Kenwood Stereo install in 1994 Mark Viii

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gloebel

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Dear colleagues

I'm from Switzerland (Europe) and just got a nice 1994 Mark Viii.

The first thing I'm trying to do is to replace the stock ford radio with a aftermarket Kenwood KDC-BT8044U.

At the moment I really just want to change the Stereo and use the stock Amp and Speakers of the Mark Viii.

I already removed the stock radio and I'm now in need of a harness or adapter between the iso stereo connector of the Kenwood stereo and the stock connectors of the Mark Viii.

Unfortunately I can not find the correct harness/adapter to connect the Kenwood stereo to the Mark Viii.

Please take a look at the following pictures. On the first one you can see the two connectors of the Mark Viii and in the second picture you can see the two iso stereo connector of the Kenwood.

Can someone please provide me a link of a online store where I can order such a harness/adapter.

Thanks alot

Mathias

IMG_0306.jpg


IMG_0305.jpg
 
Typically, the best thing to do is rewire the speakers. There is an amplifier under the rear deck. You can either rewire directly to the radio, or swap in a 4 channel amplifier inplace of the factory amp and wire the speakers to it.
 
Hello fellow European!
Do you have JBL or premium sound?
I managed to rewire my JBL system to make an aftermarked headunit work in it. But it was a pain in the ass because all of the instructions and wire diagrams I found on the internet was wrong for me. None of the colors on the wire diagrams even existed in my harness.

I don't know about yours. Could you maybe get a photo of the wire bundle so I can see the colors of the wires and then compare it to mine? If so I can just tell you which is which.
 
I know a complete rewire is the best solution and I will do it in some future but for now I just want to do a easy job and just simply change the head unit.

How do I figure out if I have JBL or premium sound? I just fount an amp in the trunk (see picture).

So you are telling me there exists no fitting plug and play harness adapter and rewire is a must?

P1050212.jpg
 
Crutchfields.com is a large company in the US that sells adapters. They are not very expensive, usually just a few dollars.
I updated the stereo in my 93, ended up replacing all the speakers and rewired the system.
It was not that bad of a job, removing the door panels gives you access to the front speakers, and the screens to the rear speakers.
My original amp in the trunk was shot, so it had to be bypassed.

If you have JBL, will have a smaller speaker on your upper door panel, 6 speakers instead of 4.
 
Just put a Kenwood in my 94 with new 6x8's and 1.5 tweets. It sounds real good now! Your best bet is to replace speakers and re-wire at the same time.
 
Thank you for the link.
Yes that looks not bad but it isn't a complete adapter. on the one end are the correct connectors but on the other ending are just the plain wires without any connector. how can I get everything togheter in a correct and working way?
And why is there a kit to bypass the stock amp?Do I need that?
 
Spree said:
Just put a Kenwood in my 94 with new 6x8's and 1.5 tweets. It sounds real good now! Your best bet is to replace speakers and re-wire at the same time.
Click to expand...

How did you connect the stereo to the car? did you do any photos which you could post here that would help alot

Thanks

Mathias
 
I'm no car stereo expert, but I've done plenty of head unit installs for myself and friends, and I've never seen a wiring harness that comes with a head unit like what you've got. The ones I'm used to dealing with are like the Scosche harnesses mespock showed you. In that case, you have one plug that plugs into the back of your head unit, and wires (no plug) on the other end. Then, all you do is get the appropriate harness for your car off the Scosche website there and wire the two together. If it's your first time doing it, it's much simpler than it might look. I don't know if you're going to to find something that's simple plug and play that plugs into that big plug you've got and also clips into the factory wiring harness as well. It may end up that you have to cut that big plug off and hard-wire the two harnesses together like I described above. Wait for someone else to back me up on that before you start cutting, though.

Now, when I bypassed the amp in my parents' 96 Mark VIII with JBL, the amp was no good, so I completely bypassed it, but if you're trying to integrate the factory amp into your system, you may need to buy the "car stereo output converter" on Scosche page as well. I could be wrong, but I believe you'd need something like that to continue using your factory amp. In which case, instead of wiring the two harnesses together like I mentioned before, you'd connect some of the wires directly to each other (power, ground, remote, etc), then wire the speaker wires through that converter (again, fairly simple and straightforward) and go from there.

Again, someone correct me if I'm wrong on any of this. I'm no expert by any means.
 
gloebel said:
How did you connect the stereo to the car? did you do any photos which you could post here that would help alot

Thanks

Mathias
Click to expand...

I spliced into the stock wiring harness for the power, battery and ground. Then bought new speakers and re-wired everything, by-passing stock amp. Sorry...no pics on that.
 
Ok it seems that I have to cut/remove the big plug coming from the radio and get the Mark viii factory connector from Scosche and wire both manually together.
I have the wire diagram of the Kenwood so I know the color code of the wires of the radio. But I don't know the color code of the Mark Viii. I took a picture of the Mark Viii connector and there are completely different colors used than used by the Kenwood. How can I make shure I don't missmatch the wires.

IMG_0307.jpg
 
There is a connector that fits on the factory harness for the 94. It even fit the 95 because I used the same one. Kenwood is all I use too so I know it works. I can't say it's Scosche but the parts store is where I got mine. Just don't use the ground on the connector. Ground the stereo to some solid metal behind the stereo, using a hex head screw that is normally already back there.

No reason for cutting the factory harness off. Everything else, I completely rewired and removed the dry rotted factory speakers and amps. Trash can is what they're worth.
 
I had a Kenwood system in my 94 before I changed ... The Scosche is as plug and play as it comes ... I just wired the speaker wires from the head unit to the Scosche harness ... basically only had to match color wire to color wire. The harness comes with a wire diagram so you can match color wire to the right side if you need that. Also your head unit should come with a diagram.

Same with the power plug. I didn't have to purchase the output converter. I also had a premium sound system and not a JBL system in my 94.

When I removed the Kenwood system. I did a total rewire an after market amp.

Personally I would just rewire the speakers straight to the head unit ... you can use the Scosche harness for the power.
 
Thank you all for the help so far!

I just found this:

http://www.amazon.com/Stereo-Harness-Lincoln-wiring-installation/dp/B000KL2OCG

Amazon also delivers to Switzerland 8.90$ for the harness an 36$ for delivery to Switzerland. just unbelievable.:confused:
Anyway it is my only shot so I ordered one.

I think it will take one and a half weeks till I get the harness.

Will keep you up to date if it works

Thanks

Mathias
 
That's exactly what you need...wire that directly to radio and your golden
gloebel said:
Thank you all for the help so far!

I just found this:

http://www.amazon.com/Stereo-Harness-Lincoln-wiring-installation/dp/B000KL2OCG

Amazon also delivers to Switzerland 8.90$ for the harness an 36$ for delivery to Switzerland. just unbelievable.:confused:
Anyway it is my only shot so I ordered one.

I think it will take one and a half weeks till I get the harness.

Will keep you up to date if it works

Thanks

Mathias
Click to expand...
 
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