I have a 1997 Ranger. Ford changed the connectors on the rear of their radios to a different style in 1998. Where can I find an adapter to plug in a newer Ford radio in my 1997?

Thanks!

 

i would try someone like www.crutchfield.com

Matt

 

I wondered about that. Do you think they'd have one for factory to factory?

 

We had the same problem with my Father in laws 91 S-10. we were putting a 93 radio in a 91 truck. so what i did was i took the 93 radio and the harness and cut it out of the 93. because the 91 had a different harness on it. then i went to walmart and bought the install harness for both the 91 and 93. the only reason i had the 93 install harness was to see what wires went where since i had no wiring schematic or anything. Anyway i had the harness out of the 93 plugged into the install harness and marked the wires as to what they were. Then i unplugged them and plugged the harness back into the 93 radio then i took the 91 install harness and mated the wires up just like installing any aftermarket radio since i knew what wires were what coming out of the back of the 93 radio. then i plugged it in just like normal!.

now i hope that is not too confusing.
take the 98 -newer radio you have and get the wiring harness out of what ever it came out of
go to walmart and buy the pre-97 and 98-newer install harnesses
hook the harness you cut out for the 98-newer radio and just plug it in to the respective install harness from wal mart then just mark what wires are what on the other side of the harness you know whats a speaker whats a power and so on
now that you know what wire is what unplug the two harnesses
plug the harness into the back of the 98 radio and now that you know what is a speaker and what is a power hook it up using the pre-97 harness as a normal install

(DO NOT CUT ANYTHING IN YOUR TRUCK) ONLY WHAT THE RADIO CAME OUT OF

jason
77 f100

 

I was thinking something like that too. I could go to a junkyard and get the 1998-up harness, cut the wires and bring it home. Then get a Scosche adapter and crimp the adapter to the factory harness. The only thing I'm not sure of is if there are different leads for each. If the wires match up wire for wire, then it's no problem. If there are different wires required for the newer one, then it won't work.

 

thats why i was saying to get the 98 adapter harness and plug it in to the 98 harness you cut out and that will let you know what wire is for what on the cut end. then you just crimp those on to the harness that WILL plug into your truck. just like if you where installing an aftermarket radio. you will end up with the harness that plugs into the back of the 98 radio and plugs into your 97 truck. if you dont' mess up the packaging too much you can return the 98 harness to where you got it from and say you got the wrong one. since all you are using it for is to see what is what in relation to the wires.
i wish i could explain this better it seems like it is clear as mud.

jason
77 f100

 

No, I understand exactly what you're saying. My only point is that there may be wires that go to power amps or feeds from an external amp, or controls for antitheft, or any number of other things that the 1998 needs that the 1997 can't supply.

 

yeah it could have. I don't know what else to say besides maybe going with an aftermarket head unit. Anyway i just wanted to let you know what i had done in the past to wire up a factory radio with a different harness.

jason
77 f100

 

Perhaps someone else here knows, or perhaps I just need to get the pinouts of the new style radios and figure it out myself. :-)

Thanks!

 

I just went through this, sort of. I have a 98 with the old style connector. It had a cassette player with factory CD changer & amp. I wanted a CD player in the dash with CD changer controls so I can keep my changer. I bought a plug & play harness from a company that carries FORD parts (forget the name of the Co).

The new radio doesn't work with the 98's amp so the harness bypassed it. When all is said and done, I yanked the amp, the CD player fits great and I can still use my Changer without cutting or splicing a thing.

The harness was like $50 I think though.