so my parents owed me 900 bucks.
Instead of paying me back, they got me an 800 $ truck...
It didn't come with a radio...

The kid said, he replaced the stock radio with a 400$ radio, so thats why it was taken out.
The Antenna + the 2 stock black cables are in the dashboard, then connected to some white plastic adapter thingy with a few cutt off wires, then some of those wires have been inserted into another white plastic thingy...

This adapter thing I speak of, I think I have seen the same thing @ wal-mart for 15$ , its called a radio head install kit? ( not sure, here is a picture below )


So yea, basically that was connected to the stock wires. The picture, my wires don't cross like that in the center of the picture.
I have no speakers what so ever.

This truck is not an extended cab, there is no back seat, there is probably like maybe 3-1/2 to 5 inch's of room behind the seat , and the truck metal behind the seat.
I probably won't need subwoofers, Just mostly looking to get a CD/aux player with 4 decent watt speakers.

I was hoping that someone could recommend me a good brand radio + setup , and maybe tell me all of the things that I might need to buy to hook this radio up.

Like for example, i know if I buy a radio @ wal-mart, im sure it won't connect to my stock cable connectors, but what about that installation kit stuff that the kid left ?
would it connect to that, or is everything different, and would I have to get a new kit, and basically re connect it to new plastic provided with the radio?

Do speakers normally come with the wiring to hook it up to the radio?

I kind of have an idea that I would need to route the cables threw the side somehow, and make them go threw that black plastic tubing connected to the door, any easy way to do that?

How exactly do I go about routing the wire to the rear speakers behind my seat? just leave a cable under the carpet or what? lol..?

When buying speakers, how do I know what size speakers I will need?
is there a difference between front and rear speakers? b/c the front one's @ wal-mart look ugly, I know I won't see them often, but just saying.. they look ugly lol.

Also I heard a rumor that when you go to install a radio, Its a requirement to Unplug the truck battery? Or just the ground wire? how do i tell which one that is? and is that really a requirement?

If you need more details or want me to get a picture of the inside of my truck, lmk.
Will be shopping @ wal-mart tonight hopefully.
www.wal-mart.com

If you could answer any of the questions above, please do so, thankyou.
wasn't expecting to get all the answers @ once.

This post was edited by conetopia on May 8 2014 08:31am

there is no easier way to wire the door speakers and there is really only the route you mentioned. zip ties or electrical tape to keep it from sagging under the dash and then just run it into the door.

wiring the rear ones usually requires removing the plastic trim around the edges of the cab and then the plastic trim that conceals the speakers themselves.

metra says four 6x8 speakers for your truck.

speakers aren't classified by front and rear types. how they look changes brand to brand and series to series. tons of different cone materials, tweeter materials, tweeter styles.

the only times it necessary to remove the battery is when you are dealing with live wires. the wiring harness(your picture) is wired and then plugged in so there is no live wire when you are wiring it.

if you weren't using a wiring harness then yes you need to unplug the battery cause it has to be wired to live wires.

the ground wire is the terminal with the - for future reference.


now...does this have to involve walmart?

I get 10% off @ wal-mart for working there.

I ran into a problem


I got a pioneer deh-x56hd radio for my truck
didn't get speakers, i guess the stock ones were still there and connected ect.
The kid already did the ford cable connector kit...
radio came with a cut power cable thingy... and the connector kit already has that....
The problem is.... I can connect the power cable... but uhhhh....
there is no place to plug in the other cable.... all i see is RCA connections..........

This post was edited by conetopia on May 8 2014 12:29pm

10% off isn't worth limiting yourself to walmart.

i'm assuming its around $100 you paid for that head unit.

if you ordered from sonic its $100+free wiring harness and dash kit.

i'm not sure what you mean by "cut power cable thingy".

also what do you mean by power cable?

and other cable?

can i just get a picture of what you are trying to wire? makes things easier lol

Like I said the kid that owned the truck before left the FD021 connector installation kit ,
so idk if the 2 extra things needed to be ripped off or if they can stay... or if i should just get a new fresh kit.

This post was edited by conetopia on May 8 2014 01:08pm

if he left the kit it should of came with a wiring diagram.

the secondary plastic pieces look like they would be for backwards compatibility. http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_4462_Scosche-FD01-FD01B.html

you only need to worry about skinny ones. the black one=speaker wires and the grey one=head unit wires.

surprisingly the nighbor was walking his dogs, he was a pro, but yea like I assumed I just had to match the colors, I thought i had to use like tape, but he had little rubber metal wire connector locks.
that pretty much did it, although , We couldn't get the front right speaker to work what so ever. so I assume my speaker is just broken or missing lol, have to check that out another day.
for what the speakers are.. they are pretty decent.

Time to buy speakers next month 6x8 sizes u say? thanks.
Got any good idea on what I should get 4 speakers?

BTW **
Dashboard kit was rough, it was like over sized by 1/5th of an inch all the way around... Either that or the kid had a dashboard that was fucked up lol.
had to cut the sides, lower the top, and Could have glued, but didn't it all locked into place without any glue'ing of the plastic.

GG,

This post was edited by conetopia on May 8 2014 03:19pm

yes 6x8s all the way around. generally i advise people to use adapter plates and switch to round speakers. oval speakers(especially cheaper models) have inherently worse sound quality than round ones.

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_67790_Rockford-Fosgate-R165X3.html+http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_4966_Scosche-SA68.html would be fine.

he probably bought the wrong dash kit lol. lots of overlapping years so its easy to do if you don't look for specific model and year range and only go "oh hey this says 1996 ford vehicles".

Lol that's messed up .... how can they do that to u