96 Ranger Head Unit - Substitutions ?

[98v70dad]

in my Sport Trac, I had a double DIN Kenwood Touchscreen, Bluetooth, CD/DVD player, 2 RCA input jacks, S-Video and it looked pretty clean compared to the old 6disc head unit that came out of it. Almost looked like a factory installed unit.

I can't find a flat spot to mount the usb and aux ports. They are in the same round unit with extension cord to the back of the receiver and require a 3/4" hole somewhere. The part is about 1 1/8" to 1 1/4" diameter on the face. I don't want to spend the money for everything else if I can't find a good place to mount these within reach when I'm driving. I really don't want to mount them on a bracket hanging below the dash.

This has really frustrated me since I can't come up with an acceptable solution and its holding up my project. If you have any suggestions let me know.

 

[adsm08]

I hate screwing around with electrical. I kind of would like to bypass the parking brake just so I don't have to fish around and find the wire. ... not that I want to watch movies and drive at the same time. That would be pretty stupid.

The wire that is supposed to go to the parking brake, just splice it into the main ground for the head. All the parking switch does is ground that wire.

I can't find a flat spot to mount the usb and aux ports. They are in the same round unit with extension cord to the back of the receiver and require a 3/4" hole somewhere. The part is about 1 1/8" to 1 1/4" diameter on the face. I don't want to spend the money for everything else if I can't find a good place to mount these within reach when I'm driving. I really don't want to mount them on a bracket hanging below the dash.

This has really frustrated me since I can't come up with an acceptable solution and its holding up my project. If you have any suggestions let me know.

This I can't help you with. I have never bought a radio that didn't have those jacks in the head unit.

 

[98v70dad]

The wire that is supposed to go to the parking brake, just splice it into the main ground for the head. All the parking switch does is ground that wire.



This I can't help you with. I have never bought a radio that didn't have those jacks in the head unit.

I figured you would have suggested a spot this morning if you had any ideas. Thanks for electrical info. The radios with the ports in the front are getting a lot less common. I like the pioneer avh-201EX. About $179. Not real expensive and you get a lot. I guess they figure that most people will use bluetooth from their phone. I have a pretty old phone and don't need a better one. I put mp3's on flash drives instead of my ancient phone.

 

[adsm08]

I figured you would have suggested a spot this morning if you had any ideas. Thanks for electrical info. The radios with the ports in the front are getting a lot less common. I like the pioneer avh-201EX. About $179. Not real expensive and you get a lot. I guess they figure that most people will use bluetooth from their phone. I have a pretty old phone and don't need a better one. I put mp3's on flash drives instead of my ancient phone.

I just got a new head for the Mustang, all the Dual, Sony, and Panasonic units I looked at had the USB at least on the front. $180 is more than I will pay for car audio.

Many have RCA on the rear only, but that is usually more for an EQ or sub. I can't see any good reason to include any form of auxiliary input and not leave it readily accessible.

What about getting a long 3.5mm aux cable and leaving it in all the time, have it run around to the front from the ash tray or under the dash?

 

[98v70dad]

I just got a new head for the Mustang, all the Dual, Sony, and Panasonic units I looked at had the USB at least on the front. $180 is more than I will pay for car audio.

Many have RCA on the rear only, but that is usually more for an EQ or sub. I can't see any good reason to include any form of auxiliary input and not leave it readily accessible.

What about getting a long 3.5mm aux cable and leaving it in all the time, have it run around to the front from the ash tray or under the dash?

I put the radio in last weekend. The trim/mounting kit they sen me looked bad=really bad - (recessed over an inch into the dash) so I modified it and it looks good now. I ended up putting the usb in the glove box using an extension - it worked out OK. Not what I wanted to do but good enough. I still have to put in the backup camera. It was raining last weekend and a day on my back on the wet driveway running wires didn't appeal to me.

I agree that 180 is a lot to spend on a radio. Its more than twice what I've spent on any other aftermarket radio I've ever bought. BUT, I got the truck for free and I spend two hours a day in it and it looks like a factory install. I don't know why they can't put the usb and aux ports on the front for that price though.

 

[98v70dad]

The wire that is supposed to go to the parking brake, just splice it into the main ground for the head. All the parking switch does is ground that wire.



This I can't help you with. I have never bought a radio that didn't have those jacks in the head unit.

I bought a Pioneer head unit. Apparently it outsmarts the grounding trick. I tried that and it didn't work. I googled it and found that the newest pioneers need a some sort of pulsed signal to work. So, even if I installed it to the emergency brake it wouldn't work. They sell a thing that costs about 15 to create the pulsed signal. I'll probably go with that since my main motivation is to avoid hurting my neck. The little piece of electronics just splices into the radio wire harness...no neck craning.

 

[Ranger850]

I can't find a flat spot to mount the usb and aux ports. They are in the same round unit with extension cord to the back of the receiver and require a 3/4" hole somewhere. The part is about 1 1/8" to 1 1/4" diameter on the face. I don't want to spend the money for everything else if I can't find a good place to mount these within reach when I'm driving. I really don't want to mount them on a bracket hanging below the dash.

This has really frustrated me since I can't come up with an acceptable solution and its holding up my project. If you have any suggestions let me know.

ports were inside the center console.

 

[98v70dad]

ports were inside the center console.

Thanks but your statement makes no sense. There are no ports in the center consoles in a 96. I looked before I ever started. In fact nobody even had usb ports back in 1996 as far as I know.