Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums  

The red wire with the loop is your ground wire. Obviously you'll need to attach it. It's been reported that all cars with the factory Premium Sound setup also have a spare, pre-bypassed radio harness laying behind the dash somewhere. Personally I've never seen it...then again, I've never looked for it either. But many people have told me it's there, so start hunting behind the radio, or above the radio (remove your storage bin), or look over between the radio and the glove box. When/if you find it, you can use any of the aftermarket Ford wiring adapter harnesses at the local stereo store (or Wal*Mart) for $10 US, and wire your radio into that. This will get your aftermarket radio working with your stock speakers, while bypassing the factory amp. If you want to run your own amp, you will need to run new wiring throughout the vehicle, plain and simple.

You have two choices with the factory Premium Sound setup: get jumper harnesses and use your stock amp, or bypass it and use your own amps. Since you are bypassing this you cannot mix the stock amps in with your amps...it's one or the other.

i have in Mikeys car. it was taped to the between the glove box and the radio..if you find it you still have to dissconect all the plugs going to the factory amp or you will fry you new deck.. and like Eric said instead of cutting the factory harness i would get an factory harness to aftermarket radio adapter..from auto zone or pep boys or wal mart..

If you can't figure out how to install a headunit, no wonder you have a hard time doing basic tune up work.