radio harness = Madness!

[Jraymer360]

so i'm trying to wire up a radio...and the stock harness is cut from another aftermarket radio that was rigged, well i'm wiring the new one up..and the diagram on here for a 1993 ranger ( mine is the 93-97 style, manufactured in like 8/92 or something like that. some time in 92) and i none of the wires going to the speaker match up....it's weird. made me mad!

 

[killj0y]

Use a 9 volt battery lol. And a tester done deal. Only the speaker side if the harness is cut?

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I hate (let me repeat that, I absolutely Fn HATE) when people hack up the factory wiring harness (can you tell I've had to repair a number of these?).

At any rate, my usual solution when I find that someone hacked up the factory radio harness is to replace the factory plug for the power/ground/illum/battery harness and stuff the factory speaker wires down in the dash. Then I get out my spool of 18ga speaker wire and run new speaker wires - it doesn't take all that long to do on our trucks and it's a better quality speaker wire than what's in there from the factory. Usually I'll use insulated disconnects when I hook the speaker wires to the radio harness just to make it easier if I ever have to pull it for some reason or another.

I also solder and heat shrink all of my connections that don't have to be easily removable.

 

[Jraymer360]

i'm just gonna hack it up. ...it doesn't need to be perfect it's got a lot of miles on it and i didn't pay a lot for it, so it's not really worth it, plus i need it back together by the end of the week, and i only got like 60 bucks, of which i need to spend on gas and or u-joints.

 

[swynx]

every time i get a used rig it has a hacked up radio harness on it. so i dont even mess with puttin a new one in. have a shop do it. how some ppl can actualley understand they way they wire stuff is beyond me

 

[rockin86ranger]

the speakers in my ranger have like 4 splices in them one of which goes through what appears to be the cord off of a lamp. It would probably take 2 minutes for me to do both sides the right way, but it is going to 2 speakers out of a 91 tempo so I'm not rushing on it

 

[Jraymer360]

my speakers were...house audio wire not even like connected right, they just twisted the wire through a hole on the contact spot. i soldered them on, didn't have any connectors.

/e: and my dad makes wiring harnesses for a living ...so he can help me figure it out.

it's just confusing that none of the wiring according to the diagrams is right i tried the 1993/1994 ones. should i try the 1990-1992 premium? since the back speakers have ford stamped on them and premium on them.

 

[shane96ranger]

I found this info. I'm not sure WTH a convenience power group is though.

Radio:

Black Wire - Ground
Black With White Stripe Wire - Right Rear Speaker
Light Blue With Red Stripe Wire - From Light Switch To Radio (light) (Headlights)
Light Green With Yellow Stripe Wire - Hot At All Times To Radio
Orange With Black Stripe Wire - From Light Switch To Radio (Light) (Parking)
Orange With Red Stripe Wire - Right Rear Speaker
Red Wire - To Ground With Black Wire
Yellow With Black Stripe Wire - Hot In Accessory Or Run To Radio

(With Convenience Power Group)

Dark Green With Orange Stripe Wire - Right Door Speaker
Light Blue With White Stripe Wire - Left Door Speaker
Orange With Light Green Stripe Wire - Left Door Speaker
White With Light Green Stripe Wire - Right Door Speaker

(Without Convenience Power Group)

Dark Green With Orange Stripe Wire - Right Door Speaker
Light Blue With White Stripe Wire - To Dark Green With Orange Stripe Wire To Left Door Speaker
Orange With Light Green Stripe Wire - To White With Light Green Wire To Left Door Speaker
Pink With Light Green Stripe Wire - Left Rear Speaker
Tan With Yellow Stripe Wire - Left Rear Speaker
White With Light Green Stripe Wire - Right Door Speaker

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

every time i get a used rig it has a hacked up radio harness on it. so i dont even mess with puttin a new one in. have a shop do it. how some ppl can actualley understand they way they wire stuff is beyond me

It's not all that hard to figure out wiring, but it definitely helps to have a good wiring schematic and know how to read it (and the "wiring diagrams" found in the back of Haynes and Chilton manuals are next to worthless). Beyond that, it's just a matter of knowing how to solder, read colors, and use heat shrink tube. There is a little more to know when you get to building circuits the right way though. I love tinkering with it all, wish I never would have changed majors in college.

my speakers were...house audio wire not even like connected right, they just twisted the wire through a hole on the contact spot. i soldered them on, didn't have any connectors.

/e: and my dad makes wiring harnesses for a living ...so he can help me figure it out.

it's just confusing that none of the wiring according to the diagrams is right i tried the 1993/1994 ones. should i try the 1990-1992 premium? since the back speakers have ford stamped on them and premium on them.

Premium sound systems used a thick grey wire that had a bunch of smaller wires inside it to connect to the head unit. Usually they had the standard speaker wire plug shoved way back in the dash too but it wasn't used with the premium sound package. The thick grey wire ran to a factory amp (nothing really special) and then to the speakers. I'll see if I can come up with some wire colors today for ya.

 

[cody93]

you think yours was a hack job, you shoulda seen mine. i wish i got a picture of it.. the P/O installed a cd player in it and probly never used the radio function on it. so when i got the truck home and droped a battery in, i noticed wtf radio not working right. it would turn on, play a cd, but always forget what radio station it was on, and i was getting sick of seeking to my favorite station, that would only get found in "seek" in a few places on my road, if it dont pick it up, i start hearing banjos..

so one day i decided to hell with it, and called my mom and have here send out my spare radio from my 88 ranger in cali. well it arives, but upon further inspection it needed an amp... so i took a trip to the bone yard and got a factory radio out of a 89 f-150, and made sure they gave me the harness with 1ft of wire...

i was expecting to see the end of the factory harness gone with the cd players wires hooked up to it but i was in for a headache. after removing the dash bezel and unscrewed the radio i had a look of confusion and lost all hope for arkansas electricians(i live in a house with screwy wiring, most ive fixed tho)

ok, the radio had 9 wires hooked up, 6 for speakers, yea, they only put 3 speakers in...
1 for ground wich they screwed onto the dashboard, and 1 for BATT+ and another for PWR+. PWR+ and BATT+ were spliced together to one wire that went to the steering colum spliced to the power wire for the turnsignal.. and that explains the lack of memory.

ok, after removing a dozen wire-nuts and soldering the turnsignal power wire back together i was ready to hook up the radio. i thought since they didn't use the harness, it must be intact somewere inside the dash. after 30 mins of probing blindly, i found a harness with 4 wires that matched the JY harness, HORAY! i found the power side the hardness, but my excitment was short lived as i saw that the hill billies cutted the plug off and not used the harness... disapointed in humanity, i searched on for the speaker harness only to find nothing but dust bunnies. upon further inspection, the dash speakers were gone... all i had were those desktop PC speakers the P/O stuck behind the seat.... i removed the extra one because i think an odd number of speakers is stupid and god didn't give us 1 or 3 ears. well, i soldered and heat shrinked the JY harness to the remains of the native harness and wrapped it with electrical tape to mimic the factory wirewrap look, unfortunetly it wasn't the case with the speaker wires... i soldered the JY speaker harness to what were once extention cords ment for 120AC not audio that went to inadaquit speakers behind the bench seat. after a couple of hours of fustraiting work it was ready. hooked up the battery and turn signal works again! now its time for the radio, i grabbed motley crue's dr feel good and stuck it in the tape deck and to my delight, kick start my heart started playing and even better, it didn't get eaten up like a oatmeal cookie at a weight watchers meeting! and the best part, working radio presets!

and thats the story of the little ranger with stupid owners. stay tuned for part 3

 

[fastpakr]

You can use this harness to take your vehicle back to stock. Then just use a standard adapter harness to integrate the new radio. I had to do this with my Ranger a few months ago since a previous owner had hacked it up.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

you think yours was a hack job, you shoulda seen mine. i wish i got a picture of it.. the P/O installed a cd player in it and probly never used the radio function on it. so when i got the truck home and droped a battery in, i noticed wtf radio not working right. it would turn on, play a cd, but always forget what radio station it was on, and i was getting sick of seeking to my favorite station, that would only get found in "seek" in a few places on my road, if it dont pick it up, i start hearing banjos..

so one day i decided to hell with it, and called my mom and have here send out my spare radio from my 88 ranger in cali. well it arives, but upon further inspection it needed an amp... so i took a trip to the bone yard and got a factory radio out of a 89 f-150, and made sure they gave me the harness with 1ft of wire...

i was expecting to see the end of the factory harness gone with the cd players wires hooked up to it but i was in for a headache. after removing the dash bezel and unscrewed the radio i had a look of confusion and lost all hope for arkansas electricians(i live in a house with screwy wiring, most ive fixed tho)

ok, the radio had 9 wires hooked up, 6 for speakers, yea, they only put 3 speakers in...
1 for ground wich they screwed onto the dashboard, and 1 for BATT+ and another for PWR+. PWR+ and BATT+ were spliced together to one wire that went to the steering colum spliced to the power wire for the turnsignal.. and that explains the lack of memory.

ok, after removing a dozen wire-nuts and soldering the turnsignal power wire back together i was ready to hook up the radio. i thought since they didn't use the harness, it must be intact somewere inside the dash. after 30 mins of probing blindly, i found a harness with 4 wires that matched the JY harness, HORAY! i found the power side the hardness, but my excitment was short lived as i saw that the hill billies cutted the plug off and not used the harness... disapointed in humanity, i searched on for the speaker harness only to find nothing but dust bunnies. upon further inspection, the dash speakers were gone... all i had were those desktop PC speakers the P/O stuck behind the seat.... i removed the extra one because i think an odd number of speakers is stupid and god didn't give us 1 or 3 ears. well, i soldered and heat shrinked the JY harness to the remains of the native harness and wrapped it with electrical tape to mimic the factory wirewrap look, unfortunetly it wasn't the case with the speaker wires... i soldered the JY speaker harness to what were once extention cords ment for 120AC not audio that went to inadaquit speakers behind the bench seat. after a couple of hours of fustraiting work it was ready. hooked up the battery and turn signal works again! now its time for the radio, i grabbed motley crue's dr feel good and stuck it in the tape deck and to my delight, kick start my heart started playing and even better, it didn't get eaten up like a oatmeal cookie at a weight watchers meeting! and the best part, working radio presets!

and thats the story of the little ranger with stupid owners. stay tuned for part 3

Sounds along the lines of some of the fun I've had to fix.... wish I would have got pictures of most of it, the only one I have a pic of is from my F-150....

But my choptop and my 89 Eddie Bauer BII were worse...

 

[4.0B2]

i always buy the factory harness and add it back in, then get the adapter harness and just plug and play...

 

[Gary101386]

when i bought my ranger, on the ride home i turn on the radio and it sounded like crap, speakers cutting in and out as i drive over bumbs. I didnt mind, i had a Pioneer sitting at home in my garage waiting to go in. After i pulled the radio out i noticed the person that installed it stripped back some of the jacket without cutting the wire and wrapped the wires for the after market harness around them and taped them. which im sure was fine back in the 90's, but years of hot summers and heat cycles the tape wore off and the wires became loose. i just decided to cut it out and install my Pioneer harness, being that i will drive this truck till its towed away to the scrap yard...

 

[cody93]

Sounds along the lines of some of the fun I've had to fix.... wish I would have got pictures of most of it, the only one I have a pic of is from my F-150....

But my choptop and my 89 Eddie Bauer BII were worse...

atleast the power wasn't pulled from the turn signal switch... or batt+ and acc+ were combined...