Radio Install

[ad8 PRODIGY]

Whats up guys, recently bought a 1993 f350 with the 7.3 idi. Its gonna be a plow truck and the radio got stolen out of it before we got it. The last owner got another one and had it working but disconnected it. How do the wires connect in the back? I have the two plugs but still dont know how? Can anyone take a few pics of theirs and post them?

Thanks in advance, Zac

 

[Agnem]

You can find schematics for radio installs pretty easily in a google search. There are also pigtails you can buy from places like Crutchfield that will allow you to just plug into the factory harness.

 

[ad8 PRODIGY]

You can find schematics for radio installs pretty easily in a google search. There are also pigtails you can buy from places like Crutchfield that will allow you to just plug into the factory harness.

Thanks Agnem, ill check that out.

 

[Midwest_Mudder]

go the crutchfield way. often times the wiring colors on the pigtails they give you match up with the wiring colors of your aftermarket radio. PLUS it allows you to wire outside of the little cubbyhole and do a good job, i typically solder all of mine, its cleaner and pretty simple to do.

 

[riotwarrior]

Wal-Mart in Canada sells a Harness Kit that plugs directly into the stock harness. This makes connecting aftermarket CD/Tape players really quite simple, they have adopted a somewhat standard colour coding for speaker + and - as well as Fr and Rr and L and R and power/gnd/key pwr. I sat watching TV. and stripped and crimped the aftermarket radio harness to the adapter, walked outside plugged it into the truck and voila...instant perfect radio...dunlikedinner!

 

[redneckaggie]

please go the plug and play route on the power wires for the radio it is extremely hard to be reaching up inside there and make good connections when you hack the factory harness, have seen a couple radios burn up because of bad connections in freinds trucks

 

[berniesouthunt]

Get the harness from bestbuy or fleebay, It will save you some time. Wire the harness to the sterio and BAM, Its done.

 

[RLDSL]

please go the plug and play route on the power wires for the radio it is extremely hard to be reaching up inside there and make good connections when you hack the factory harness, have seen a couple radios burn up because of bad connections in freinds trucks

Thats no lie. I picked up a real nice 94 Volvo 940 at the insurance salvage pool auction a few months back for parts. I just wanted teh tranny mostly , the thing was listed as having a dash fire and I got it for $275 so I was happy . Got it home and was fooling around with it in the trailer and realized that all that was wrong with it was the little girl that had owned it had had her dingbat boyfriend cobble in a stereo in the worst way ( and I do mean worst, wires were twisted together and not even taped ) and it shorted out the main wiring harness via the wiper motor and melted a handful of wires together it came close to burning the car down
Thankfully the mechanic they took it to was too stupid to figure it out and it was totaled . I fired teh thing right up, runs great. I picked up a new harness at the boneyard for $40 and am going to put that one back on the road instead of parting it

Definitely get the plug in stereo kit and save your factory harness . It will save a lot of headache hooking up to the vehicle and if you solder and head shrink the connections that go on the stereo head side , you will have much better connections and won't have to worry about it coming loose over time

Most parts stores carry those kits nowdays, you don't have to order from crutchfield or a car stereo shop anymore

 

[tximport]

On my 94 PO had hacked the ends off so I started searching the web for schematics and found some but not all colors are always the same. I purchased a decent radio and wiring adapter from wally world hoping I could figure out how to solder all wires together and make it work. Well long story short I followed my wires around under the dash and found that on mine it has an external amp under the dash.
What I was able to do was unplug the connectors going to the amp and they are exactly the same as the ones that go from the amp to the back of the radio (that were hacked up). Just soldered the wires from the adapter to the radio pigtail and plugged it in to the wires that I unplugged from the amp.
Now I don't have the external amp but radios nowadays I guess are good enough without them.

 

[ad8 PRODIGY]

Ill look into that, hopefully its the same! Thanks!

 

[Matrix37495]

It doesn't apply to your situation, but another reason i like the plug and play method is if you go to sell the truck you can keep your radio and drop the factory one back it. Plus it's just so much easier...