Wiring Aftermarket Head Units to Factory Amplifier

[Dubious_Downfall]

Looking for a way to wire a factory amplifier to an aftermarket radio/head unit in my 1993 Ford Explorer Sport.

I haven't actually pulled the factory head unit out to see whether or not my truck has the "premium sound" system. But, assuming it does, how would someone go about wiring an aftermarket head unit, which does not have that blue+white wire, to the factory amp?

I'm somewhat familiar with wiring head units in these trucks. I know that everything is fairly straightforward. The only issue is that left over blue and white wire. According to my small amount of research, it is basically used by the factory head unit to tell the amplifier to power on. As tempted as I am to wire that blue and white wire to the "switched power" wire, I'd rather get some feedback in the hopes that someone has done this before. I can't imagine that nobody has at least attempted a work-around. I've tried looking, but I just keep finding mixed information for the second gen (1995-2001) Explorers with the factory subwoofer and amplifier.

If you want to tell me it isn't worth it to try, please refrain from doing so. I know many people hate the factory amp, or never had a working one to begin with. I just want to give it a shot and see how it sounds before going through the trouble of wiring up a bypass, which might ultimately sound worse than when it had the factory head unit installed. Especially since I'm installing a very cheap head unit that will have little to no built-in amplifier.

Thanks in advance! You guys are always here for me when I need you.

 

[Dubious_Downfall]

I'm dumb... Figured it out. Blue and white wire wires together with the blue wires.

 

[smegun]

they made a factory bypass amp dongle you still have to take the passenger rear interior sides out enough to disconnect the factory amp too much distortion with factory amp don't need it for todays stereo/'s more amps ? you need a base amp? another story

 

[alaskan155]

i run it on my 94 and 97 with my pioneer decks, the remote blue wire controls it, only difference is the pioneer needs less input to power the speakers when using the bypass harness....dont remember the white wire but been a while since i wired it in.

i have stock 2000 ranger speakers in my 94 and cheapy pioneer speakers in the front doors in my 97 with stockers in the rear door. for stock speaker it works good, but ford did get rid of them in the 98+ and put more power out in the stock receiver.

 

[Dubious_Downfall]

I already finished, but I'm going to clarify further.

I wanted to continue using the factory amplifier that came with the truck. Not bupass it. In fact, it was the first thing I said.

My solution was to buy the Metra 70-5511 wiring harness, wire everything as it normally would be wired, except for the blue "power antenna" wire. That got connected together with the wire that is both white and blue, then both of those wires, from the Metra harness, were wired to the new head unit/radio using the radio's "power antenna" wire. In my case, it was blue. It also happened to instruct me to wire my factory amplifier to that wire in the instructions. But I hadn't bought my radio before posting originally.

TL;DR People always misunderstand the question. And all the blue wires get wired together.

 

[smegun]

you don't want it its not that good then you have to take the 10 db outs of your new stereo into the amp and still trigger it its clipping to over saturate the input of an amp

 

[Dubious_Downfall]

you don't want it its not that good then you have to take the 10 db outs of your new stereo into the amp and still trigger it its clipping to over saturate the input of an amp

Again, I already figured out how to wire the factory amp to my new head unit.

And dude... Did you type this while drunk? I THINK I understand what you're trying to say. But my stereo sounds fine. I'm actually pretty happy with how it sounds. My only complaint is that my new stereo doesn't have a lot of options for audio adjustment. But that's my fault for going with a cheaper option. I'll upgrade later.

I actually wish I had taken pictures before sliding the stereo into it's slot. I think the wiring looks pretty professional and it might have been useful to have them.