97 Ford Explorer w/Premium JBL - Need Wiring Harness Help. | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

97 Ford Explorer w/Premium JBL - Need Wiring Harness Help.

ederghar

New Member
Joined
January 3, 2021
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
City, State
LA CRESCENTA
Year, Model & Trim Level
1997 Ford Explorer Limtd
Apologies in advance if this has already been answered. I've read through many threads here and most responses are quite old and some of the links to articles and pics are invalid.

I have a 1997 Ford Explorer with a Premium JBL sound system. My factory radio died and I'm replacing it with a single DIN BOSS audio system. I've purchased a dash kit and Metra 70-5600 wiring harness as recommended and verified as compatible with my SUV. The 8-pin power plug on the harness fits great, but the 16-pin speaker plug does not. I've looked through what seems like the whole internet and there are no other wiring harnesses that match up with the in-dash harness. Also the wire colors in the car's dash are completely different than the standard speaker colors. In-dash harness pictures below.

Question #1: does anyone know if there is a compatible harness for the 16-pin speaker connector?
Question #2: does anyone have the correct wiring diagram that matches up the weird colors on the 16-pin speaker harness in the car with the standard wire colors?


 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





I think you will find your truck has a factory amplifier for the 4 door speakers and a factory amp for the subwoofer
So you cannot just send the speaker wire signals from your new deck to the trucks speakers directly, it must first go through the factory amp
OR
bypass the amp

The amp is located behind the plastic cargo cover on the passenger side, under the rear cargo area window just behind the back seat. You have to remove that entire panel to get access

Lets see if we can find a thread that will help you
 






I think you will find your truck has a factory amplifier for the 4 door speakers and a factory amp for the subwoofer
So you cannot just send the speaker wire signals from your new deck to the trucks speakers directly, it must first go through the factory amp
OR
bypass the amp

The amp is located behind the plastic cargo cover on the passenger side, under the rear cargo area window just behind the back seat. You have to remove that entire panel to get access

Lets see if we can find a thread that will help you
@410Fortune Thank you for your reply. I've read about the separate factory amp and it's location and I'd like to avoid bypassing it as it would require running a lengthy cable through body panels and that's well beyond my abilities or complexity to tackle. From what I've read here, there's a way to splice wires using an Ford Integration Wiring Harness but it references Premium Sound System which is pretty generic. There are also a lot of articles in this forum that talk about wiring harness colors, etc. such as this one.

To make a long story short, I got the impression that I need to figure out a way to take the pre-amp output of my unit and splice into the ford in-dash harness. Of course, I'm a complete novice with no prior audio install experience, so none of what I'm saying may make sense :)
 






The problem with the early second gen JBL systems is that the radio amp and tuner are integrated, but located in the rear cargo area behind the plastic side panel. along with that is the separate amp for the subwoofer. The head unit in the dash is literally just that, it just controls the radio tuner in the rear and outputs audio to it from the cassette.

I changed mine long ago, and as far as I know the only way is to run an extension harness from the rear, all the way to your aftermarket radio. Something like the Scosche FD12B harness. I can't remember the part number I used but it was likely that or similar.
 






You can also power, and use the amp, although I don’t recommend it.
 






@410Fortune Thank you for your reply. I've read about the separate factory amp and it's location and I'd like to avoid bypassing it as it would require running a lengthy cable through body panels and that's well beyond my abilities or complexity to tackle. From what I've read here, there's a way to splice wires using an Ford Integration Wiring Harness but it references Premium Sound System which is pretty generic. There are also a lot of articles in this forum that talk about wiring harness colors, etc. such as this one.

To make a long story short, I got the impression that I need to figure out a way to take the pre-amp output of my unit and splice into the ford in-dash harness. Of course, I'm a complete novice with no prior audio install experience, so none of what I'm saying may make sense :)
What did you end up doing? I'm in the same boat with the same wire colors. Every thread I find is 20 years old and the pictures aren't there anymore. Other threads reference wire colors I don't have. I have an old Pioneer head unit with all pre-amp outputs I was going to connect and use the factory amp for everything. But can't figure out these weird wire colors.
 






I’d bypass the factory amp. It’s terrible. Run wires from the pioneer to the doors.
 






What did you end up doing? I'm in the same boat with the same wire colors. Every thread I find is 20 years old and the pictures aren't there anymore. Other threads reference wire colors I don't have. I have an old Pioneer head unit with all pre-amp outputs I was going to connect and use the factory amp for everything. But can't figure out these weird wire colors.
bypass amp or put aftermarket one in imo the factory one distorts at high volume, so does the sub amp too (but never got around to changing)
 






Thanks guys. I ended up finding a partial wiring diagram and now I understand the problem. I was under the impression those wires were just low level outputs to the amp. But what I saw was a tape left and right, not sure what that’s about, and then 2 for protocol A and B, one to turn on the back parts, and something else. So yeah I guess I need to run new wires.

Didn’t even want to upgrade but mine won’t turn on when it’s cold, and I have this pioneer lying around that will Bluetooth to my phone.

As for the distortion, I don’t turn it up and just want the darn thing to work. Ha. Kind of like the factory sub and amp setup.
 






What did you end up doing? I'm in the same boat with the same wire colors. Every thread I find is 20 years old and the pictures aren't there anymore. Other threads reference wire colors I don't have. I have an old Pioneer head unit with all pre-amp outputs I was going to connect and use the factory amp for everything. But can't figure out these weird wire colo

Thanks guys. I ended up finding a partial wiring diagram and now I understand the problem. I was under the impression those wires were just low level outputs to the amp. But what I saw was a tape left and right, not sure what that’s about, and then 2 for protocol A and B, one to turn on the back parts, and something else. So yeah I guess I need to run new wires.

Didn’t even want to upgrade but mine won’t turn on when it’s cold, and I have this pioneer lying around that will Bluetooth to my phone.

As for the distortion, I don’t turn it up and just want the darn thing to work. Ha. Kind of like the factory sub and amp setup.

Hey there! So I am running into this issue just now. Did you get it fixed? I was maybe going to just try running the wiring to the stock amp
 






Hey there! So I am running into this issue just now. Did you get it fixed? I was maybe going to just try running the wiring to the stock amp
I replaced the factory radio with a double DIN pioneer I had on the shelf. Ran new speaker wires from the new radio to the location in the rear 1/4 panel where the factory radio really is. I ran circles thinking I could figure out something where nobody else did. WRONG, I ended up doing exactly what the experts on here suggested. These old radios suck by the way, I thought all my door speakers were garbage, they were fine with the new radio.
 






I replaced the factory radio with a double DIN pioneer I had on the shelf. Ran new speaker wires from the new radio to the location in the rear 1/4 panel where the factory radio really is. I ran circles thinking I could figure out something where nobody else did. WRONG, I ended up doing exactly what the experts on here suggested. These old radios suck by the way, I thought all my door speakers were garbage, they were fine with the new radio.
interesting, which radio did you have? the old pioneer in this 98, and the "new" MACH HU in this one out of a 99 both sound fine to my ears, even with the old and new speakers, both still quite clear.
 






Back
Top