Oh happy days!

Before

And after


I guess I'm the newest member of the club. I couldn't be happier with it. I rattle canned the underside flat black, figured I'd be OK with that since most of it is covered by the sound insulation. I gotta thank my boss & all the guys at work for really hooking me up, those guys took extra care in the prep & I got a bargain price on the work, so that plus the cost of a junkyard hood & a can of flat black I'm in it just under $200.

Not only that but as a little side experiment: we had an '01 fx4 ranger come in with some front end damage & other problems that required the insurance to buy a brand new grill. So I asked my boss if I could take the busted one since the honeycomb was in good shape, really the only problem with it is both of the body filler pieces (where my turn signals are in my 99) are snapped off of the lower section, essentially leaving an '01 honeycomb grill that fits a '99. Well I was talking to the the body repair guy at work & he's gonna clean it all up for me. He already started lol! So if this works out my front end is gonna be all mixed up - 99 headlights/turns with an 03(?) powerdome & an 01 honeycomb grill with an 08(?) bumper & 06 door mirrors. I swear I have nothing against the 99 front end, I swear.

 

Looking great there, man! Can't wait to see this grille "mod" you have coming down the pipe!

 

Have you ever seen this console...


And you know there's a subwoofer under there...


But you've never seen one...


Have you ever bought one without having a use/place for it? I have.

Actually this thing has been on my mind since I first saw it a few weeks back, it's self contained/powered & about the size of a watermelon. Actually my plan was to replace one of my rear speakers with it, cut a hole or whatever, so it's not out on the floor taking up space I don't have. That may not work though, considering how its to be mounted & the fact that the cab wall isn't a sealed environment. If this thing fits behind the seat I'll do that, but it ain't gonna fit where the factory puts em, there's a big ol stick in the way.

 

Oh you dog! The truck you took this out of is a Tremor model, isn't it?

 

Actually no mhoward, it wasn't a tremor model. Apparently there was a mid-grade audio package that has an 8in sub whereas the tremor was top shelf and had a 10in. Also the tremors sub box is in the rear of the extended cab on the floor in place of the jump seats and this one was under the center console.

Still it's pretty rare, and I am racking my brain with what to do with it. I like the idea of putting the sub on the rear wall & the amp behind the panel, then posting the housing/box for sale, but that may be more work than its worth since there's no real structure there. Oh yeah the amp may be one of those oddball Ford wiring questions nobody can answer. More research is needed at the moment.

An interesting note, that huge ugly console was two pieces, a normal shorty console with a huge top section. The 2nd pic shows what I'm talking about. You can see the front of the shorty in that one & the large cover in the first pic. It doesn't look it but that sucker was tall! Like your coffee would splash all over your HVAC controls if you hit a bump.

 

I wasn't aware that Ford had another option with a sub. Personally, I wouldn't break the assembly up, but rather offer it on eBay for a pretty penny as complete. Did you get the head unit as well?

 

This is the wiring harness for that factory sub I just got.




This is what I gather so far. First off Ford uses a 5v signal to turn the amplifier on/off whereas my aftermarket receiver sends a 12v signal (most aftermarket do) so I either need a voltage regulator or a resistor (around 4k) to get it to work without a "pop" when it turns on.

For clarity:
BK-black
LB-light blue
LG-light green
RD-red
V-violet
W-white

Now we see here 8 wires, I know the subwoofer is a dual coil so that explains 4 wires right off the bat. I would venture to say they are the 2 BK/LB & the 2 LG/RD since they are of a larger gauge & matching colors. I'm not sure which is +/- tho & I'm guessing you would run one of each color to each coil. That's a guess though.

There's still 4 wires to sort out, 3 of which are bundled up together in their own separate sheathing & one of those three is the bare/unsheilded wire you see. I believe that to be the ground but I'm not sure. Logic tells us the amp needs a power, signal, ground, and an audio signal. Since we've figured out the audio signal & (I think) the ground that leaves the power wire and the amp sig which I believe to be the other 2 in the sheathing (LG/W & V/LG), power wires tend to be sheilded, in my mind. Which is which I have no idea. That's leaving one last wire, V/RD. I think this is a "mute" wire, a leftover from the factory head unit that will probably go unused.

Ford factory amps use a speaker level input rather than line level so I can grab that from a rear speaker but I have a speaker/line level converter lying around which I'll probably use. That way I can use the head unit to turn the subs down independently of the cab speakers.

Of course there are other, easier options. A 4 channel bridge able amp comes to mind, bridge 2 channels for my Kicker 10 & the other 2 for the dual coil. But that costs $. Besides I already have all that stuff, Pioneer engineered it & Ford put it in...then I took it out.

 

Yeah mhoward there were 2 audio upgrade options in 2007, a 500w 7 speaker (tremor) and a 290w 5 speaker system. They had a 10 & an 8 in sub respectively. I dont know what I'm gonna end up doing with this thing, the HU was already gone from the donor & the harness hacked up, & I left the giant cover behind. I'd probably need that if I want to sell the setup. That would open the door to anybody with an Expo shorty console, Ranger or Expo owners.

 

Awesome!

 

I found this info, it's for an 04 though.


1 WH/VT subwoofer,enable
2 BK/LG ground
3 BK/LG ground
4 VT/LB voltage supplied at all times
5 VT/LB voltage supplied at all times
6 not used
7 LG/BK subwoofer, audio signal positive
8 LB/RD subwoofer, audio signal negative
9 not used
10 not used

The colors are different but they should perform the same functions. I know from my forum searching that the 2 LG/RD wires are hot at all times, so that would make the 2 BK/LB grounds.

This may not be correct, it only shows 7 wires. Unless the bare wire is just a shield. I'm gonna stop for now, my brain hurts.

 

I just wish our Pull-A-Part had cool stuff like this. :(

 

My local yard usually doesn't have much, but lately I've been finding some gold over there (bumper, powerdome, audiophile console). They have a ton of Expo stuff all day long though, some of it is still useable haha.

Speaking of unuseable, that's what this sub turned out to be as it doesn't fit anywhere inside my truck, so I guess I'll go grab the console & put it all up for sale. Question is what is it worth? Better yet what could I sell it for?

 

You could probably squeeze an easy 150 out of it. Heck, given it's rarity, maybe $200.

 

$200 is right around where I was thinking for the entire console, maybe <$150 without the sub/amp, save on shipping ya know. All I really ever wanted was that little sub anyway. Somebody will want it bad enough I'm sure just because it's pretty rare. I'll put it up when I grab the console sometime this week.

 

I know you said something about the wiring harness for the radio being trashed... If you had that to go with it, that would be a good selling point (plug and play).

 

Good idea, although finding one is gonna be hard, maybe in a focus or something. From what I've read our trucks don't normally have that section in the harness. I'd have to find a Ford of the era with premium sound. I have 1/2 of the harness, itd be good for splicing into an aftermarket stereo wiring adapter. I'm pretty sure the one I used has that sub plug & I bought mine at Wally World.

 

So I went & grabbed the console yesterday, although somebody made off with the armrest..to make matters worse the yard had only 2 to choose from! So I did what I had to do, got a brown armrest & a grey armrest cover. Ill clean it up & try to post it up today. I plan on putting it up for sale here for like a week before I offer it up locally. $150 seems like a fair price.

 

Those damn colors! They are never the same! LOL $150 sounds fair. Good luck with the sale!

 

I put that console ad up, and true to my style it's a very wordy advertisement haha. We shall see what happens.

Now I can focus on other stuff, like my new honeycomb grill is gonna need an emblem.


This stupid emblem is way harder to paint than the other one I did. This one needs some touching up then I'm gonna use the same resin I used in my OHC lens experiment to cover the whole thing. Hopefully Friday I'll have my hands on the grill & I can post some pics.

 

Had to do a different emblem


That other one didn't look very nice. Also I sold that console to a dude from PA whose girl rolled his truck & his got broken. I had gone back to the junkyard & bought the door speakers out of the truck the console came from fully intending to put them behind the seat, but when I pulled my speaker I found some Boston rx67 6's!


This is a Google Image but that's what's in there. So I'm debating on getting a proper box for my sub or an amp for my cab speakers. I installed those pioneers in the doors a while back & now I found out about those Boston's, so a mini 4 channel amp behind the dash is within my reach.

Or I could get a new box https://www.netaudiowf.com/product/1...-sub-box-full/

Or https://www.supercrewsound.com/99RangerStdDual.html

I'm kinda leaning towards the box first, but with that comes more decisions. I'm running a kicker comp 10" that, according to their website, needs a min 1.0 cu ft of air & a Max of 2.4 to sound best & that netaudio box has 1.43 cu ft. I'm wondering if I should have them build one with a single speaker or two? Obviously one speaker in that box should be pretty sweet, but could I put 2 of those kickers in a sealed & stuffed box? I know they build it with two cutouts but I kinda think a single would sound better, seems counter intuitive though.

 

What?



The?


My yard has some gold lately. This time I bought a Tremor box & amp, the sub was gone but I got most of the harness, the radio end was hacked up of course. I'll probably end up selling this too, more funds for an audio upgrade.

 

Alright, I decided on which part of my audio to upgrade first. I bought myself a tiny little alpine amp.
https://www.crutchfield.com/S-etCbvq...ower-Pack.html

Let me say this little guy has me impressed, it's rated at 45w rms X 4 or 90w X 2, has HP/LP filters & front/rear gain control. So I was thinking that 45w would sound better than the piddly 17 or whatever that Walmart HU puts out. I walked into an actual store (best buy) and bought it just like people did in olden times, because I'm impatient.

Found a nice little spot that's somewhat accessible, ran a 14g wire with a 15amp fuse inline to my handy power block under the hood, and the rest was just like hooking up an aftermarket HU. I just cut the speaker connections & the remote wire then connected them to the amp wiring, ran a ground, and ran RCA cables from the HU to amp. I chose not to run new speaker wire because I didn't see a need since the harness was long enough to reach behind the HU. Easy.



Here it is all nice & hidden away, except for some wires that could use some split loom.



This little amp is really nice. I'm running 4 channels to my door/rear speakers and it's made as big of a difference to overall sound quality as the sub did when I added that. It's not blowing the windows out but the sound is so much cleaner, plus my normal listening level is now almost uncomfortable & I'm cool with that.

 

Nice little place to stow it away. Too bad the one I have lying around isn't that compact.

 

Yeah I kinda like that spot myself. I've got the amp for my sub under the passenger seat, this new amp, led floods & a big *** light bar. Time for an alternator upgrade. I was sitting in the truck last night jamming out & the headlights were dimming! No bueno.

 

Right now you probably have a 95 amp alternator. I don't know what engine you have, but you should be able to swap in an explorer's 130 amp alternator in. That's what I did, and I love mine. Didn't necessarily need it, and still don't, (especially considering I swapped out the majority of my lights with LEDs), but still a good upgrade.

I know the 3.0 and 4.0 engines from 98-11 use the same alternator mountings, as do the 4.0 and 5.0 engines on explorers, however the 4 cylinder engines I'm not sure about.

You can also get different sized pullies to make the alternator spin faster to create more current at idle.

Here, have this list I put together. It might just help you.

https://www.ranger-forums.com/how-di...lation-148905/

Also, I looked on rockauto to compare alternators, the motorcraft alternator shares the same part number between the 2.5 4cylinder and the 3.0 vulcan. So, given that much, I'd wager an expo alternator may work well for you.

To get even more out of your alternator, I highly recommend upgrading your connections. There's a how-to on here called 'the big three' that details this.

If you're unfamiliar with the big three, the big three refers to three connections. If I remember correctly, that's your battery to ground, engine to ground, and your alternator + to battery +, using very large cable in parallel with your existing cables to allow even more current to flow that much easier. I haven't done this myself, but you may just want to do so.

Of course, make sure the alternator's connections are cleaned thoroughly. Any resistance between the alternator and the electrical system means less current that you can use.

And one last thing, if 130 amps isn't enough, there are companies that make even higher amperage alternators, around 200 or so. I know Dewey has one, and he seems to be happy with it.