Missing Adapters to Fit Kenwood Nav/Audio into '06 Explorer

[mweiss]

I have the dash center console all disassembled, the weather is clouding up with heaving rain in the forecast, and I've discovered that the Ford adapter kit the online vendor sold me with the Kenwood DNX5140 Navigation/entertainment system lacks the necesssary antenna adapter. The '06 Ford has an an AM/FM antenna connector that is unlike any I've seen since 1948. The Kenwood has the age old standard Motorola connector, so they don't plug together.
I got only a power/speaker plug adapter which I soldered to the radio harness that came with the Kenwood.
But I also see that there is an extra multipin plug that has nowhere to go on the Kenwood, so it is just dangling. I don't know if that's needed or not to make the Kenwood function.
But the show stopper is that I cannot hook up the radio antenna, and I've called around to a few audio installers and no one has this adapter in stock. I thought of splicing the coax together, but I don't want to void the warranty on the Kenwood or the Explorer by modifying any wiring.

Has anyone dealt with this antenna connector compatibility before?
And what about the extra multipin connector? There's no place to connect it on the new unit. Ford has two multipin connectors for the factory radio. The adapter that came with the Ford install kit for the Kenwood fits the larger of the two connectors only.

It's starting to rain, so I gotta wrap this up pronto. I'm heading to Radio Shack to see if they have anything that will match up...

 

[mweiss]

Got the Kenwood more or less installed. I don't like the chintzy 'cage' installation though.. no bolts, nothing solid, just bend tabs to hold in place. Sheesh...

Could not find an adapter for the antenna lead, so installed without the radio. Wife only listens to CDs anyway and needs mainly the GPS nav system. Also have to find out where the park switch and reverse switch connections are, but it's raining now and will have to wait.

I hooked up the dimmer lead on the adapter to the dimmer lead on the Kenwood connector, but alas, when the lights are on, the display remains bright. This will be a problem at night. There is an undocumented dimmer ground lead, which I assumed hooks to chassis ground, so I tied the car's chassis lead to the Kenwood's chassis lead and the dimmer ground lead to that connection also, rather than leave it loose. The dimmer lead (not dimmer ground) is tied to the dimmer lead on the car's electrical system, so I don't understand why it's not working, and why Kenwood chose not to document the dimmer ground lead and where to connnect it.

I tried to use the provided tools to disengage the unit from the cage, to see how difficult that will be when it comes time to install an antenna adapter, if found, but was unsuccessful at getting the tools into the side slots. Things are a poor fit and I think the cage warped a bit.

 

[mjktg99]

On the Kenwood Adapter, there is 2 dimmer leads. - & +. Becuase it can go into any car, they provide both seeing as some cars run 12v+ for the dimmer and other run a - ground(Ford does this in the Ex). You will want to make sure your dimmer wire is connected to the negative on the kenwood and you will not use the +. This will solve your dimmer problem.

 

[mweiss]

Thanks.. that explains what that extra lead was. It was not mentioned at all in the installation manual.

I have some other concerns about how it's hooked up, because I'm noticing different behavior from the factory radio:

When I shut off the ignition, it doesn't stay on until I open the door, as the factory radio did.

When I start the car, it reboots itself and takes about a minute to get ready again. And then I have to re enter whatever mode it was in.

It 'forgets' what it was doing when I shut the ignition, whereas the original radio would pick up playing CD or radio or whatever state it was in at shut down.

I think I found an antenna adapter online. It's for GM, Chrysler and Ford '06 and up.

It will be interesting to see how to remove it from the dash again to add/correct these issues--I haven't been able to release it with the provided tools. This is going to be a PitA to pull it--I may end up taking the center console apart again if the tools don't fit in the slots on either side of the radio unit.

 

[coppe]

maybe the extra wire is the memory cable, this one needs to go to a constant electrical current connection, so that it will keep the programming and other "memory" functions working. Most of the times it is a yellow cable, that needs to bypass the ignition switch to have constant power, check if you have some extra wires from the harness in the truck, maybe one of those is the constant powered one.

 

[mjktg99]

You should have 2 12V+ wires hooked up. One is a constant which will provide the memory functions and has power all the time unless the battery is unhooked. The other is a swtiched 12V+ which provides power only when the ignition is in the run position. This turns the radio on/off.

 

[mweiss]

I hooked up an ignition (red) wire, a Battery (yellow) wire and ground (black). Also there were four Mute wires (brown) that I tied to the one Mute wire from the Kenwood.
What I see that's different is that there's no ten-minute delay that lets the radio play after turning off the ignition with the Kenwood. The factory radio would play for ten minutes, or until I opened a door.
Another thing is the boot time takes about a minute. So there's hop in and go--you have to wait for the bootup and then go choose the function, like playing a CD and go-- or fiddle with them while driving, which I don't do. These things could definately boot faster!

 

[mjktg99]

I wonder if you reversed the 2 12V+ wires...

 

[mjktg99]

I wonder if you reversed the 2 12V+ wires...

Now that I think about that a little more, Im not so sure because then it would stay on all the time..