Double Din Stereo Installation Help
 

I have done some searches, but I can't seem to find what I'm looking for, but maybe that's due to old age lol. I just bought a double din stereo off of Ebay. Here is a link to see the one I bought. My truck is a 2001, F250 Crew Cab, 5.4 gasser with the cassette/cd player am/fm stereo.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/151348541358?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
I know I need to make the opening bigger. Do I need to buy the metal frame kit for a double din? I know I need to buy the adapter wiring harness. Are there any how to do video's or threads with pictures and helpful tips and instructions? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know that once I make the radio opening bigger, there is no turning back.

Also, if you or someone you know has purchased the radio I bought, and you would like to make a comment, good or bad, let me know.

Thank you.
Brian

You only trim the upper and lower inner lip, leave the sides intact only filing them down a tiny bit as needed, the side lip holds the new unit in just as it did the oem unit. The OEM radio will still click into place and will still look as though nothing has ever been done. Since you only trim the inside lip, none of the trimming should be visible when you are done. I installed a pioneer 4300 in my truck

I used the side pieces screwed to the radio, the unit slides in and latches similar to the factory radio but since the bracket does not have the holes to use the removal tool, you pretty much have to pull the whole dash shell to get it back out. That isn't difficult, but you must leave the two screws above the factory radio out. If you leave these screws in place and snap the radio I doubt you would be able to take it back out without damage.

After everything was installed and working, I filed the brackets off of the trim ring and used narrow strips of double side foam tape on the back of the trim to secure it around the stereo. It looks perfect, just like it came from the factory that way. Been installed over 2 years and has had zero problem with the unit or the install.

This post had some great pics and guidance but many of the pics are gone now. My install looks almost identical to post #10

I have another question. Where is a good place to hook the parking brake wire so that the radio thinks it's hooked to it? I know there is a way, so that it allows you to watch videos while the truck is in gear. Thanks.

I installed a relay triggered by the power antenna/amp trigger wire coming off of the stereo.

You need to ground both relay terminals, 86 & 87 to a body ground. Supply power to the relay on terminal 85 using the power antenna/amp wire coming from the stereo, its usually blue. Then the trigger wire from the stereo, think mine was green, it goes on the 30 terminal.

What happens is when you turn the key, power is supplied to the stereo and it powers up the antenna/amp wire which closes the relay connecting the 30 and 85 terminal in turn grounding the trigger wire. On the pioneer units the trigger wire must be grounded but only after the stereo powers up. If you just permanently ground the trigger wire it won't work, the stereo has to power up first.

You could also just wire a switch but you would have to remember to flip it every time you wanted to play video. One terminal of the switch would get the trigger wire, the other terminal goes to ground.

I went to Youtube and did a search. There are some good videos on both ways to hook up the brake wire. I think I'm going to go with the toggle switch. I saw one video where he says with some stereos, you don't even need a toggle, just wire it right in with the ground wire. I'm going to wire mine to the ground wire, but I'm also going to use the toggle switch. Thanks for all of the help. Reps sent.:-drink

Most new stereos do require a momentary break in the ground, i.e. the relay, a toggle, or a momentary button switch. They require this because by design they want to ensure that you're in park and that the parking break has gone from being off to being on. My pioneer AVH-X4500BT functions this way, so to circumvent it, I used a closed momentary button. When I press the button it disconnects the ground and when I release it, it reconnects the ground, thus tricking the pioneer into thinking the parking brake is now applied.

Definitely used the switch in your installation, I'm willing to bet running it straight to ground will not work as reliably.

The relay is extremely easy to wire up, and it is all done automatically. I wouldn't do it any other way, mine has worked flawlessly for a couple years now. You can actually buy the bypass relay kit for something like $20, but really all you need is a basic relay that costs about 5 bucks, a little bit of wire and terminals.

This is a link to a diagram I found on the net, very easy.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/j...2001/relay.jpg

Well, I finally had some time yesterday, so I started wiring it up. I did buy a toggle switch that I was going to use. Then I remembered I had a 10 second delay relay that I bought for my motorcycle for a project that I ended up not doing. A toggle switch would have also meant drilling a hole somewhere. The dvd works great on the new stereo. It has a really nice picture. Here is a link to the delay relay I have.

http://retro-solutions.net/product-i...ay-pid602.html