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Car Stereo

kbsmith_48

Active Member
Joined
June 26, 2010
Messages
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City, State
Grapevine,KY
Year, Model & Trim Level
94 Explorer Sport 4x4
I have been thinking about putting a stereo in my explorer sport and i have a few questions.Do I have to buy a special wiring harness for it because it had DNR on the tape deck.What kind of installation kit do i use and how hard is it to remove the door panel

Thanks
 



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Well the radio gets installed in the dash not the door.

As for the wiring all you need is the basic harness adapter , and the radio is the same size as the stock one so aftermarket radios just slide into place of the old one.
 






thank you i knew it went into the dash but i also have to replace the speakers in the doors and in the back because they are all 4 bad should have made that part more clear sorry about that
 






The doors only have a few visible screw to unscrew , but after that you literally pry them off with a lot of force. There just snapped into place.
 






I had to do a stereo system in a 98 chevy s10 once. The doors were easier than on the explorers, but oh man are the dashes so much easier on our trucks! All you should need for the head unit (radio) is the wiring harness and a dash adapter kit? I don't know for the 94, but for the 02 one is needed. I bought both at my local speaker shop for $15 a piece, more expensive than at wally world, but way better quality.
 






thank yall
 






You don't need a dash adapter kit. The hole is already properly sized.
 






ok, thanks for clearing that up!
 






Do you have a factory amp? If so, you will probably need to bypass the amp with a wiring harness. Check crutchfield. Com to make sure you get everything you need.
 






as far as the doors, pull the small plastic trim ring from around the lever, pull out the two screws in there, and the 1 screw up by the mirror, I found it works best to get a large flat pry bar, stick it in, and twist sideways to pop the door panels off. Before doing this, goto the parts store and get the little plastic things to replace the ones you are going to break. As far as the wiring, pull the factory deck out, if the 2 wiring harness adapters are long and skinny, just grab the standard ford kit, if you have one rectangle and one square, you are going to need the kit for the factory amp to bypass it.
 






i checked on crutchfield and found a system that i liked and it will come with pretty much every thing that i need got to go and find some of the plastic things though and the system im looking at is a sony head unit with for kicker speakers
 






if it's a 94 YOU DONT NEED A DASH KIT
 






I'm going to just answer this question easy enough as I can.

Yes, You need a kit for most explorers. Most of them it seems have a low signal from the radio, that goes to a factory amp behind the passenger side in the cargo area. If you're self installing the radio, you don't NEED to buy any special wires or harnesses if you don't care about putting the stock deck back, however there are kits for it.

I just replaced mine, and here is what I did. Note: this may not be the BEST way, and I'm sure I'll hear about it.

Bought Stereo.
Pulled the bezel around the gauges and radio (unplug the 4x4 switch, will probably require the drivers door open to get out, and tilt the wheel down)

Get your dash kit if you want (I've always made my own dash kits using wood or extra plastic, so this is what i did here) The radio will have 3 plugs on the back when you remove it. a Small one, a Big one and of course the antenna.

The one with the small wires runs from the Radio to the "factory amp" in the back cargo area. the bigger wires are the power, ground, power ant (Amp power, ground etc here too)

So basically what I did was 86 the Small wires near the dash, and run new speaker wires from the radio area, under the passenger side carpet, to the back cargo area and spliced the wires into the factory wires already running to the doors. I did it this way for two reasons. 1) Wiring kits can be quite spendy, and there was not many for sale near me. and 2) I did not want to run new wires through the doors. You can fit your new speaker wire (which I got at Wal-Mart for 5 bucks) behind the ashtray, under the carpet in the passenger foot compartment, into the side panel, down to the floor and back under the seats into the cargo area. once all the wires are there it is as simple as just splicing the wires from the amp (the bigger ones) to the wires to your deck.

Doing this this way instead of just splicing the small wires to the big ones will improve signal and will ensure you have good sound quality.

OMG EVER, THATS AWSOME but uhh...how do you get the factory amp plug(s) out?!

GOOD QUESTION. I was DREADING after reading this forum..this part. OMG EVER YOU NEED TO PULL ALL THE PANELS IN THE BACK ZOMG..

Yeah...not so much... Start by (CAREFULLY) pulling out the "cargo net" thingy on the passenger side wall in the cargo area. if you break it, no big deal, you can just add some or your own tricks to secure it back in, but they break REALLY easy. once you have this out, you can look in the hole after removing the trim and the "box" part and you will see...surely and snugly about a foot in is the amp, with a plug on the top and bottom. and probablly some spider webs, dirt, and a dead mouse (if its like my truck :p).

With that box out you can see the amp. now, open the cargo gate, unscrew the trim panel holding the carpet down across the back of the truck. lift the carpet unscrew the 2-3 screws under it,
Now: around the panel you will see little circle shaped plugs, pop a few out till the panel comes out (CAREFULLY) once you have room, just unplug the top plug and leave the #$#$# amp in there, I pulled the plug over top of the panel and did my work, than slid it back under once it was all done. radio install with amp kit included took me 30 minutes.

enjoy!
 






you don't need a dash kit for 91-94 explorers jeez. I can't even imagine what the kit would contain considering any stereo already fits in the dash.
 






I think deamon3 is trying to say that a dash kit is not necessary for your explorer.... Or at least I think I read that once or twice somewhere in this thread.
 






ok i got it you dont need a dash kit thanks
 






You Kinda do need one, because the radio will mostly fit tight, but it wont look flush if you don't use one, but you DO NOT need to buy one by any means, like I said in my above tutorial. All you really need is a small piece of wood (I used a 4 inch long 1 inch wide piece I had just laying around) to stick under the radio to keep it flush looking :) of course if you don't care about aesthetics or possibility of the CD's skipping. just remember not to cover vents on the bottom of your radio if you do make your own item to hold the radio up.
 






I like the stock radio but I think the tape player is finally giving up the ghost.

might be time to install an HD/Bluetooth/CD/USB/CAN OPENER/ Beer cooler

(for those times when I'm in the x and I don't want to walk in the garage or kitchen)

Radio into old Betsy.

And if they don't make one of those yet I'll make and do a "how to" for all the rest of you.:chug:
 






i got my speakers put in still got to order a cd player but every speaker in it was busted
 



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should i bypass the factory amp or not and if so why
thanks
 






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