Mounting Kenwood MP238 ?

[Natedog]

Bought a Metra Electronics install kit # 99-5510 for my truck, but it is less than clear on how it goes together and I'm questioning the finished look before I cut it all up as per the instructions. I hate loose and/or cheezy lookin stereo installs. Looking at how it seems to go together doesn't look real secure for vibration, theft, and finished look.

Used a few of these type kits years ago and was real happy with the outcome....don't recall the brands of kits though.

Bought the power adapter plugs to go to my stock wiring harness:
http://www.scosche.com/products/productID/226

The mouting kit from www.metraonline.com
http://www.metraonline.com/products.aspx?s=99-5510

Thier PDF instructions:
http://documents.victorytechnologies.com//documents/product/807.pdf

Any suggestions for the mounting? Was looking at making the factory metal mounting tabs but I'd have to disassemble the radio and drill holes in it...not desirable.

Also is my factory four speaker setup amplified on the rear two speakers? Is this safe/compatible with this stereo?

EDIT:

According to my 1987 FSM the Premium system has a THIRD plug (eight pin) that goes to the opposite rear corner of the head unit.....therefore no plug in the head unit and no wire harness plug = no Ford factory premium sound.

FOr this plug:

Pin #2, 8......no circuit #.......not connected
Pin # 7.........circuit # 747.....at output sense (used with premium sound only)
Pin # 6.........circuit # 694.....radio ground
Pin # 5.........circuit # 484.....display back lighting
Pin # 4.........circuit # 19.......radio graphics lighting
Pin # 3.........circuit # 137.....radio power (B+)
Pin # 1.........circuit # 54.......radio memory (A+)

FYI, pin # 1 is a the end with the little little plastic tab on the outside of the connector shell.

IME (see sig and my project posts) that many (but not all) wires for 1987 and 1988 are the same color....so this should at least be a guide, but necessarily the exact wire colors as 1988.

My 87 does not have the premium sound according to this....

 

[Natedog]

Attempting to cobble up the two side ear-like mounts and the rear metal bracket onto my new unit....if it works (and it looks like it will ) I'll post pics. Any other suggestions are still appreciated though.

 

[Natedog]

Unbolted the three stock mounts. Drilled two new mounting holes and elongated two of the larger existing holes in the two front side mounts ( "L" shaped sheet metal pieces) then they bolted right onto the sides of my new unit. The factory rear mount bolted right on with one 4mm (into the pre-threaded rear support bolt hole) and one 3mm buttonhead bolt (through two existing holes, one in the rear of the stereo unit and one in the bracket), a couple washers and one 3mm locknut and their all mounted. It fits in the dash perfectly!

Still need to solder the two adapter plugs/harnesses to the new stereo units harness, put it all together and trim the plastic Ford dash panel to fit. PIcs to come.

 

[Sunk]

When I put my head unit in, I think I swapped the L shaped brackets side to side, and the holes lined up. Sounds like you got it though...

I don't think the rear speakers are amped, I've been through my 88 pretty thoroughly and haven't seen anything that resembles an amp. AFAIK, the amps came on later models. The speakers are OK to run with that HU, but you'll probably find them pretty lacking soon. Even a set of cheap speakers would be a vast improvement over the ones in there now.

 

[Natedog]

When I put my head unit in, I think I swapped the L shaped brackets side to side, and the holes lined up. Sounds like you got it though...

Yeah forgot to mention that I swapped the brackets side to side.

 

[Natedog]

Double checked and soldered all the wires on the two adapter plugs to the one plug on the head unit. Plugged the two grey plugs together and the two black plugs together, but didn't plug in the the head unit itself......before applying power I triple checked all the wires....and CRAP it wouldn't turn on....

The head unit has:
Yellow (battery, always hot) to green/yellow stripe.....EDIT: this is correct.
Red (switched ignition power) to yellow/black stripe....EDIT: this is correct.
Black (ground) to an empty slot in the plug???

EDIT AGAIN: Truck's harness has Blue/red stripe wire that is for the instrument light dimmer...not used w/factory unit or the Kenwood
EDIT: Orange/black stripe is the dimmer wire for the stereo unit lighting....oddly enough it is unused with factory unit or the Kenwood unit that I bought.

Had to swap the ground wire around in the connector shell....thanks www.scosche.com

EDIT: Checked these out and confirmed with a DVM/ohm meter.

The other plug (black colored) in the truck's stereo harness looks to be the speaker wires and all are paired up with the adapter plug....think it's all ok.....

Just verified all speaker wires according to my 87 FSM and the head unit's directions....looks good! I'll plug it in tomorrow and test, time for sleep.

 

[Natedog]

All installed and works great, but I keep blowing the instrument light fuse (5 amp)???


EDIT: I had the unit ground connected to the truck's dimmer wire (blue/red stripe)...disconnected it and no more blown instrument lights fuse. However, without the ground wire the unit won't turn on....tiny static noise and then off again. Does the factory unit ground through it's chassis? There appears to be no ground wire in the truck's harness to the radio???

EDIT AGAIN: OK, the head unit's ground wire (black) needed to go to the truck's chassis ground. Since the factory harness doesn't have a ground wire for this I found a good screw on the metal dash support and fastened it down using a couple star washers to sandwich the loop connector that I put on the end of the ground wire. Scraped the paint off the metal too. Works great now, but the blue light behind the volume knob is way too bright for me...looking into a different bulb or something.

This thing sounds great but wish that some of my weaker AM stations would come in better. Any suggestions?

 

[Natedog]

Removed the removable faceplate and took it apart. There are two very bright and very small surface mount LEDs in there that backlight the volume knob, so I used a Q-Tip dipped in flat black paint and dabbed a good amount of flat black paint over both LEDs....triple-checking that they weren't lighting anything else. Let the paint dry, reassembled the faceplate and now the light is way less annoying, but still lit barely. Did I mention how bright these fawkin LEDs are???