New HU Install Alternative Method - Front Speaker Bypass

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95 Ford Explorer with Premium Audio System – New HU Install the Alternative Way
1 – Setting Up New Head Unit (HU) Power and Front Speaker Connections​

IMPORTANT : Disconnect the negative terminal to your truck's battery to ensure that you don't blow yourself – and your fuses – to pieces.

Estimated Work Time – 45 to 60 minutes

What You Should Already Have
New Head Unit
Dash Kit for 1995 Ford Explorer (I used Scosche brand)

Needed Equipment
One roll of electrical tape* / $3 or One box (twenty to thirty) butt connectors – 16 to 18 gauge / $5
One pair wire cutters / $5 or One pair wire cutters with wire strippers* / $10
One bladed dremmel*/fine-toothed saw (optional)
One box extra 12 amp miniature buss fuse (optional)*
One roll extra 18 gauge wire (optional)*

*recommended supplies

Contents:
What You Should Already Have
Needed Equipment
Preface
--Cautions/Warnings
Step One
--Identification Chart - Stock HU Wiring Colors, Purpose and Locations
--Wire Splicing/Connection Method Mini-How-To
--Grounding Your New HU
--Powering Your New HU
--Attaching Ignition Wire to Your New HU
Step Two
--Accessing Truck's Stock Subwoofer(Sub)/Amplifier(Amp)
--Removing Power to Truck's Sub/Amp
--Locating Fuse and Corresponding Wire for Truck's Stock Sub/Amp
--Accessing Truck's Wiring Harness for Stock Amp
Step Three
--Locating/Cutting Wires from Truck's Amp
Step Four
--Identification Chart - Front Speaker Wires/Amp Harness
--Identification Chart - Wires From Dash to Amp
--Rerouting Wires
Step Five
--Identification Chart - New HU's Typical Wiring Arrangement
--Connecting Speaker Wires from New HU to Stock HU Harness
--Identification Chart - Truck's Rerouted Speaker Wiring
--Conclusion

Preface
My steps begin AFTER the removal of the stock head unit and assembly of proper dash kit. To find out how to remove your head unit or assemble the dash kit, please check with your owner's manual or the dash kit's instruction booklet, or another write-up.

This write-up is for those of you who are too impatient (like me) to wait for a mail-order harness adapter that allows for the bypass of the stock amplifier. They are sold at Wal-Mart and Best Buy, but do not correctly fit this truck. I have tried both the Metra brand and Scosche brand, and neither line up. It is also for those of you who do not want to rewire each of your speakers individually to the dash, because that's just too much work. Also, this write-up is for those of you willing to completely disable your stock amplifier and subwoofer (which is what the amp-bypass harnesses do) and CD changer by cutting their wires.

If you agree to all of these, please continue, but if you have a problem with destroying then rebuilding your stock wiring arrangement, don't attempt because that's what we're going to do.

Note : The colors of the wires that come with your new CD player are usually pretty typical, but that does not mean that they are all the same. In my examples, I use the colors that are attributed to MY new CD player. Before following my examples, it would be best for you to make sure that you know the color organization of YOUR new CD player.

Step One : Location : Dash
After the stock head unit is removed, and everything is unplugged from its back, you should have two harnesses that were plugged into your stock head unit now hanging from the hole in your dash. One is long, narrow and gray and the other is small, square and black.

The first thing you should do is to identify the wires that you see by referring to the chart below. Copy this chart or print it out to take with you to the truck so you can reference it during the installation – please don't rely on your memory, no matter how good you think it is.

Before you interpret the chart, here are the terms just to clarify :
-Wire Color - Color of the rubber tubing encasing specific wires
-Wire Purpose - What the wire connects
-Wire Terminal - Where the wire is connected

*******Stock HU Wiring Harness Chart*******
(Wire Color > Wire Purpose > Wire Terminal)
-Light-Green/Purple > Power (Memory) > Interior Fuse Box (fuse 29)
-Black (from the gray, long harness) > Chassis Ground >Grounding Location - (Rear of Left Front Fender)
-Yellow/Black > Accessory (Ignition) > Interior Fuse Box (fuse 20)
-Light-Blue/Red > Illumination > Interior Lights
-Black/Light-Green > Ground > Rear of Vehicle
-Light-Green/Black > Amplifier Audio-On > Amplifier
-Tan > “Protocol-B” > CD Changer/Rear Control Panel
-Black (from the square, black harness) > Shield > Amplifier
-Gray > Tape Right Neg. > Amplifier
-Dark-Blue/White > Tape Right Pos. > Amplifier
-Light-Blue/Pink > “Protocol-A” > Amplifier/CD Changer/Rear Control Panel
-White/Pink > Tape Left Neg. > Amplifier
-Brown/Light-Green > Tape Left Pos. > Amplifier
*************************************

Use your wire cutters to free all of these wires from the harness. It is safe to cut all of these wires, but try not to cut too short to the stock harnesses so that you may be able to reattach if something goes wrong, or if you ever want to reinstall your stock radio. Cut the wires about an inch away from the harness, leaving an inch of wire still attached to the stock head unit's harness.

Notice that there are NO speaker wires up here. The speaker wires are connected elsewhere in your car, but we will get to that later. The only wires that can be directly connected from your stock wiring harness to your new head unit's wiring harness are :
-Power (or, Memory) – Light-Green/Purple
-Chassis Ground – Black
-Accessory (or ignition) – Yellow/Black
-Illumination – Light-Blue/Red *The illumination is not usually necessary

You can splice the aforementioned wires (power, ground, accessory and illumination) at any time, but since you're up there, I would go ahead and splice them accordingly. Remember : Your truck should NOT have any power at this point, so before you cut any wires, check a light or something to ensure that you have correctly disconnected the battery. Otherwise, once you cut the ground you could short out the fuse, or worse.

To splice, use your wire strippers accordingly.

If you do not have wire strippers and are using just the wire cutters, then cut the colored, rubber wrapping around the wires. It's easy to do this by using the very tips of the wire cutters and snipping in a circular motion so that you eventually are able to divide the colored, rubber wrapping. I must warn you to be careful and try not to sever any of the actual wiring. If you cut a few strands of wire, don't worry because that's normal without strippers, it will still work. If you cut too many strands of wire it will insufficient for the electrical current and you could damage something. If you end up cutting too much of the actual wiring, remove the damaged portion and try again.

Note: The ~ symbol indicates splicing
Wire Splicing Example: Truck's Wire : Power : Light-Green/Purple ~ Head Unit Wire : Power : Yellow

To seal the connection:
If you are using electrical tape:
Once you have an exposed end of wire on a wire from the dash, and one exposed end of the corresponding wire from your new head unit's harness, twist the two exposed ends together (called splicing) and wrap tightly with electrical tape. It is okay to use too much electrical tape - do whatever you must to ensure that there is NO PORTION of the spliced wires exposed. If there is wire exposed and it happens to touch another speaker wire, you could cause the affected speakers to temporarily fail or you could possibly short out the system.

If you are using butt connectors:
Once you have an exposed end of wire on a wire from the dash thread it through the center of the butt connector. Then, thread the exposed end of the corresponding wire from the new head unit's wiring harness into the opposite end of the connector. Crimp the middle of the connector to seal the connection.

Note : You are able to splice these directly with the wires from your new harness because they do not lead to your truck's stock amplifier, as the table shows, and are instead connected directly to the necessary things.

After you have connected these correctly, your CD player will be grounded and have power.

Step Two : Location : Rear
Access the stock amplifier that is located in the rear cargo area of the truck, over the rear passenger's wheel well. There is an access panel that covers the stock subwoofer. You're going to find a lot of thick-gauged Black/Light-Green wires. These are all grounds and they are grounded right there in the rear of your truck. There should be five (5) total – three that ground the amp, one that is a subwoofer connection, and one that is run from your dash and grounds your CD player. You should disconnect these so that your amplifier and your subwoofer will no longer receive power. Make sure you tape them off with electrical tape or otherwise seal their exposed ends so they don't end up accidentally sparking.

To be safe, you should also locate the amplifier's fuse in the internal fuse box and remove it. It is fuse #34, and in case you also wanted to cut the wire that leads directly from the amp to the fuse box, the wire is Red/Light-Blue.

The other wires that you'll need to access are not located near there.

To get to the right wires, you have to remove that side's entire panel – which is time-consuming and tedious, and I won't explain how to do that as there are thousands of other write-ups that explain the same thing.

What I did – and most of you may not want to do this as it is a bit destructive – was saw (use your bladed dremmel or a fine-toothed saw) a small hole into the panel. It's easy to patch back up if you make clean incisions, and keep the piece that you remove intact. If not, you'll be left with a nasty looking hole. Afterward, you can just patch it right back in there however you want.

The place that you'll want to cut is directly beneath the small dimple that is below the window, it is used for your cargo net. Make a hole large enough to fit your hand into, and that's all. Right behind that will be all of the wires you'll need access to.

Step Three : Location : Rear
On the side of the amplifier, next to the big red and white sticker that labels it a Ford product, you'll see three wiring harnesses with multiple, colorful wires. Unplug all the harnesses that you can, because you'll be cutting wires from each of them.

It doesn't matter at this point whether your amplifier is connected to anything because you should have already severed its grounds and in a minute you're going to sever its ties to the dash.

Step Four : Location : Rear
Identify the wires that you see by referring to the chart below.

Note : This chart does not have ALL of the amplifier's wires listed, only the ones that you need to know for this step in the process.

******Amplifier - Front Speaker Wires******
(Wire Color > Wire Purpose > Wire Terminal)
-Orange/Light-Green > Left Front Speaker Pos. > Speaker
-Light-Blue/White > Left Front Speaker Neg. > Speaker
-White/Light-Green > Right Front Spkr Pos. > Speaker
-Dark-Green/Orange > Right Front Spkr. Neg > Speaker
*****************************************

After you've found those wires, cut them with enough room for you to strip their ends. Try to be careful when cutting, as you were when you cut the wires to the stock head unit's harnesses, because in the case that something goes wrong you'll want to be able to reattach the wires by splicing them back onto the harness.

Now, this is a bit tricky. Locate the wires that run directly from your amp and into your dash. You're going to cut those wires and splice them with your speaker wires, but don't jump to anything yet. Just wait a minute and follow me, here. Essentially, this will create one long speaker wire. After splicing, the wire will run from your speaker to your dash through this process. Here is another chart for you to use. The wires included are the ones that run directly from the dash to the amplifier.

*******Amplifier – Dash Wires********
(Wire Color > Wire Purpose > Wire Terminal)
-Dark-Blue/White > Tape Right Pos. > Dash Harness
-Gray > Tape Right Neg. > Dash Harness
-White/Pink > Tape Left Neg. > Dash Harness
-Brown/Light-Green > Tape Left Pos. > Dash Harness
**************************************

After you've located these wires, cut them the same as you did the speaker wires, with enough room to strip their ends. Now, you can match whichever ones you want to match, if you prefer specific color combinations. It doesn't matter, as it is just an extension of the speaker wire, as if you had gone out and bought more wire but they've already been threaded up to the dash for you. Here is the set up that I did:

Note: The ~ symbol indicates splicing
1. Orange/Light-Green ~ Brown/Light-Green (Left Front Spkr Pos. ~ Tape Left Pos)
2. Light-Blue/White ~ Gray (Left Front Spkr Neg ~ Tape Right Neg)
3. White/Light-Green ~ Dark-Blue/White (Right Front Spkr Pos. ~ Tape Right Pos)
4. Dark-Green/Orange ~ White/Pink (Right Front Spkr Neg. ~ Tape Left Neg)

Step Five : Location : Dash
Identify the speaker wires for your new head unit. Usually, there is a sticker on top of the unit that specifies each wire. If not, check its instruction booklet. Remember, positive-wire connects to positive-wire, and negative-wire connects to negative-wire. If its flip-flopped, you'll heat your wires and destroy them. Then you WILL have to rewire your entire truck. Here's a chart the depicts the TYPICAL new head unit's wiring arrangement.
--Blue – Remote Turn-On (for after-market amplifier or power antennae)
--Black – Ground
--Red – Accessory (Ignition)
--Yellow – Memory (Power)
--Gray – Right Front Speaker Pos.
--Gray/Black – Right Front Speaker Neg.
--White – Left Front Speaker Pos.
--White/Black – Left Front Speaker Neg.
--Violet – Right Rear Speaker Pos.
--Violet/Black – Right Rear Speaker Neg.
--Green – Left Rear Speaker Pos.
--Green/Black – Left Rear Speaker Neg.

Here's how the front speaker wires should connect if you followed my pattern:

-Left Front Spkr. Pos of your new head unit connects to Brown/Green wire from dash.
-Left Front Spkr Neg of your new head unit connects to Gray wire from dash.
-Right Front Spkr Pos of your new head unit connects to Dark-Blue/White wire from dash
-Right Front Spkr Neg of your new head unit connects to White/Pink wire from dash.

Your truck's rerouted wiring arrangements for the front speakers (following typical new head unit's wiring arrangement) :
(Wire Origin > Initial Color of Wire ~ Spliced to ___ from the amplifier ~ Spliced to ___ from the new head unit's wiring harness ~ Wire Terminal)

Left Front Spkr Pos~Orange/Light Green~Brown/Green~White>New HU
Left Front Spkr Neg~Light-Blue/White~Gray~White/Black~New HU
Right Front Spkr Pos~White/Light-Green~Dark-Blue/White~Gray~New HU
Right Front Spkr Neg~Dark-Green/Orange~White/Pink~Gray/Black~New HU

Now, the stock amplifier and subwoofer have successfully been bypassed and are no longer of any use to your truck. Leave them there as dead weight or sell them to a friend, but whatever ends up happening to them, they will NEVER produce sound for your truck again. At this point they should not be grounded to the rear of the truck and all of their harnesses should be disconnected.

At this point, you should have:
-Power (Memory) wire from head unit > Light-Green/Purple wire from dash
-Ground wire from head unit > Black wire from dash
-Accessory (Ignition) wire from head unit > Yellow/Black wire from dash
-Speaker wires > accordingly (listed above.)

At this point you should :
-Be able to turn on CD player
-Be able to play CD
-Hear sound from Right Front speaker
-Hear sound from Left Front speaker

Note : This is only successful for the connection of the front speaker wires (the rear speaker wires are described in another of my how-to write-ups) to your new CD player. The antennae wire is connected to the amp. You WILL have to rewire the antennae wire if you want radio. Reason being is that there are the EXACT amount of wires needed to connect all four of your speakers ran through your dash (the only lucky part about all of this) so you can't do as you did with the front speakers and splice the antennae wire with another wire. I know, this sucks, but luckily most of us have an Ipod, Zune or other MP3 player that can hook up to the CD player and pick up radio for us – if we REALLY need to listen to it. Sorry, talk-show fans. If I can figure a way to make it easier, I'll let yow know.