Hi All:

My '88 F150 4x2's original AM/FM radio had "one channel disease," and I read the posts on the boards and got the spray from Radio Shack (at least I think I did--no one working there knew anything, but the can said "Tuner Control Cleaner and Lubricant) and I tried it, but it didn't work. Only very tiny little voices come out of the right side, except every once in a while, when the right side plays fine and scares the beJesus out of me.

Anyway, the radio kinda died on the table. That is, after breaking and repairing one very short wire to the face plate, and after the spraying didn't work, I broke the other wire and called it a day.

MY (long)QUESTION: I tried to put a radio from an '87 F150 in my truck, but where my truck has 2 long, narrow rectangular multipin conncectors, this radio had connectors that were basically laid out as squares, so they wouldn't plug in to my rectangular connectors. Apparently ONE YEAR makes a difference???!!!

So I'm in the junkyard and somebody thoughtfully laid an AM/FM CASSETTE (I'm thinkin' UPGRADE here!) Ford radio on the floor of an ancient truck. (Ancient as in the generation previous to mine.) And it's got rectangular mulitpin connectors identical to my '88's. (There's 7 "bayonets" or pins in the inboard recepticle, and 8 pins on the recepticle near the outside edge of the radio.)

So it plugs in perfectly, and when I hit the "on" switch, the speakers in my doors go "click", but that's it. No static (even after I plugged the antenna in--go me) and no lights on in the radio. Click on, click off.

Needless to say I was disappointed. Is there something I should be doing to this "new" radio to make it work, like a circuit breaker or fuse or something? I figured out later probably the donor brought it into the 'yard to match the connectors, then left it for some hopeful like me to find....

Lastly, is anyone aware of connectors to mix 'n match Ford radios from different years? How about cheap aftermarket radios that will play on my cheap Ford speakers, using the truck's existing connectors? I didn't want to install a nice CD player and new speakers yet, as I don't know yet how long I plan to keep this truck.

Thanks in advance.

 

I'd go the cheap stereo route. Go to Radio shack and get the harness adapter for your truck and the install should be a snap.

If you are really lazy, spend $99 on a stereo and Best Buy will install it for you.

Randy

 

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 13-Feb-01 AT 01:37 PM (EST)[/font][p]here is yur pin info:http://www.installdr.com/Harnesses/Ford-Wiring.pdf

then go here and hope that radio is listed:
http://www.customcarsound.com/frame_reference.html

and the man is right, get a wiring harness..
good luck!

 

Thanks for the help, you guys. Unfortunately, I just wanted to clarify two things I'm not sure about, so I appreciate your patience.

Randy: When I went to Radio Shack (previously) I asked them if they knew anything about adaptors that would allow me to "snap in" an aftermarket radio to my Ford connectors, and they knew nothing about it. Is this just because the Radio Shack near me sucks (which it does?). Do you know of other sources for these adaptors? Also, thanks for the Bestbuy installation tip. I don’t think I’m that lazy, but it is kinda cold out in NYS right now….

AIM: Thank you for the Great websites—the links are pretty awesome as well—it’s amazing how much audio info is out there! I bookmarked them and spent about 2 hours reading on them, so far. However, I wasn’t sure which radio you meant when you said to “hope that radio is listed.” Do you mean that after I select an aftermarket radio, I can find a listing of radio wire color codes to hook up the new radio to my connectors? I’m confused, because if I understand you and Randy, I won’t need to know which wires are which, b/c I will buy an adaptor to my existing audio harness connections….

Lastly, while I will probably go the “cheap radio route,” as I have other Ford Radios of different years, is anyone aware of harness adaptors that will allow one year of Ford radio to adapt to another year truck?

Anyway, thanks again both of you!

Peter

 

Best Buy sells any harness under the sun, brand specific a mojority of the time (as in Ford-Sony adapter) just buy a cheap radio and the $12 harness and the install is a snap, took me maybe a good 15 minutes for mine (took so long because I blew the bleeper blanking blankity blank fuse in the under hood fuse box so I couldn't hear it go *pop*...bunofa snitch!)
Anyways, the stereo hookups on these trucks arent hard, if yours is like mine, one plug was for speaker wire, the other plug had the power stuff, break out a voltmeter and set it to ohms, and you can test the speakers themselves, when you find a pair that is for a speaker, the speaker should make a static sound. If it doesn't or it doesn't sound right, you might need to replace the wires to the speaker itself, I found out that trick after someone stole the Kenwood stereo out of my previous truck, THAT was fun...

1995 F-150XL SC/SB
http://members.sounddomain.com/blind
5-Star Rated F-150 (Big Stereo)

 

Hi, bought my kenwood at circut city they had the harness to plug right in to my 86 Lariat with the mounting kit also snaps right in to existing mounts took longer to decide what radio I wanted then it did to put it in. John

 

You can buy pigtails that go into your trucks radio conectors at best buy they are made for installing aftermarket decks and the wires are labeled for what function they serve such as speaker side and polarity and constant or switched power and dash light etc etc the 2 pagtails for your truck are sold as a set and are about ten dollars and as far as a cheap deck you can buy a name brand not jensen or some other crap for about 50 bux for a tape deck or 130 for a basic cd deck taht will actually make your stock door speaker sound decent so long as you dont turn it up to loud

 

Otto, Fatforty & Kevint:

I'm getting tired of lookin' at that hole in the dash--thanks for the help in fillin' it up!

Peter

 

ok bigsix!..i meant that if the harness was cut off by a previous owner..then you could look up the radio (the one you may buy) codes from that web site and hard wire them in to the harness or wirews left dangling.
btw..i think i still have a 3 yr old sony cassette with bass boost that i bought for my 96 bronco from crutchfield (w.the harness adapter kit)..was given a new panasonic last Christmas as a gift...will sell cheap if you need it
miesk5@rcn.com

 

AIM:

I gotcha! Yeah, that website would definitely be a big help, if the wires were cut--happily, they're still there. But both those sites are tremendous--I'm still "drillin' down" through links to other sites from those two--in fact, I'm in so deep, I may forget how to crawl out!

Thanks for the offer on the Sony--I'll definitely get back to you if I'm gonna go used (which I often do!).

Thanks, 'bro--UTHEMAN!

BigSix