Where's the Stereo Harness?

[fugiot]

My friend and I got a new harness for his 98 Ranger, but we can't find where to unplug the old one from. Is it under the dash? orrr..how do I get to it?

[TheRangerOfDanger]

look at the dash (from the front, not the top). in the middle, there is a black piece that goes around the ac controls and the radio and 2 of the ac vents. just above the ac controls (you have to look from underneath) there are two hex head screws. Unscrew them, than pull off the black piece. It's hard to get ahold of at first, but once you uundo one of the snaps, the rest just yank right out. Unplug all of the wires from the back of the panel that go to the cigarette lighter etc, and remov the black panel. from there, you can pull out the radio and unplug the harness from behind the radio.
Good Luck.

[TheRangerOfDanger]

dude, SR20DE power? Bad ass!!! My friend's got a s13 w/ a j spec
SR20DET - fast as balls very nice!!

[fugiot]

Haha, thanks. Yeah, I love my car. But about the Ranger thing, it's the harness that plugs into the truck that I can't find. Not the one that goes into the stereo. Either that, or do you know anyplace where I can find what all the colors mean so I don't have to install the new harness? They don't match the colors with the new stereo harness.

[DioGreer]

Did you buy a factory harness connector from the auto parts shop? It sounds like you didnt. Buy one. The wires will be labeled on the connector.

[fugiot]

Yes, I did. Ok, well, lemme explain it a little better. I have two harnesses. One goes in to the back of the stereo and has a bunch of wires hanging off of it that are labeled and one that plugs into the truck somewhere that also has lebeled wires. The wires that are hanging out of the dash AREN'T labeled. BUT I can't find where to unplug the old unlabeled harness to plug in the new labeled one so I can connect all the wires together.

[TheRangerOfDanger]

I'm sorry man, but you confused the crap out of me... here are two situations, one of which i think may help. if not explain some more...

1) you bought the CD player, and with it there was a wire harness that plugs into the back of the CD player and has loose wires (that's the first harness) and the second is the one that is attached to the truck that you unplugged from the old radio. The one you unplugged from the old stereo is the only one on the truck that you have to work with. In this case, you need to match up the wires (see bottom) and splice them, or connect them with wire piggybacks (AKA scotch locks) {these basically connect the loose end of the first harness with any section of wire from the trucks harness - even if there isn't an end}
2) you bought the CD player, and with it there was a wire harness that plugs into the back of the CD player and has loose wires (that's the first harness) and the second is the one that is attached to the truck that you unplugged from the old radio,and the third is the one you bought seperately from the store to connect the two if you bought one esecially for this case from the store ( so you don't have to mess with the wires) you can just plug one end of this third harness to the one coming out of the truck and the other end of it to the back of the CD player

***note that the harness from the truck for the old radio

new haRNES - old harness not truck

[TheRangerOfDanger]

I'm sorry man, but you confused the crap out of me... here are two situations, one of which i think may help. if not explain some more...

1) you bought the CD player, and with it there was a wire harness that plugs into the back of the CD player and has loose wires (that's the first harness) and the second is the one that is attached to the truck that you unplugged from the old radio. The one you unplugged from the old stereo is the only one on the truck that you have to work with. In this case, you need to match up the wires (see bottom for color matching) and splice them, or connect them with wire piggybacks (AKA scotch locks) {these basically connect the loose end of the first harness with any section of wire from the trucks harness - even if there isn't an end}
2) you bought the CD player, and with it there was a wire harness that plugs into the back of the CD player and has loose wires (that's the first harness) and the second is the one that is attached to the truck that you unplugged from the old radio,and the third is the one you bought seperately from the store to connect the two if you bought one esecially for this case from the store you can just plug one end of this third harness to the one coming out of the truck and the other end of it to the back of the CD player

***note that the harness from the truck for the old radio is the only piece there is to work with from the truck; there is no female end on the truck

Here is the color from the truck harness and what it is (note that there are extras-don't worry about them)
1)Left door speaker - light blue with white stripe is +
orange with light green stripe is -
2) Right door speaker - dark green w/ orange is +
white w/ light green is -
3)Left rear speaker - tan w/ yellow is +
green w/ light blue is -
4)Right rear speaker - brown w/ pink is +
orange w/ red is -
5)hot always (AKA power continuous) is light green w/ purple
6)hot in accessory or run is black w/ pink
7)ground is black

who the heck pays ford engineers to come up with these color combos??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TheRangerOfDanger]

**sorry about that, go with the second one -
typing too fast late at night is a pain

[fugiot]

Nice, That's ALL I needed. I didn't know what the colors were! So that why I was trying to find the source of the wires so I could replace them with the new "truck" harness. But now that I know the colors I don't have to. Thanks a lot! you saved me a lot of grief.!

[2000mudder]

normally you can buy the aftermarket harness that plugs directly into the factory wiring harness and has loose labled wires to connect to the loose labled wires from the stereo harness.that way wires not needed aren't in the new harness