Uploaded August 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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This video is for anyone with a 2nd Generation, pre facelift Ford Explorer (1995-1997) with the JBL System (and to a lesser extent, the Ford Premium Sound System). The stock Subwoofer was removed long before I got the vehicle, so I had the bright idea of buying the Subwoofer out of a Ford Freestyle (2005) at the junk yard. The amp is different, but the sub fits in the factory box, so I did research to figure out what the amp's wire functions were. I did further research to find out which wires were powering the original. I chose the 12V accessory wire for the amp turn on (Mute Wire), but you should be fine with the Blue amp turn on wire. The task was then to splice all these wires together, which took a bit of figuring out where everything went, but it works! As for the speaker wires, I ran a "9 Wire" through the cab, through the glove box and over to the factory "amp" which is the actual radio for these JBL systems. It turns out that the Head Unit from the factory was just a controller for the real Stereo in the rear quarters. There is no audio signal coming from the head unit, it all comes from the rear. To make life easier, I cut the speaker wiring harness out of a Ford Aerostar of the same generation. This made it possible for me to buy a 15 dollar Quick Disconnect harness from an auto parts store for ease of access when installing the new Head Unit. (Can you tell I'm not a fan of hard wiring stereos?) And finally, the Antenna is plugged into that factory Amp in the rear, I traced it to the front passengers kick panel, cut and spliced to an antenna extender from O'Reilly's. This ran straight to the new head unit, not the best signal, but functional! My original plan was to put an amplified antenna from O'Reilly's the dash and use the 12v accessory wire to power it, but I just dont feel like running all that wire right now. Lastly, I took a dremel to my Radio Bezel and made it wide enough to fit a proper Double Din stereo, I cut up a double din adapter for another vehicle and JB Super Welded it on so the stereo wont fall out.

Side note, it's recomended you replace your factory speakers, they sound terrible and you could get some nice 6x8 Pioneer's from Walmart for a good price. They're very bassy, and that does drown out the treble a bit, but if you get the 8 dollar Power Acoustik Tweeters from walmart to pair with them, it makes for a fantastic budget sound system!


Here's my post with the amp pinout:

reddit.com/r/CarAV/comments/rtg4bj/in_case_anyone_with_a_ford_between_02_and_11/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share