The prick previous owner thread.

[shane96ranger]

Why has everyone hacked the stereo harness?

This is why buying something with the factory stereo is extra attractive for me. Everything I've owned since has had a factory stereo, or I wired the stereo for the PO (I've owned 2 Explorers that were previously owned by my sister and Dad). I just can't understand why it's so hard for someone to shell less than 15 bucks out for a wiring kit that leaves the factory wiring intact. I even get the adapters for speakers.

I forgot to mention the horses ass that had my Ranger before me put chinese bearings in it. He told me he had just replaced them, and I could tell the grease was new. So when it started humming, it was not the first thing I thought of. When I got around to thinking that was the issue, this is what I found (look at the chunks missing in the race):

Sent from a Commodore 64 using a 300 baud modem

 

[PanamaExpat]

The last 2 4X4 pickups I have bought had the same problem. Found it the same way. The first was a 1986 Toyota Land Cruiser 6 cyl diesel that I bought in Jamaica in 1993. The second was my 1994 B4000 that I bought last year here in Panama. After a few weeks of driving both trucks started having severe clutch chatter and other bizarre behavior. Both trucks only had 2 bolts holding the bell housings to the transmissions. On the Land Cruiser the bolts backed out and the trans started flopping around. The B4000 one of the bolts snapped off and the transmission started flopping around. Got rid of the Land Cruiser after fixing her correctly and running tours with it for three years when I left Jamaica to move back to USA. The B4000 is in pieces in the garage right now getting IMPROVEMENTS.

 

[holyford86]

I would suspect that the vast majority of people are scared of electrical wiring and don't have a friggin clue how to do it properly. So they butcher it.

What's even scarier is when you have to deal with wiring in a vehicle that was custom built (like an E350 with a bus body on it) it's one notch above having someone doing a driveway hackjob. One of my friends bought an explorer for cheap, ended up having to replace the fuel tank, and upon pulling the sending unit, discovered that someone had replaced the pump and just twisted the wires together inside the fuel tank

But I have also seen stuff that came out of "car audio" shops (mostly the big box stores that put in stereos like Best Try) that is an absolute abortion. They don't have a clue how to do it correctly and they're not paid enough to care.

To their defense (in my experience) best buy does use good wiring kits and install kits whenever possible, the installers are usually less than good though.

That too. Especially when they try to find a qualified installer and find that to have someone who knows what they're doing put it in, it'll cost them $50 or so, then they figure that it can't be that hard to do.... snip, snip, twist, tape....

I ended up having to make a wiring harness for my stereo when I did it (on the speaker side) And it took a good 45 minutes to find a good speaker side harness for a ford in the local J/Y to make one from because everyone had cut the connectors off. I'm not a professional installer by any means but I am very particular about the neatness and routing of my wiring. Some of the abortions that I have to fix in wiring in general just scare me (routing high amperage amplifier power wire through the door jamb is a pet peeve of mine) One of the most used tools in my wiring kit is my soldering iron, I heatshrink as much as possible as well.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

What's even scarier is when you have to deal with wiring in a vehicle that was custom built (like an E350 with a bus body on it) it's one notch above having someone doing a driveway hackjob. One of my friends bought an explorer for cheap, ended up having to replace the fuel tank, and upon pulling the sending unit, discovered that someone had replaced the pump and just twisted the wires together inside the fuel tank

Nice! My 89 BII that I fixed up and sold was similar to that... the pump was replaced and they used crimp-on splices. Apparently when the previous owner hit a deer, it jarred the splices loose, which ended up on the bottom of the tank. A few dabs of solder later and I was in business.

To their defense (in my experience) best buy does use good wiring kits and install kits whenever possible, the installers are usually less than good though.

Don't defend them! Best Try has earned my eternal wrath. In addition to the problems I've had with them, they almost caught my one buddies car on fire - they couldn't find the correct harness so they linked like three harnesses together to get the thing plugged in. Couple days later my buddy is driving down the road and smoke starts coming out of his dash...

I ended up having to make a wiring harness for my stereo when I did it (on the speaker side) And it took a good 45 minutes to find a good speaker side harness for a ford in the local J/Y to make one from because everyone had cut the connectors off. I'm not a professional installer by any means but I am very particular about the neatness and routing of my wiring. Some of the abortions that I have to fix in wiring in general just scare me (routing high amperage amplifier power wire through the door jamb is a pet peeve of mine) One of the most used tools in my wiring kit is my soldering iron, I heatshrink as much as possible as well.

Been there, done that. I do professional quality installs, but I never worked as a professional installer. But yes, I do demand it be neat. With soldered connections and heatshrink tubing wherever possible. I bought a couple hundred foot rolls of a couple sizes of heatshrink tube awhile back so I have plenty on hand. Wires get ziptied, clipped, taped, wrapped or stuffed in split loom. I don't play around. (I have some bulk packs of wire wrap and a couple hundred foot rolls of split loom too, lol).

 

[det107]

The plow I bought for my F-150 cost me more in parts to fix than I paid for the plow (so much for a "ready to bolt on and run" setup with "extra parts").....

May I ask how old the plow was ? The talk around here is to buy a new set-up
& sell it 3 yrs later to avoid all that aggravation of (expensive parts) repairs.

I think I have been lucky with used vehicles but have come across the usual taboo repair tactics such as using pliers on nuts, hammering a part off, etc-

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

May I ask how old the plow was ? The talk around here is to buy a new set-up
& sell it 3 yrs later to avoid all that aggravation of (expensive parts) repairs.

Plow was at least a couple years old, one of the older Meyers setups. The guy claimed he had it mounted to a 95 F-150, had an extra pump and all the stuff to mount it. Said he wrecked the truck but saved the whole mount. Not knowing a thing about plows (except he was asking the same price for having extra parts and a "complete" mount that others were asking for just the blade and A-frame), I snagged it.

When I gave it a closer examination after getting it all home and doing a little research, I discovered that it was NOT a complete mount - the guy hack-jobbed a mount out of apparently scrap metal and WELDED it to the end of his frame. When he removed it, he cut the ends of the frame off.

Then I disconnected a chain that was wrapped around where the A-frame and sector comes together and the two pieces practically fell apart.

Popped the top cover off the E-60 pump and after one look at the sludge, I knew it should get tore down and rebuilt - brown goo in the bottom is not hydro fluid. The E-47 pump wasn't quite as bad, but the crossover valve port had a bolt stuck in it. When I removed it, I found that it had been partially disassembled and the bolt turned in till it bottomed out on the barrel and crushed it into the aluminum housing. I think I managed to salvage it, but we'll find out when I test it this winter.

The one hose was bad and both angle cylinders had pitting on them as well.

I ended up snagging part of a truck side mount for a Fisher plow from a junkyard and fabbing up what I needed to create a modified old-school Meyers mount. Repaired the sector and A-frame, added a third trip spring, rebuilt both pumps, replaced both PA cylinders, new hoses, new wiring, etc. Still cheaper than buying a new plow, but it was a lot of extra work I didn't count on having to do.

I think I have been lucky with used vehicles but have come across the usual taboo repair tactics such as using pliers on nuts, hammering a part off, etc-

Everyone should know that vice grips are the proper tool. Those and a hammer.

 

[killj0y]

If I do hack the stereo harness I use bullet connectors so a factory harness can easily be put back in, plus they won't short like spades. Besides it's the same amount of work why not leave it clean?

 

[triumphrider-1]

On my last truck, the PO had it in pretty good shape (he left it stock). Only thing I had to do was some gasket replacement and tune up.

Current truck has been a bit of a pain. Maintenance had to have been a bare minimum for them (I am the 6th owner). My coolant came out brown when I flushed it (I have done it three times in the six years I've had the truck...think I've gotten nearly all the crap out. Runs cooler now.) The stereo systems wiring is crap like you guys have mentioned. It had a hacked up head unit connection (lucky it was just the adapter harness and not the main harness), and all of the speaker connectors have been cut off and replaced with electrical tape...

My only other beef is the heater box got kicked to crap and had multiple holes in the bottom.

 

[wr250rdr]

I have always tried to leave the factory harness alone. For me it's easier to build my harness out side and then plug everything in, the harnesses that crutch field carries are by far the best thing that the car audio world has seen in forever.

That's a good idea that Shane I never thought of that being a good thing to look for. Though if someone tries to sell me on an upgraded Stereo I tell them they can pull it out because some how a 150 dollar head unit and 100 bucks in speakers translates to 500 bucks in value

 

[David88]

My 88 kept draining the battery for some reason. Found out that it was the radio. For some reason, they cut the factory harness and spliced on an aftermarket harness that plugged into another aftermarket harness that was spliced into the radio

And they managed to wire the power to the battery and the memory was wired to key on.... so it never saved stations. That should have been a clue to them that they screwed it up.

 

[Plum Ranger XLT]

Back in 1995 when I bought a 1984 Ranger from the previous owner, the radio didn't work and I was puzzled. So I decided to check the fuse in the fuse box and discovered that it had a much higher amp fuse that it needed and so I put the correct amp fuse in and it started working.

 

[Rowdy Fitzgerald]

Back in 09 I got my 87 Ranger from a buddy in a trade. He hadn't done anything to it but the previous owners had "Rebuilt" the 2.9. Well their rebuild consisted of replacing the intake manifold gasket. They had to replace it cause water was leaking into the intake ports in of cylinders 3,4. It had leaked so long that it corroded channels into the manifold to these cylinders. Well instead of replacing the manifold they generously applied RTV sealant (at this point I had no clue they had done this). They reinstalled the dizzy and couldn't get it started again. It sat for a couple years before I got it. Well I got it and discovered the dizzy was around 180 deg off, there was around 1/2 gal of water in the tank which rusted a hole through the fuel tank. The sock on the in tank pump deteriorated and allowed crud to get in the line. The inline filter was gone and it ended up clogging all the injectors, the in line fuel pump and the fuel line. So after replacing the entire fuel system it ran good! Well I drove it to Florida and when I got to La it started getting hot and I had to keep adding water. It wasn't going into the oil so I just kept adding water and driving. Well once in Fl the rest of the intake gasket let go and water flowed into the oil. Fried my motor and I was up shit creek. Well I towed it back to Florida with my buddies F350 and replaced the motor when back in Cali. The wiring harness later burned up so I did a 302 swap.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

This is why buying something with the factory stereo is extra attractive for me. Everything I've owned since has had a factory stereo, or I wired the stereo for the PO (I've owned 2 Explorers that were previously owned by my sister and Dad). I just can't understand why it's so hard for someone to shell less than 15 bucks out for a wiring kit that leaves the factory wiring intact. I even get the adapters for speakers.

Both my Ranger and my Laser had the factory stereos in them, both had hacked wiring.

Apparently the tightwads wanted to keep their aftermarket radios and swapped them back when they wanted to sell.

 

[doorgunner]

The previous owner of my '89 Ranger had all the repairs done at the local Ford dealership..........

unfortunately....I don't have that much money


but I got plenty wrenches and a great TRS site

 

[Growl60]

The guy who had my 93 3.0 4x4 5 speed before me replaced the engine but didnt align the clutch when he put the new engine in and it put too much stress on the input shaft on the transmission. So now all my bearings in my transmission are completely shot. So now Im looking for a new transmission or a rebuild kit and someone to rebuild it. Thanks asshole!