Someone stole the aftermarket radio out of the truck (98 F150 4X4 reg cab shortbox with 4.2 and 5 speed) and in the process broke the plastic panel that it sits in. The left side is gone. Also cut the cable so now I have no plug on the wiring harness. So, 2 or 3 questions. Anyone know what the panel costs and how hard it is to replace it? Is the wiring harness plug available without buying the whole harness? I still have the factory radio and can pop it back in but mount and hookup is a bit more of a bother than it would be otherwise.

Randy in Winnipeg

 

When you say panel im assuming that you mean the filler plate for the radio. If it is then you would only need about $20 plus the cost of the new face.

Im a little more unclear about the wire harness, is the factory connection still there so the stock face would still plug in and what about the antenna wire?

Kenneth

 

When I had my truck broken into about 3 months ago, they took my stereo also. But, as lucky as I could be from the situation, they took the time to unplug the antenna and cut the wires between the radio and the harness conection. If they would have cut the factor harness instead of the aftermarket one for the radio I would imagine it beeing a more $$ to have it replaced.

 

There is a big plastic face that pops off of the dash around the radio, heater controls etc. If you pop that off, then you can see the panel underneath that. This is the panel that the radio slides into. You use the pin tools to push in the doodads on the radio so that you can slide it out. I don't need the pin tools to get the radio out as the left side of that is gone. Someone broke it in getting the radio out. In order to replace this piece, I will have to remove more of the dash cover to get to it. Not sure how big it is. That was why I was asking if anyone had done this before.

Second issue is the harness. The normal wiring harness has a plug that goes into the socket with the pins on the back of the factory radio. They just cut the harness so I have a group of wires with raw ends sticking out. I will need the plug that goes into the radio to do this easily. If I can't get it then I may have to ditch the factory radio and look for an aftermarket one that just has all of the wires loose and wire them into the original harness.

Randy who just wants to listen to the radio and not have to rebuild half of the truck in order to do so!

 

If the piece is broken behind the factory pop off plate that is part of the moulded dash, in which case the whole dash is damaged. Try a wrecker for the wiring harness plug needed, just go in browse around and if you locate the same year truck snip off what you need, (chances are slim that they will ever sell the whole dash harness).

 

You might be better off going w/ an aftermarket HU. My adapter kit(Schoshe) bolts in using the top two screws on the AC switch panel. Rewiring it will be a PITA. Ford is bad about running out of 1 color wire and substituting another entirely different color. Most stereo help sites go by pin location when discussing Ford. That will be a big problem because you no longer have the plug. You can find +, -, and memory using a multimeter. Pull the speakers and see what color wires are on them. Might as well replace them if you go thru all that and run new wire.