I am working on a ford truck for a friend. The truck is a 99 F-150. The radio in it went bad or something and he tried to put a different one in. I beleive that the radio he is trying to put in is a 96 ford radio. Its just the am/fm radio,no cassette or cd player.

The problem is that something seems to be hooked up wrong. The radio stays on even when you turn the car off and the drains the battery. When I was asked for help I looked to this site for some information and I found the ford file under www.installdr.com.

The harnesses are the two on the first page of that diagram. One is black which holds all the speaker wires, and one is grey for the other things. I did some testing and it seems that all the speakers wires are in the right place. So my problem seems to be just with the wires in the grey harness.

But I looked at that diagram and all the wires are different colors. After the speakers wires what else is there. The diagram seems to indicate the only other wires I need are the ground, 12 volt battery wire, and 12 volt ignition wire.

Can anyone shed some light on what color wires I need to be looking for. I have a multimeter. How would I test to see which wires are which?

 

Also I noticed on the back of the radio that there is a place for a fuse, but its empty. Is there supposed to be a fuse here. I figured that there is but what amperage fuse do I need? The part number on the radio begins with F65E or F65F, i forget. Based on that I figured it to be a 96.

 

Sounds to me like you have you have 12 volt power for both the "Keyed" power source, and the constant 12 volt power. Trun the ignition off, and test the power wires going to the deck. The "Keyed" power should not read any voltage.

Good Luck

LH

 

There is one wire which reads 12 volts with key off and 14.4 volts when the truck is running. It is spliced and run to both the "keyed" power terminal and constant 12 volt terminal on the harness. Should this go to the constant terminal only?

I didn't hook it up this way. I figured it was wrong.

 

Let me know if this is the plugs you have. They may be different colors, but they are standard Ford plugs.




For the gray plug (from left to right in the pic):
green - memory feed
black - vehicle chassis ground
yellow/black - radio power feed
light blue/red - panel illumination
orange/black - radio display
black/light green - radio ground

For the black plug:
orange/light green - left front speaker +
light blue/white - " " " -
pink/light green - left rear speaker +
tan/yellow - " " " -
white/light green - right front speaker +
dark green/orange - " " " -
orange/red - right rear speaker +
black/white - " " " -


Your wires may not be the same colors, but they should be in the same order on the plugs. Check the power and ground with a test light to make sure, then check each speaker set to double check also...

Hope this is what you were looking for...

 

Thats them. Those are the plugs I am working with. The black harness contains only speakers wires and I tested all of those and they are good.

As for the grey plug. I just don't have those color wires. There is no orange wire there is no yellow wire. Theres is a red wire that is thicker than the other wires and it is spliced and run to both the the 12 volt constant and keyed power terminals.

My wires as they are hooked up now, would apoear on the picture you posted from left to right as:

Red
black/ pinkor purple stripe
Red
black
nothing
black/ i think a green stripe


there was also two wires in there behind the radio that were not being used one was blue and I think with a white stripe and the other was green, it had a striped don't remember what color.

The truck is a 99 but the radio and harnesses are older.

 

Ford may have changed the wire colors, but they are in the same order on the plugs as the ones I posted. I have swapped out many factory radios, and as long as the plugs are that style, they are intechangabe - no matter the wire color.

Match up your plug with the one in the pic, and the wires will be the same.

 

Well thats the problem. I don't know how to find the wires I need.

I used my multimeter to test the voltage on the different wires. I put the black probe on the ground wire and used the red probe to test the voltage on the other wires on the grey plug. The only wire that gave me a voltage reading was the red one that is spliced and running to both the memory feed and the radio feed. That wire gave a voltage of 12 volts with the car off and 14.4 with the car on. Perhaps I am testing incorrectly?

How do I use my multimeter to test for the ground, memory feed, and radio feed wires? Maybe what I thought was a ground wire isn't really a ground wire.

Also is there supposed to be a fuse in the back of the radio?

Thanks for all the help so far.

 

Does the plug look like it is stil in factory condition, or has it been changed?

The wiring on the plug goes as follows:

For the gray plug (from left to right in the pic):
green - memory feed
black - vehicle chassis ground
yellow/black - radio power feed
light blue/red - panel illumination
orange/black - radio display
black/light green - radio ground

If the wire for the radio power feed is spliced between it and the memory, sounds like their might be a problem. Actually, by what you are saying about the voltage test, sounds like the memory wire is spliced. The memory wire has a continuous power feed, where the radio power wire is fed by the ignition key. If you have power on both wires, thn it sounds like someone has tried to wire the radio to where it can be on without the key.

You should not have power on the illumination wire unless you turn the lights or parking lights on.

 

Do I need a fuse to go in the radio?

 

Oops - forgot about that -

I have never seen a fuse that is in a factory radio. They always were in the wiring or in the fusebox. The only opening I can think of in the back of a factory radio is for the antenna...

 

I just went back and reread this thread again. I must be more sleepy than I thought Cut the splice to where the only wire you have constant 12 volt to is the memory wire. You will probably have to run a different wire to the radio power wire. Pull it off the switxh or fuse panel somewhere. Let me know from there...

 

Thanks for all the help. I think I've gotten enough info to work something out. I will be working on it later this afternoon after I get off work. I'll let you know how it turns out and what the problem actually was.

 

Alright I got it working last night.
The way it was set up I had one big red wire that ran to both the memory feed terminal and the radio feed terminal. When I tested this red wire it gave 12 volts with ignition on or off.

When I went to work on the truck last night the first thing I did was replace two fuses that I knew had blown. After I did that the big red wire wasn't giving any voltage at all neither with the car on or off. So I went through and tested everything again. One of the wires that had no voltage at all before was now giving 12 volts when the ignition was on. In one of my posts I said that the guy that put the radio in had left two wires unused behind the radio. When I tested them before I got nothing from them. When I tested the wires after putting the fuses back in one turned out to be the constant 12 volt source and the other turned out to be dimmer switch wire. So all the right wires were there but the blown fuse seemed to throw everything off.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

Glad to see you got it worked out!!!