to 1990.
Like I said, I’ll take some pics in the morning

 

[Brain75]

I can name two reasons it might be aftermarket and still fit your chronical, but that is not important... lets start with the part number and we can work forwards from there..

Ford radios (of that era) have no wiring coming out of them the plug is in the back of the radio and the 8+7 connectors plug directly into the radio.

 

[RobbieD]

I’m not saying it’s a ford part because of ovals. I’m saying it because it has the standard part numbers on the sticker on the radio AND was bought brand new by my father In law in 89 and I’ve been married to his daughter since 91. I have every reciept for any work ever done to it all the way down to 25 year old tire reciepts and state inspection reciepts dating back to 1990.
Like I said, I’ll take some pics in the morning

You have a real gem. Family connection, with period documentation is as rare as hen's teeth these days.

 

[TonyLittell]

I can name two reasons it might be aftermarket and still fit your chronical, but that is not important... lets start with the part number and we can work forwards from there..

Ford radios (of that era) have no wiring coming out of them the plug is in the back of the radio and the 8+7 connectors plug directly into the radio.

factory ford 87-88 radio that is identical to mine. Just found this one on eBay. Look at the wires going into the back of the radio. Wired directly in just like mine.

1987-1988 Ford Ranger Radio AM/FM Casette Stock Factory Head Unit Original #5 | eBay

Stock radio pulled from warehouse tested January 2025… AM/FM seek tune base fade balance are working. Tape deck works also. 1/2 of the illumination lights and clock work however the clock backlight bulb is out. Faceplate is chipped and damaged as shown… Sold as is no warranties or exchanges or...

www.ebay.com

 

[Brain75]

well i've given you the pinout in that wiring schematic, and a quick google of that part number comes up with this thread - pinout is repeated in post #8.

ford radio pinout 19b132 14a459?

www.the12volt.com

since you have the pinout of both sides of the connector from multiple sources now, what is left to answer?