Any way to make this radio work in my truck?

[Blue91Ex]

Okay, i have a 91 explorer, jbl audio system, and the previous owners installed a security system which fried and somehow took the radio with it. I have a 87 f150, 2 speakers, head unit looks very similar. i dont want an aftermarket head unit because them i am pretty sure i have to rewire like hal fthe truck to get the speakers to work, and im not very good at wiring in general.

The only difference i can see on the radio in the 87 and the wires in the 91 is one wire with a different plug, and a the wires in the other plug. The "other plug" seems to be power, with the solid red cable, but i dont know what the two extra wires in the 91 go to. and i dont even know what the solid grey cable with the smaller plug is, or the big black plug on the 87 is...

here is a couple pics to help show what i am talking about:
87 power? plug

91 comparable plug

other 87 plug

other 91 plug

alright, so mainly im just trying to figure out if i could make the 91 wires work with the 87 radio, using the plastic plugs from the 87 wiring so that they fit on the head unit from the 87 truck. If i cant run all of the speakers with the radio, thats something i can live with, its just until i can find a stock 1st gen JBL head unit that works to put into my truck. any one know what the other wire/plugs from the trucks do? (the stubby one from 91 an dthe black 87 plug)

i didnt mind not having a radio but then drove my moms truck the other day and realized how much i miss having music when i drive..

thanks!

 

[Blue91Ex]

i decided to try it out somewhat, plugged in the plug with power to it, all i got on the radio was solid green lit screen but no sound and no numbers and pressing buttons didnt really do anything.. i didnt plug in the one that wouldnt fit though.
does this mean the head unit is broken? or do i just need to get the other plug hooked up?

 

[Blue91Ex]

well, the radio didnt seem to work and i really didnt feel like diggin into trying to cut wires and swap plugs and all that crap for a radio that probably doesnt work anymore anyway, so tomorow im going to go to the only local junk yard and try to find a radio that works from a 91-95? ranger, or maybe find one in a early 90s f150, which ar emuch more common here, i doubt they have any 1st gen explorers like mine since they are so rare here, any clue if i could use a 2nd gen head unit without too much trouble? again i have the JBL audio with factory subwoofer.
thanks!

 

[Glen4X4]

If you're tight on money, scan the local craigslist and get a cheap aftermarket deck and go to your local walmart and get the wiring kit for $10.00 and then you'll be more satisfied with sound. I'm thining the F-150 has a different plug on the backside from when I did a HU swap on a 94 before..

 

[Blue91Ex]

well, the f150 HU didnt work, even though it used nearly the same plug as oh, 5 or 6 radios i pulled out of ford cars at the junkyard yesterday, and i decided that was the only plug i was gunna get so i took the newest looking one, (same as the others but less beat on) and the harness. i got it all wired up, using wiring diagrams from the ranger station, and then it wouldnt do anything at all, unlike the f150 where the screen just lit a dull solid green, and i wired it up a couple different ways to make sure i didnt do something wrong.

So, back to teh junkyard with ti today, maybe ill trade the guy (he is very good about letting you return broken stuff) for some stuff off a second gen or maybe a mazda ranger i saw with the updated 1st gen cupholder.. lol Ill just have to start saving up money for a cheap aftermarket radio that i can use the jbl sub/amp with.

 

[IAmTodd]

Ok, so radio 1 fried in the truck, radio 2 didn't work and neither did radio 3. Are you sure you don't have a wiring issue somewhere in the truck?

 

[Blue91Ex]

well, it had a aftermarket alarm system that fried (took radio with it or radio died soon aftre or something, it was one of those "turns on when it shouldnt and cuts out and turns off" deals, so they pulled it along with the alarm system, well, i crawled under dash a while ago, found bunch of wiring left over, (pics on my registry) and so i got under again saturday, pulled the kickpanel and panel below steering column off, hoe-ley-crap what a rat's nest of wires just LEFT THERE un capped, tangled up, just ugh.

anyhow, i spent the afternoon figureing otu what was what, cleaning out all this crap, got it all cleaned up, any wires that were butt-spliced into the wire harness closest to driver door i cut at 2 inches and capped with wire nuts, and i reconnected two wires that were cut to splice the alarm wiring into on the harness that were left un connected to the other ends, so its all tidied up, fromw aht i could tell nothing SEEMED to be wired into radio wiring, but maybe, didnt seem liek the right colored wires, idk.

f150 radio apparently didnt really work to begin with as my dad told me after i gave up on it, and second one was in a car that had sat in a junkyard for god knows how long.
so if i cant get the aftermarket radio im saving up to get to work, ill star tearing stuff apart to look for shorts, everything i could see seemed fine though..

 

[DjDom]

hoe-ley-crap what a rat's nest

Did you find any rats?!
You would've had a free dinner!

 

[Blue91Ex]

....dom... ur just... know what i dont even know.... lmao

even you would have looked at it and sh*t a brick lol.. whoever installed alarm in first place must have thought it was nessisary to cut every wire to the thing at LEAST 3 feet long and wrap them in bundles with cheap tape that melted all over everything and then tangle about 70% of the other wires together and wrap them up around stuff and it was just insane.

 

[DjDom]

....dom... ur just... know what i dont even know.... lmao

even you would have looked at it and sh*t a brick lol.. whoever installed alarm in first place must have thought it was nessisary to cut every wire to the thing at LEAST 3 feet long and wrap them in bundles with cheap tape that melted all over everything and then tangle about 70% of the other wires together and wrap them up around stuff and it was just insane.

I kept a lot of extra wiring when I installed my alarm. However, I bundled mine up nicely with cable ties, so it's all good.

 

[Blue91Ex]

Alright, i finally bit teh bullet and bought a aftermarket radio. Basic pioneer HU. Now, i think i have everythign figured out other than how to hook up my factory amp and the constant and switched/acessory power wires. The larger guage wire is yellow, not red, and the manual is very vague and not helpful, it seems like the yellow is constant and the thinner red is switched? should i go with that? or asume red is always constant power?

With the amp, there is a red and white rca port, asuming for the sound to the amp, well, my amp doesnt have that, it just has thin wires coming out of that fancy grey wire bundle for the jbl system, i can wire up the reg speakers but there is also no solid blue amp "remote on" wire, just a blue and white one that says not to hook it up to amp power?? i have no clue what to do with this thing... it also has something to do with those retracting antenas?

also, speaker wire obviously have positive and negative, HU has grey, and grey and black, and so on with green white and purple, the ones with black stripe are negative speaker power right?

thanks.

 

[Blue91Ex]

never mind about teh blue and white wire i figured that out now that i have read that paragraph about 3 times lol.. still not sure what to do with the rca ports, cut up a tv rca wire and splice it to the amp/sub sound wires so it will plug in?

 

[Blue91Ex]

figured out power wire situation, now i gotta trace the speaker wires back enough to see where they all go and run new power for the amp and i think i can plop the new headunit in.

 

[DjDom]

He fixed it all, thanks to someone. ~

 

[Blue91Ex]

Yes, i did finally get it working, thanks to dom for helping wire wiring diagrams, advice, ideas, and help troubleshooting, and special thanks to my dad for holding the flashlight for me while i installed the headunit for the final time in my truck at 9pm, with no dome lights and mosquitoes eating at us the entire time. xD

Now, just in case anyone ever has a similar problem and references this trhread, the problem the whole time was the constant power wire. Somewhere in the truck, it shorted or broke, maybe it was cut by previous owners since the old radio and alarm were draining the battery, but we decided after a lot of testing and ghetto-riggin wires that i should just wire constant power to the cigarette lighter, and it works great!, of course in my rush i didnt route the wire very well so its not very pretty behind the dash but it works anyway.

Now i have to figure out whether my speaker background noise when listening to radio is the antenna wire or old, not-been-used-for-10-years speakers. Oh and the subwoofer is deffinitely on its last leg. i see a 8 inch shallow mount swap to factory enclosure coming soon.

Thanks again for all the help dom, i would have given up long ago if you didnt decide to help me with it.

 

[DjDom]

Just in case anyone wants to tackle this again.
Here's the setup for installing a Pioneer headunit, along with the stock wires in a 91-94 (First Gen.) JBL system:

Purpose Factory Harness New Head Unit
Constant Power Green/Yellow Yellow
Switched Power Yellow/Black Red
Ground Black Black
Remote On/Amp Blue Blue/White

Front Left Speaker + Yellow White
Front Left Speaker - Light Blue/Black White/Black
Front Right Speaker + Light Blue Gray
Front Right Speaker - Purple/White Gray/Black
Rear Left Speaker + White/Orange Green
Rear Left Speaker - Light Green Green/Black
Rear Right Speaker + Brown Purple
Rear Right Speaker - White/Red Purple/Black

 

[Blue91Ex]

^ note, that is for the "audiophile" premium sound system with factory amp and subwoofer, apparently there are 3 different sound systems that were available. this is the 3rd and fanciest, there is also the 2nd with no sub but better door speakers i believe, that has different wires.