Ford F-150 Factory Radio Uninstall and New Radio Install
This post is more of a supplemental to the installation guide at Install Dr.com. The hope is that the pictures and some of the notes I took as I did the installation will make your radio install that much smoother.
The guide includes:
- Original radio removal
- Wiring new radio using a wiring harness
- Wiring diagram
- Basic steps to installing the new radio
When removing the dash panel I found it was easier to get my fingers under the panel at the bottom near the climate controls.
Removing Front Dash Panel
Front Dash Panel Off
You’ll notice that the dash panel is not completely removed. There is no way I want to mess with anything associated with the airbags in the truck. It seemed perfectly fine to let it hang there.
Passenger Side Airbag Connection
I didn’t want to pay for the tool used to remove the factory radio so I tried the do it yourself version using a clothes hanger.
Cutting Wire To Make Removal Tool
Bending Wire To Make Removal Tool
- The important thing is to keep the pieces of wire straight in the release holes
- I tried to mimic the factory keys, but I think I would have had more success with 4 individual pieces of wire
Below I removed part of the factory radio face to show how I was missing the release mechanisms with my home made removal tool.
Removing Factory Radio Face
Misaligned Removal Tool
For the new radio installation you will only use one of the factory harnesses. Just tuck the other one out of the way.
Factory Radio Wiring Harness
I always use a wiring harness when installing a radio.
- The one I used for the F-150 was a Metra 70-1771 wiring kit.
- I prefer to solder my connections instead of using bullet connectors. I’ve had trouble in the past with bad crimps on the bullets.
- Make sure to wrap your soldered connections with electrical tape or heat shrink tubing
- [Thanks to my little sister for the Home Depot gift card I used to buy the new soldering iron and solder. By the way, the soldering iron kit had enough solder with it to do the install.]
- I used the wiring guide on the wiring kit package and the one that came with the new radio.
- The wire colors were the same for both harnesses
Metra Wiring Harness and Installation Tools
Cut the packaging for your wiring harness. Seems like a simple thing, but I tore mine and ended up translating the Spanish side to do my install.
The new radio bracket should have mounting tabs that will hold it in the aftermarket dash installation kit.
- Make sure to use the tabs closest to the front
- The tabs have a wedge effect so make sure to push them in until they are tight
- I used a Metra 99-5804 Dash Kit
Removing New Radio Installation Bracket
Installing New Radio Mounting Bracket
My new radio has USB inputs on the front and back. To make the rear input accessible I ran a 7 foot USB extension cable down the driver’s side of the dash, and tucked it away. I plan on integrating that into the center console later.
Running USB Extension Cable
Running USB Extension Under Driver’s Side Dash
After connecting the wiring harness and USB port to the back of the new radio I secured the connections by
- Wrapping electrical tape around the USB extension connection
- Zip tying the factory wiring harness to the aftermarket wiring harness
Securing Wiring Harnesses With Zip Ties
The last snag I ran across was the screw holes on the dash kit lining up properly with the two top screw holes on the climate control assembly.
I used a heat source (otherwise known as a lighter) to warm the plastic just till it was malleable and aligned the screw holes.
Adjusting Dash Kit With Heat Source
I suggest making your adjustments outside of the vehicle and then try the fit. I didn’t make my adjustments this way, but I accept the consequences of my actions.
I can’t believe I even have to put this here, but don’t make yourself the end of a “you know you’re a redneck because” joke.
- DON’T catch your truck on fire because you kept your heat source on the dash kit plastic till it caught fire!
- ALWAYS take proper safety precautions even if it takes a little longer to do the task.
Then new radio looks and sounds great.
Finished Installation
May 31st, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
May 31st, 2010 at 8:42 pm
What if your truck does not have the Original Wiring harness becouse it has been cut away?
June 1st, 2010 at 6:47 am
You can either directly wire the radio using the wiring diagram in the installation instructions at the top of the post or purchase a replacement factory wire harness. There are wire color translations from the factory colors to new radio colors on page 7.
I googled “2000 ford radio replacement factory wiring harness” and came up with a 16 pin connector, FWH-597. I’m not positive this is the part. You might want to confirm with the closest Ford parts dealer to you. Average price for this is $5. You would still want to refer to the wiring diagram colors on page 7 for pin and color matching.
November 23rd, 2010 at 8:12 am
Good post. Thanks especially for the photos of the release mechanism.
December 20th, 2010 at 4:42 am
Great site. A lot of useful information here. I’m sending it to some friends!
January 24th, 2011 at 10:06 pm
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!
March 3rd, 2011 at 7:25 pm
Nice job! And I agree with the guy above me this should be higher on the search engine list…I just love making cool tools out of wire, duct tape, etc. Again nice post!
March 7th, 2011 at 7:48 am
Thanks. That is my fault. I just write the posts and don’t do any of the SEO stuff.
March 20th, 2011 at 11:43 pm
I am trying to do the same thing on my 2001 F150, my dashboard color is the same as yours, the radio/CD player looks identical to yours, only the part #’s are different.
Your part # XL3F-18C859-AE
My part # YL3F-18C869-AB
What year F150 were you working on?
— I failed to understand how you cut the wires to align properly with the spring tabs on the radio “1. Align pliers just below the upper hole 2. Pull wire out of radio and bend where the pliers are” I never did figure what that meant. I put the cut coat hanger wires in to different depths, wiggled them around, sometimes I caught half of a single tab, the radio wobbled in its bracket, but never all 4 parts at once.
I had no trouble disconnected the wiring to the passenger side airbag control. I have had that turned off for years. I also disconnected the battery for the sake of safety.
Since I couldn’t remove the radio from its bracket, I removed the bracket with the radio still attached from the dashboard. In order to do that I had to remove about half of the dash board panels so I could get at the heads of the bolts holding the bracket in. Behind the left side of the bracket was a bolt head which faced the front of the vehicle, unlike all the other bolts of the dashboard. It was hard to see but easy to remove. Nearly all the dashboard bolt heads were 9/32″, a couple low down near the pedals were 5/16″. There were plastic tabs and alignment pins at points on the dash panels which simply pulled free with gentle tugging.
All this dash work did come in handy. I also needed to replace the bulbs on the HVAC control panel and couldn’t bend my wrist properly to twist the bulb holders free. 2 #194 bulbs. In addition the power point below the dash board had burned out years ago when I ran a 12VDC coffeemaker on it, the plug overheated, partly melted, then blew the fuse to the power point, and then I had to extract the distorted plug in pieces just to inspect the power point. It looked OK from the inside, but electrically it was shorted out. I removed its fuse out & didn’t use it until I could get around to replacing it. That was 4 years ago. Could not disconnect the 3-wire plug to the power point, so I merely crushed the metal until the defective power point shrank enough to pull out backwards. Once the power point was free of its hole in the dash I was able to pull its plug free.
Now that I’ve done all that, I’ll be waiting for the new radio. The glare from the light tan dashboard top panel has always bothered me & I am thinking of spraying it with flat black vinyl paint to remove the glare, that should be easy with the top panel out of the vehicle.
March 21st, 2011 at 4:40 am
Thanks for the comment! That was a ton of good detail. I have a 2000 F-150. I’ve grown to really like that radio since I put it in. I think the remote has made me kind of lazy but I’m OK with it. My friend gave me some flack saw me using it instead of just reaching up and using the knob.
Luckily I haven’t had to change out any of my controls or bulbs in the dash.
Let me know how the flat black vinyl paint turns out. chris@adventuresindiy.com
March 21st, 2011 at 1:31 pm
I sent you a long email about the vinyl paint.
Now that I have my dash torn apart, I just may fashion a custom bracket for the Jensen VM9214 I ordered from Amazon, rather than buy a kit. There is a huge space behind & under the dash. I will be installing a back-up camera & may figure out a way to use the Jensen video screen as an alternate display for the GPS software on my laptop (which I run continually on my long road trips). That means more wires, probably some switches & fuses in that space. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
April 10th, 2011 at 6:11 am
kkEuzk I’m not easily impressed. . . but that’s impressing me!
May 18th, 2011 at 11:44 am
I enjoyed your detail…thank you this helped me alot!
May 18th, 2011 at 6:09 pm
I’m glad. Thanks for the comment.
May 21st, 2011 at 10:59 am
where is page 7 for the wiring diagram?
May 23rd, 2011 at 4:55 am
Sorry if that’s confusing. I was referring to 7th page of the entire PDF. I believe the page has a title “Radio Wire & Color Code Information Page 3 of 3″
July 29th, 2011 at 11:55 am
Thanx for this tutorial, good job! I am wondering what the second factory plug in the truck is for? There are quite a few wires in it!
July 30th, 2011 at 10:11 pm
does the harness u do not use 4 the radio effect th truck at all.why does ford have 2 harnesses 2 the original radio
August 1st, 2011 at 4:52 am
Sorry, I couldn’t find a decent wiring diagram to tell me what they were. When I do I’ll post up the answer.
October 1st, 2011 at 11:29 am
Thanks, your post helped me a lot. I’m an engine guy and HATE doing stereo installs!
January 5th, 2012 at 7:48 pm
worked a little different for me wiring harness different but it all worked out . had to unplug harness from left side below old radio and used the metra kit one for that and the other off the back of the old radio(left side for speakers and back of radio for power) 97 f150 with exterior 6 cd changer) could not find pictures trial and error and dumb luck. thanks for the info!