Need help with butchered wiring!

[tinkerbelle]

Hi, new member here. I've tried the search but nothing gives me a clear answer, so here's the question. Just bought a '91 Eddie Bauer Explorer, and the stereo harness looks like it met Freddie Kruger. Most connections were twisted wire halfway covered with electrical tape. The previous butcher cut the factory plugs out and I can't figure out which wires are which. The diagrams I've found online never match the wiring in the dash as far as color coding. So, what is the best site for finding the factory wiring diagrams and how can I determine which stereo the truck had from the factory. I'm just guessing that color coding changes between base stereo and the high end systems. Any help is appreciated thanks.

 

[Rick]

Try this: Dead Link Removed

 

[tinkerbelle]

thanks for the link....but none of their color coding matches what's in the dash

oh well....got the power and ground figured. I'll reuse the PO's speaker wiring for now. haven't looked in the door panels yet....they're probably butchered, too.:frustrate

 

[BrianDye]

Sorry to hear that....it really makes you wonder, why they didnt just go and get the 12$ harness doesnt it? I would wanna kill someone if I purchased a vehicle like that.

Bonus with a wiring harness is that you can easily (5 minute swap literally) throw the stocker back in if your selling it, or something. Plus you can sit inside your house and wire up the aftermarket headunit to the wiring harness, rather than having to splice them in with limited space as is.

 

[A Wise Guy]

A double a battery will help find your speaker wires. hold one wire to the + side of the battery and go through the rest of the wires to the - side of the battery. When you hear the speaker make a little pop noise you have that speaker and move on. Then all you have to figure out is which is true +&- of the wires.

 

[PandorasCustoms]

I know its rough sometimes, but even I cut the factory harness out of my X.
At the time, I didn't the correct harness available to me, and I was going to be travelling with her for some time, leaving the next day.

I just had to suck it up, cut it out, and get to work. It is harder to work with, but it can be done. Anyways, this diagram should be close.

Factory 8 Input Gray/Black Plug
This plug only had six wires in place
Yellow/Green - Memory Power (const. 12V+)
Yellow/Black - Ignition (Switched 12V+)
Black - Ground Wire
Blue - Amplifier Remote
Blue/Red - Illumination
Black/Green - Secondary Ground


Secondary Plug
Left Front (+) - Green
Left Front (-) - Orange/White
Right Front (+) - Red/White
Right Front (-) - Brown
Left Rear (+) - Light Blue/Black
Left Rear (-) - Yellow
Right Rear (+) - White/Purple
Right Rear (-) - Light Blue

 

[tinkerbelle]

Thanks again folks. I'm Tinks b/f and I get the pleasure of undoing the butchery. The list Pandora posted looks pretty close to what we're working with. All that's left is getting the LR speaker to work....the PO didn't have wires run to that door so maybe the factory wiring is intact. He didn't just butcher the audio system....the factory leather seats are gone, replaced with cloth power seats.....with no plugs, just twisted wire and electrical tape. poor thing is killing the battery overnight, so I get to chase a voltage drain over the weekend. Was there a factory amp behind the passenger side cargo area panel? He had a small sub in there and there appears to be an amplifier between the access panel and the wheelwell....and it doesn't look like a factory Ford amp. Oh well.....got a fresh set of batteries for my multimeter and a huge supply of fuses and crimps....my weekend is set...lol

 

[BrianDye]

Yea, there was a stock amp (For the premium systems) behind the passenger side rear panel, towards the front of the wheelwell

 

[PandorasCustoms]

The EB version of that year should have come with at least the mid-grade sound system, which would have had the factory amplifier. This is actually where all of the speaker leads come from.

What kind of radio are you trying to install at this time? An OEM replacement or just an aftermarket one? If it is aftermarket, I would suggest running new speaker wire to each of the doors, as the aftermarket unit will have a built-in amplifier and it is better to just run off of it, as opposed to running through the factory amplifier.

Was the subwoofer installed an aftermarket or the factory style where the cargo net should have been on the right rear panel? If it was factory then your amplifier for it would have been close to it.

A power drain? You might want to see if there is an interior light that is always active, I know I have seen some people break off the Rod that deactivates the light in there, so they essentially had to take the bulb out.

Also, if it is in fact an aftermarket amplifier, if ti was wired up incorrectly, it may be constantly on. Even with no music playing, just having the amplifier turned on will generate a small amount current and drain the battery over time.

 

[PandorasCustoms]

BTW pictures would be awesome if you have time and availability

 

[tinkerbelle]

No pics yet Pandoras. She hasn't even had a chance to wash the poor truck yet. It is an Eddie Bauer, so maybe that is a factory amp. The PO had the aftermarket HU in and working (except for the LR door speaker), I'm just trying to clean up exposed wires. He'd run wire for the other 3 doors...no clue why that one isn't wired. My main worry was getting the HU back on the factory power circuit and not the piece of speaker wire he had shoved into the fuse panel. I'll take the cargo panel out over the weekend and see if that is a Ford/JBL amp. There's still RCA cables and data cables for an old Motorola 2600 cellphone run from the back seat to the dash...lol. Thank goodness the wiring in my Mustang and my Bronco didn't look like this!

 

[BrianDye]

Wow man....sorry to hear about that lol, but think of how happyyour lady will be, and how good you'll feel knowing you tackled that, and thats a hell of a project even if it doesnt seem like it, but some before and after pics/or videos would be cool

 

[PandorasCustoms]

You know, my father used to do the same thing when he would change out stereos. Instead of using the facotry wiring, he would take a piece of wire and stick into radio fuse slot. I never quite understood why he would want to run a wire that far, when he had one right in front of him?

 

[BrianDye]

Its reasonable I guess if the wiring is chopped up and whatnot (As the acc. Wire only though otherwise you'd be re-tuning the stereo everyday)

 

[tinkerbelle]

thanks all. the stereo works now!!! Put a new battery in it last night and now the truck starts in the morning, too. Guess the old one dropped a cell.