I need help...how do I wire my head unit?

[dirtbagz89 10+ year member]

I just took out my factory cd player.

The wiring harness in the truck looks like it connects to a wiring harness I bought. The harness I bought needs to be wired to the wires that came with my cd player I think...how do I do it? I don't have to do any soldering do I?

By the way, teh harness I bought has 3 connections...what do I do with the other 2 I wont be using?

I think I need an antenna adapter as well.

Click to read more...

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

If what you have is a factory harness adapter (one end mates to your vehicle's factory harness and the other end is bare wiring that is the same color wiring as on your aftermarket headunit's plug) then it's easy.

Take the bare wires end of the harness adapter and match each wire, color for color (ergo red to red, black to black, gray with a black stripe to gray with a black stripe, green without a stripe to green without a stripe, etc) to the wires attached to the rear of your new headunit.

No - you do not have to do any soldering but it is generally accepted as the most secure method...that then covering the joint with heatshrink.

You can use butt connectors.

You can use male/female spade terminals.

You can simply twist the wires together and cover the splice with vinyl electrical tape ~ though this is generally considered the most ghetto of methods and the splice most likely to fail somewhere down the road.

Whether or not you need an antenna adapter will be vehicle dependent.

What do you drive?

 

[traksta15 10+ year member]

what car is it for? Pics would help a lot btw

 

[dirtbagz89 10+ year member]

Dont have any pics but its from my truck. A 2003 Dakota. I just wanna know how to connect the wires together. And yes some of them match. Do I just leave the extras alone?