Ford
Explorer & Mercury Mountaineer
Message Center Install
| I started my project by disassembling the screen and cleaning all the dust and dirt out of the module. Then I plugged the wiring harness in to the display and keyboard module I removed all the tape around the wiring harness and cutd all the important wires out of the console harness that were important to the message center. Note: Some of the wires go back and forth between the two different plugs, so make sure you remove all the tape and trace the wire locations before cutting. |
| These are
the three important plugs. There are also plugs and wiring for the lamp out module which was offered in 1995-early 1998 explorers, although I removed this because I did not need this function and it required a lot of extra wiring. |
SOLDER YOUR CONNECTIONS. I have learned that this is the best way to go in the long run! WIRING
AND PIN-OUT GUIDE …. Yes the number do correspond to
the pin locale and the connectors are labeled with numbers. (Thanks
to Big Country on the Explorer forum UBB board for this info) 1 L. Green
goes to the M/C...already done
22 Green/
L. Green air rid control: dont have it, forget it
1 Green/
L. Green to the M/C....already done
1 White/
Green left headlight: fuse panel pin 4 With the
wiring harness ready to be tapped in to the vehicle, I set it aside
and started taking apart my vehicle. You will need to remove your center
console tray inserts, dash bezel and instrument cluster. (for the easiest
access to important wires.) |
| Once the pin was clicked in I ran it under the heater box and in through an existing grommet in the firewall: |
| After the
wire was inside, I ran it up through the dash and in to the center console.
Next I located my Fuel level and tachometer input wires behind the instrument cluster, and tapped in to them. The wires were ran through the dash and down to the center console. |
(Picture of fuel level and tach taps) Next I tapped in to vehicle speed harness. This wire can be found in multiple places, (ie: GEM module, Instrument Cluster, ABS computer, etc) I tapped in to the wire nearest to the GEM since it was the closest and easy t get to. The power and illumination wires were all found at the big square center console plug near the floor. Using a volt meter and by matching color codes I was able to find all the appropriate tap locations. Ground wires were attached to a nearby chassis point. Note: I did not connect the wires for Oil level, Engine Temp, Lamp out, and Washer fluid sensors, I decided that these connections were redundant or simply to much of a hassle for the R.O.I. Note, When powered up the display console for the first time, I did notice that the Low washer fluid warning kept flashing. Well, needless to say, it bothered me after about 10 minutes of having to constantly push the reset button to clear the code. To elimante this problem, I simply grounded out the washer fluid wire to a nearby ground point. This closes the circuit and fools the computer in to thinking the washer bottle is full. None of the other unused sensors needed this modification. (ie: the washer fluid warning was the only circuit that used an open circuit to set off an alarm. This may be different between the different years of modules though) |
With removed it looks like I took this pic at the JY.
In the tedious
process of wiring and testing all my connections. It looks messy now, but
there is light at the end of the tunnel.
This is what the display console looks like after all the wires have been
routed and wrapped in electrical tape.
DONE!!!!