Ford Explorer: Two ground wires to Stock Radio?

I am replacing the factory radio in a 95 explorer with a Kenwood
Radio/CD player.

The replacement radio supplied harness has one ground wire, which is black.
The factory radio has two harnesses going into it from the vehicle. One
which carries the power/illumination wires etc. and includes a ground
wire (black). The other harness carries the speaker wires. The connector
for the speaker wires has 9 wires in it, 8 for the speakers and a black
ground wire.

When wiring an aftermarket wiring harness, which also carries a ground
on each connector is it correct to connect both of these grounds
together and connect them as a pair to the radio ground wire on the
radio supplied harness?

I wasn't expecting to see two grounds going into the factory radio and
wondered why Ford used two grounds to the same device. The Chiltons
manual I have does not include a diagram for the radio and speaker
circuits so I am at loss to explain this.

Car does NOT have JBL sound. The aftermarket harness with the correct
connectors claims to be for Premium sound systems, tho' I wasn't aware
that the factory radio was anything other than standard, it doesn't
claim to be premium on the face plate or ID stickers when you remove it.

Any advice is welcome.

JP

Connect the Black and the Black/White from the harness to the Black on your new
Kenwood harness. The Black/White is the ground for the factory amp.



Mark S
Owner
SoundsExtreme