Hey guys, I picked up an after market radio for my truck as my last one was fried. I have the speaker wires hooked up fine. I tried hooking up the power wires and what not but I cant get the radio to turn on! Can anyone tell me what the orange and black wire is in the stereo harness? Its not on any diagrams Ive found. Ive tried switching the wires around to see if that would work. The closest I got was a blinking LED behind the face of the radio, I also got the back light to turn on, but that was when it was on constant 12v and only the back light was on, the radio it self wasnt.

 

Please tell me you bought the wiring adapter to go with it. They are less than 20 dollars and will avoid any headache during install. If you just hacked the wires then you will need to go to the library, find the correct haynes or chilton manual, find the wiring diagram for YOUR SPECIFIC year, and then make a copy of the page with the radio wiring on it. You will then have to clean the insulation of the wires to find out what color stripes are what. Then you can connect the radio's power to the appropriate wires.

 

I didn't get the adapter. I've heard that its easy to hook up the wires with butt connectors

 

This is for 92 & 93 but it should give you what you need. 1992-93 Ford F Series Stereo Wiring Information

BTW,,, the adapters make so much easier and more reliable..

 

Car Alarm, Car Stereo, Mobile Video, and Cruise Control Info for Installers

Wiring color charts for almost every vehicle on the road.

If it were me, I'd solder the factory harness back together and get the adapter kit. $10 at Wal Mart.

 

To pass up a CHEAP and SIMPLE install, in favor of more headache and hacking up the harness...

Is just plain dumb.

 

Thats the thing, The gray one was already broken off. I tried soldering it back on to no avail thats why I cut the wires and tried to use butt connectors.

 

I fear that if you just started swapping wires around you may have damages your radio. You may be better served to hit the local u-pull it and cut the harness out of another truck and solder it in your, then use the adapter. I'd check the radio out first though. Red wire on the radio harness is 12v switched, yellow is 12v all the time, and black is negative (ground). Make sure it powers on when you connect the black to the negative battery terminal and the red AND yellow wires to the positive.

 

I agree...Simply getting another Pigtail from a donor truck would be best...

A tad of solder, and some heat shrink tubing and VOILA!

 

I though we went over getting the adapter harness the other day... take the connectors off a junkyard truck like stated before, solder it on and buy one of these:

Scosche FD02B Wire Harness to Connect an Aftermarket Stereo

I just hope your radio is ok...

 

I just said... The grey connector was broken... That's why I did what I did...

 

There's no all black wire. The only solid wire is the red one. In the diagram that some one else posted the neg wire is either red or black

 

You can lead a horse to water, but you cant make him drink

 

The orange and black wire in the factory harness is used by some radios to send a signal to the power antenna module to raise or lower the antenna.

This function isn't used in the trucks (no power antennae).

Sending power to that wire will damage your factory radio.

 

Well there's a wire from my new radio labeled auto antenna output. Should I hook that to the orange and black wire?