97 Ranger aftermarket stereo install problem

[STG58]

Hi, New guy here my company truck is a 2004 4X4 and I liked it so much that when I saw an older guy selling his 97 with 68K orig miles with a 4.0 power Windows very clean no rust at a very good price I bought it. Even though I won't drive it much (200 miles in 3 months). I decided to install a new car stereo since the factory unit is a cassette with the changer option but no changer.

The changer option seems to be where the problem comes in. The stereo works with a CD or radio but no sound into the truck speakers. It works with a standalone speaker but it is not passing sound to the installed speakers.

I am wondering if the CD changer loop is not complete without the factory stereo causing it to not pass sound to the speakers and if I need to jumper a or some wires together?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks

 

[06RangerXLT]

what you wanna try and do is trace the wires to the speakers down, and see where they head. if you can find a wire chart on your ranger, it will tell you what color combinations do what.

if its too much of a hassle, id say run your own wires to the speakers. also, you should have gotten an install wire plug, that allows you to simply tap into the old wires and plug into the new unit.

 

[STG58]

what you wanna try and do is trace the wires to the speakers down, and see where they head. if you can find a wire chart on your ranger, it will tell you what color combinations do what.

if its too much of a hassle, id say run your own wires to the speakers. also, you should have gotten an install wire plug, that allows you to simply tap into the old wires and plug into the new unit.

I bought a wiring adapter and would like to be able to use the factory stereo or plug in others.
In this diagram there is something called "NCA" which appears to be blocking the signal. If it can't be tripped to allow the signal my only option will be to rerun the wires.

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/pdf_documents/1996_1997_Ranger_Premium_Radio_Wiring.pdf

 

[4.0B2]

i always run new wires for an aftermarket head unit. i say this because, some vehicles have factory amps that don't push as much power as aftermarket headunits.

plus stock wiring is just crappy. its like a 32 gauge wires and just plain crappy.

 

[STG58]

Thanks for the replies.
It appears to be blocked at the amp. If the old guy had gone with the plain Jane non premium audio option it would be a plug and play operation. Without the CD changer it was really not worth the price, big price no doubt in 97.
The truck has a lot of years on it but it is very clean with low miles and I hesitate to rip it apart.

 

[4.0B2]

its easy to rip it apart and build it back, BETTER than before!

 

[shane96ranger]

I bought an amp bypass plug for my Explorer. It's very simple to do.



EDIT:This kit has one in it. It says it's for a 97 Ranger.......

http://www.amazon.com/Scosche-FDK8B...mplifierlifier/dp/B0007KK260/?tag=959media-20

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Running new wires for speakers is insanely easy to do in a Ranger. The hardest part is often the part where you wedge yourself under the dash to feed the wire around stuff and into the doors. Door panels pop off easy enough, it's just little push pegs that hold it on aside from a couple screws. For the back speakers, just pull up the door sill trim panel and run the wires under there.

I had a Bronco II once that had "premium sound" in it, and I had been tempted to try to make it work (ok, so I like playing around with that sort of stuff, lol), but someone had cut the plug off the end which left the wire too short to get far enough out of the dash to work on. They also cut the other plugs off and a previous owner hacked together a wiring harness for the radio (which didn't work right). So I ran new wires (which made it the FOURTH truck I've wired up for a stereo, the THIRD that I had to run new speaker wires, and the THIRD that I've had to fix hacked up wiring. (The count is now 5 - 4 - 4 ...... *sigh* .....)

A decent quality 14 gauge speaker wire will be more than adequate for new speakers. Just use solder/heat shrink tubing for any splice connections and use a decent crimp-on connector for the speaker ends. Not much will send me into a serious rant like hack-job wiring.....

BTW... your new wiring harness adapter should look something like this:

and it should NOT look like this: