What do you guys know about installing a factory cd player in a truck that did not come with one, to my knowledge they all had the factory amp, Can i wire it up with an amp bypass, or should I install a new amp, whats the best way to proceed (cheapest as well) Thanks fellas!

 

The amp was part of the premium sound system.
my 95 did not have it, but my 94 does. Its a box under the dash. pretty simple really and doesn't really effect the sound as far as I can tell. I run the CD player at the same volume in the 94 as I did the 95. Well, louder actually, cause the 7.3 just drowns the thing right out most of the time.

Same speakers as well, but the premium speakers in the back are far better sounding than the ones in my 95 were though, cause i just have JL 6.5's with tweeters in the doors.
My truck did not come with a CD player either. I have the factory head for it.

 

My 94 had factory amp. Wire the blue wire in the factory adapter plug to the red wire. That will kick the factory amp. There is a big difference in quality. My 96 just got new door speakers because the sounded like Sh%&. Same head unit in the 96 that was in the 94. 15 in the 94 was good listening volume. in the 96 25 is listening volume. Not near the power to push the speakers.

94 265000 miles Still has the ORIGINAL speakers and amp.

 

Thanks guys that really helps, bad12 can you explain a little more put the blue wire where the red wire goes or tie them together or what? Thanks again

 

One of the blue wires is for power antennas on the Taurus. It should be marked on the harness. Use the other blue one and it should work. I had to figure this out the hard way when I couldn't get my speakers to work. Some head units have a remote wire but doesn't always work. The red always will turn the amp on.

 

Similar experience:
My old 97 w/ factory amp, Alpine deck was 12-16 vol setting
My new 97 w/o factory amp, Alpine deck was 18-24 vol setting

Both had same deck and same Boston Acoustic speakers all around. With the factory amp sounded much better/crisper IMO

 

So just to clarify, can factory cd players be interchanged between trucks with or without the factory amp without a problem?

 

Correct. The speaker wires just run through the amp when present. No amp they just go straight to the speakers. And the blue wire does nothing.

 

Works! I know this post is older, but if anyone else comes across it in their search for a fix to the same issue, read this thread from start to finish. On the 96 F250, You'll see the factory AMP located under the dash above and just right of the gas pedal. (Somewhere in that area) Another sure way to find it is moving the factory in-dash wiring harness for the head unit around. You'll see the proper harness moving under the dash and you will see that it plugs in to the silver factory AMP. However, if you are lucky enough, you don't even need to see where this is located. If your head unit has the remote wire (blue) just hook it up to the blue remote wire on the wiring harness you purchased to install your new head unit. (Should be marked AMP). Basically, just hook the head unit up to the aftermarket harness you purchased, not leaving anything out and don't leave the remote unhooked as you normally would without needing to power another device. Hook the remote up as if you were sending an on/off signal to your aftermarket AMP for subs. No different. bad12jr shows an excellent illustration of the after market harness in this thread and is dead on with his instruction. Like he says, if it will not work straight up, wire the blue to the red. Just make sure, somehow, that your factory AMP is powering off when you turn the vehicle off.

 

I'm sooo confused.
Though, not dealing with this till I get new head unit.

I'm just goign to pull the amp and go from there when I diddle with this.
Much easier for me to understand when I'm looking at things.

 

On a related note, my 97 is the first Ford out of 4 OBS trucks that has had the factory amp. When I did my dash swap this weekend I was going to swap in my Kenwood CD player, then realized that the new truck has the factory amp and requires a different harness than Whitey. My question is for those who have trucks with factory amps: in my truck there is one adapter that goes between the wiring in the truck and another plug (rectangular white plug), then another harness with no crimp connections or soldered wires that goes from the white plug to the plug for the aftermarket head unit that came in my 97. I'll try to dig up a pic here in a bit. Is this the typical setup? I was just going to cut the Panasonic plug off and use crimps to wire in the plug for my Kenwood but I didn't have enough so I just put the Panasonic back in for now.

 

The harness should be the same.
I've used the same one in 3 trucks now with both configurations.

Metra Part # 70-1770 | Ford wire harness | Metra Online

This is the ford harness for the OBS trucks, amp or not.
There are no other options on amplifiers.

 

Talyn- Just use the harness you have if it looks like the one bad12jr posted the illustration of in this thread. If not, go to Wally World and purchase the harness. Hook it up to your head unit as required by the head unit. (A diagram should be on the head unit itself as to color codes) If no diagram is on the head unit, it is in the manuel for the head unit. The Wal-Mart harness will have the description of each wire labeled on it. As long as you hook all that up like you've probably done several times before and hook the (Blue) remote wire on the harness to the (Blue) remote wire on the head unit, it will work. No need to full with the AMP at all. No need to jump wires and all that if the head unit has the remote wire. It should. Most do. Just hook it up as normal including the blue remote wires.

 

superduty4x4- Did Talyn's post solve it for you?

 

Well, again, you are wrong. The harness is most definitely different. I'll go take a pic if I have to. If you used the "standard" harness and your truck does in fact have the factory amp, you bypassed it.
Edit- look at the photo, the one on the left and the one on the right are matches to the connectors in my truck