Here is a picture of the radio that came out of my truck. If you have been paying attention, you already know that i want to upgrade to a CD6/mp3 unit.

Everyone tells me that the CD6/mp3 units have a 16 pin plug in them and that is it. Well in this picture (below) of my stock radio, i have a 16 pin plug (labled "A" and circled in blue in the picture) and a 8 pin plug (labled "B" and circled in red in the picture)........is the 16 pin the only thing that will plug into the CD6/mp3 and work without any problems, or will i have to splice wires from the 8 pin plug into the 16 pin plug?

 

anyone on here or you know that live close to you that has a 98 or newer ford factory radio that will let you test it. Hell if nothing else take one of your other cars to a used car lot that has a 98 or newer factory radio tell them that you want to take an extended test drive it to show your wife to see if she likes it take it for a couple of hours then return it

 

never though of that......

but i still want to know about the other plug...

 

The dreaded 95-97 Ranger/Explorer radio with amp supply plug....."b" is power source plug as in power,lighting....."a" is the speaker with amp power scorce.....the 16 pin plug is different than what you have,I upgrade to a 03 factory single disc cd in my Anger...Best Buy and Crutchfield both sell adapter harnesses to do this ......

 

you don't happen to have a Best Buy part # do you? what do i tell them when i go in to get the adaptor plug? just tell them i want to install a '98+ stock Ranger radio in a '97 and they will know what i am talking about?

is there an external amp in my truck? if so, were is it located?

 

Your amp is located on the passenger side below the right rear speaker.....give me a few and I'll see if I can find the part # on harness kits

 

the amp is in the cubby hole for the rear passanger seat? is there a way to pull it out or do i need to keep it in there? is it doing anything with an aftermarket radio and will it do anything with the CD6/mp3 stock radio?

thanks for the part#'s i preciate it!

 

parts I used was Crutchfield #142c4fdk6 and Scosche #fd16rb....you also my want to contact Crutchfield about the swap,ElectraSound has told me that some of the newer Ford amps are reduced to 5v vs 12v as in the older amps,a guy who worked with me did a simular swap as you want and got all the info on how to's from Crutchfield,as I said on mine I just put a single disc in mine,so I dont know all what needs to be done to the swap you want to do.....

 

hmmmm......what year did you get your single disc from? did you have to do anything special (besides the adaptor plug) to install yours?

 

this is what came up for the Crutchfield part #:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-gTjDb2w...k6&i=142C4FDK6

 

this is what came up for the Crutchfield part #:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-gTjDb2w...k6&i=142C4FDK6

that don't seem right to me....

 

Crutchfield didn't want to tell me anything.....they acted like it was impossible.....

i talked to a tech at Best Buy and he said the newer '07 Ranger radio has a 5v amp turn on, and to make it work, i would have to wiring the harness with a 12v positive lead instead of the amp turn on that the '07 wiring has.....

is there any way to take the amp out of the question and use the built in amp in the factory radio?

can you get the info for me from your friend?

 

The only thing I could suggest is go to ebay buy a stock wireing harness and match the colors.