I can't find my antenna wire for 97 Ford Explorer Tried to trace the antenna wire pain and couldn't see where it goes Want to run it thru the glove maybe THANKS?

Answer 1

Chances are your Explorer has the premium JBL sound system. If so, the antenna and everything else run to an amp in the rear of the vehicle near the subwoofer instead of behind the dash. You'll need an adapter and a long extension to run it back up to the dash to hook to an aftermarket head unit. Might be cheaper and simpler to replace the factory antenna with an aftermarket one and run it directly to the dash. The following is all for a 96 Explorer (hope it's all the same): If you look carefully at the wiring behind the panel in the front passenger footwell you should find a place where the wire from the antenna plugs in to another antenna cable that runs to the back. You can disconnect it there and connect in an extension (note though that the connector Ford uses is not standard so you may need to do some cutting and crimping and/or soldering. If you really have the JBL system and are trying to install an aftermarket head unit this may be the least of your troubles though. You will also need to run all your speaker wires (4 pairs) to the back near the subwoofer and splice them into the factory speaker wires where they leave the factory amp. The wires are all along one row of a connector that is around the middle (top to bottom) of the amp and near the inside edge of the amp. The colors you are looking for are: orange/light green left front speaker + lt blue/white left front speaker - grey/lt blue left rear speaker - tan/yellow left rear speaker + white/light green right front speaker + dk green/orange right front speaker - orange/red right rear speaker - brown/pink right rear speaker + You may be able to use the factory subwoofer amplifier with your new unit (if it has an output for a subwoofer). You will need to run a shielded audio cable to the back (RCA connector at the head end), plus a hookup wire. You can then splice the audio cable directly into the subwoofer amp (black and red wires) and connect the hookup wire to the white wire that goes into the amp (connect the other end of the hookup wire to the "amp remote" output of your new head unit.