How to install an aftermarket deck into a 1995-1997 Ex with external amp

[Joe Dirt]

Thanks ricky- I didn't see the posts in the thread!

 

[icefshng8]

you guys are awesome

thanks so much guys this thread was extremely useful i have bought like 4 different plugs and they have all been wrong and i was soo frustrated i quit even trying to find one but i saw this thread and now i have a plug on its way from ebay for 5 bucks thank you soo much!!!!!!!

 

[Joe Dirt]

let us know if it works out!

Don't forget to hook up the remote amp wire!

 

[icefshng8]

Then there's an amp ground wire which is the 9th wire on the square speaker plug of the stock harness which needs to be grounded.. What I did was just twist it in with the other 2 ground wires from the stock and stereo harnesses, so all 3 together and it worked fine..

are you talking about the black wire with a white stripe on the speaker plug? because i never hooked that up and it works fine idk if maybe my amp was bypassed at some point or what (i have only owned the truck a couple months) but it works without that wire for me

 

[asafley]

Cheap Wiring Harness

Thanx Joe Dirt for the write-up. I have been looking to upgrade my deck for awhile now but didn't want to tackle it without some sort of guide being that Ford has an external amp, which now really doesn't complicate things like I initially thought. But I do have some questions. When using the wiring harness, it is just wiring the deck to the harness and then connecting it right? Meaning I do not have to do anything with the amp or run any additional wires? Before you think I should get it professionally installed, I have installed decks before but none that had a factory external amp like my '97.

Yesterday I bought the dash kit, and wiring harness from the company I work at and ordered a Sony CDX-GT700HD deck from Amazon, which should be here sometime next week.

To contribute, for anyone needing a wiring harness (I bought the last dash kit at my company), it is available for $1.55. Here is the link. The harness is open box and that is why it is so cheap. The one I bought was practically untouched.

Wiring Harness

 

[Joe Dirt]

Nope- you'll not need to touch the amp or any other wiring either. If you have the harness, it's super easy to do. Hook your new harness wires to your radio, plug the harnesses to the factory ones, and you'll have tunes.

 

[asafley]

Sweet! Thank you for the reply. This is going to be way simpler than I thought. I didn't realize how straight-forward this is going to be. Now I can't wait to get my new deck.

 

[blaze_tylr]

I sold metra stuff for years and by far the ford kit has to be the worst of them all. I;ve broken 3 so far in my truck. If you don't want/need the "pocket" buy an american international kit , way better

 

[GRNMACHINE]

The metra kit in this application was absolutely pain free and easy squeezy. If it werent for Joe D I probably would still be dinkin around with it.

 

[Joe Dirt]

Thanks! Hey- life's too short to dink...

 

[97_Explorer_XLT]

My get up, a little velcro on the dash and some on the back of the Nanos clear case and my Ipod stays put.

 

[97_Explorer_XLT]

Damn I didn't realize that pic was that big

 

[EK91YJ]

if i dont have a harness but there are two plugs on the back. can i just splice right into them there right behind the stereo?

 

[Joe Dirt]

You can, but getting the harness would be a whole heck of a lot easier...

 

[Joe Dirt]

Dammit. I hit quote, not edit. Nevermind!

 

[movieguy73]

worked great.
been working on van all day.

 

[SchmidtyNYJ]

thanks, saved me from the headache I was gettin'

Thanks about the info on the "blue" remote wire. I was stuck with power & no sound and went back and forth to the store going through every wire harness kit avail and even two different HU's. Finally after reading your post I was able to use (the original wire harness) SCOSCHE FDK 106 for '94 & Up Select Vehicles.

If I wouldn't have found your post I would have wound up tearing up my factory harness and trying to play wire roulette to get some sound out of this thing. So again thanks alot!

I have one question though, everything is working great but after reading some posts in here about the factory sub/amp. It made me wonder about the speaker wire harness coming from the car. It is a 16 pin harness, yet my truck only has 4 speakers (2 f + 2r), I am only supplying power(a connection) to 9 of them. + & - for each of the 4 speakers and one black(ground) wire. Do you know what the other wires are for? Is it possible that I have wiring for the factory sub even-though I do not have one installed? Also is there a diagram/picture on here showing the factory sub/amp? I do not know if that is what the cut out is for located on the interior of my tail gate or not, it looks like a speaker could have gone there but its just a blank grille. If all the wiring is complete and all i need to do is find a sub enclosure from a junk yard I may add one in addition to the rest of my setup, I'm sure it will add a nice mid range/mid level frequency in-between that of my doors & 2 10's.

I have just recently purchased two individual sub enclosures with amp, BOSS the under seat 10" sub package. I got one for each of the front seats, even-though I may have to locate them in the back somewhere after reading user reviews and the tight fitting under the seats. My wiring kits came early and have already been installed to the back of the HU and ran to the battery, once everything is completed I will come back and post pictures of the setup.

one more thing and I am really sorry for going on so long and if this is in the wrong thread again I'm sorry. But how do I replace my high rear tail light? Its burned out and while I just had my truck inspected (was hoping this would get fixed) the guy at the shop told me its a pain in the a$$ and to just say if I get pulled over that it was working fine during the inspection. Not cool, I want it fixed, any help?

Thx
Go Jets!!!

 

[Joe Dirt]

Hey Schmidty...

Glad the info worked for ya!

If you do not already have a sub, it is not wired for one. It would go where the little netted storage compartment is on the pasenger side of the rear of the truck.

The grille on the tailgate is a vent- there is a rubber vent behind it, so that when you close the doors or tailgate, there is somewhere for the air to exit the vehicle.

The good news- if you have access to a junkyard or you feel like eBaying, you can get the factory sub box, and replace the stock subwoofer (I put a JL Audio 8" sub in mine) and wire it just like a sub with an aftermarket amp, and not lose any cargo space. Several members have used that setup, and I'm actually going to do a writeup as I have to reinstall it into my new Explorer shortly. On your '97, the radio amp is in the rear by that storage compartment. If you use the 1998+ 8" subwoofer box (they were 6" before that) you will have to use the mounting space on it for your stock amp since you're using the wires running through it for your radio. You will need to mount your sub amp under the rear seat or where you'd like it, and just run the speaker wire to the sub in the enclosure. When you get the sub enclosure, you can also get the stock grille that covered it, and it looks completely factory but it sounds much more awesome.

Don't underestimate the 8" with a polyfilled enclosure- unless you really want to turn heads, it's an awesome setup that leaves you all of your cargo space.

This is what the factory setup looks like with the subwoofer grille vs. your cubby hole:

For your high mount stoplight, you have to drill the rivets holding the black trim that surrounds it (open the window and look up) and remove the acorn nuts. Then you can get to the light. The ballast may be bad, that you can get to by removing the rear hatch interior trim and it's the silver thing right there behind the light.

Here is a thread with some pics...

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237636

 

[GRNMACHINE]

Yes waiting for the writeup!!!

 

[Joe Dirt]

I'll be doing the swap tonight, so I'll try to get it up for ya...