Having searched this forum for answers on what I needed to install a new head unit in my 1997 F250 Light Duty, and not found the answers I needed, I thought I'd write up what I found out now that my install is complete.

My truck had a four speaker AM/FM cassette with 6 disk CD changer factory system. The receiver has an "auto set" button, which Crutchfield's site implies means I have a "premium" factory system. There is no premium badging on the speaker grills or on the receiver itself.

Pulling the head unit out, the head unit is Ford part number F65F-19B165-BD. The unit has two modular plugs on the back. One is long (a little under 2" long) and rectangular, and has 8 connections on the plug, all of which are not used. The other is smaller (a little under an 1" long) and rectangular with 16 connections on the plug and as best as I could tell all are used. Poking around I found an amplifier tucked behind the dash. I wanted to bypass the stock amplifier, but no one could tell me what harness to use to do this. Poking around more, I removed the floor vent cover, and found the bottom of the amplifier, which had two plugs going into it. Pulling the plugs I figured out one of them was the plug leading to the speakers. Looking in the back of the area where the head unit sits, I found a matching plug interconnection to one coming out of the amp (a rectangular connector a little under 2" long). Of course, rather than have a special harness for the head units with outboard amplifiers, Ford has a short harness, which runs between the base head unit connections, splicing in the outboard amplifier and matching head unit into the base head unit harness.

So for the Ford head unit I had in a 1997 F150/250 light duty, when installing an aftermarket head unit and bypassing the OE amplifier you need to use the base receiver harness (Scoshe FD02 - two rectangular connectors a little under 2" long). Disconnect the speaker splice interconnection in the area behind where the head unit sits, and connect your speaker wires to the female side. Connect your power connections to the other long rectangular connection which was originally connected to the OEM head unit and your done.

While I was replacing my head unit, I also took the opportunity to gut my center console and install a powered subwoofer (Kenwood KSC-WA801) in it. Lost almost all of my center console storage, but the installation looks pretty clean, sounds reasonable, back seat still folds flat, and best of all if I remove the cub holder insert from my center console, I can reach the controls to adjust my subwoofer crossover frequency and output level.

Hope this information helps some of you.