Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications General Mods 98.5 Dash clock recontent, quick harness question

I have a 98.5 SE 2.5L MTX that I am going to put the dash clock from previous years in. I ordered up the part (F7RZ-15000-DA) and will have it tomorrow morning. I am going over the How-To guide for it Here and it explains the wiring of the clock which is good.

What isn't explained here in this guide or anywhere that I am searching on this site are the following questions...
1) I'm sure that there are existing pins in the harness that is there for the PATS... it doesn't really say weather or not to move them or just plain leave them alone and add the other wires for the clock.
2) They give you what wires go where in the harness that you need to pull from the factory radio harness, but where do you get the pins for the harness, or are they already there, or do you need them, so on.

I haven't taken that pannel out yet so I will have a better idea once I get in there, but they say add a few pins from the radio harness which is fine, but where do you get the pins, or is there a way around this, or what?

This is all that I need to know in order to do the job tomorrow. Please let me know ASAP if you could... any help here is greatly appreciated... especially to those of you who have already done this. Thanx guys!

Well, I managed to make it out to my car and pop that piece off of the dash. I didn't un-plug the light, but I did notice that the plug looks like it has 6 pins... only two are taken up by the LED that is in place... one is orange, the other is black with a blue stripe (if I remember correctly).

Any help as to what I am supposed to do tomorrow when I get the clock piece would be GREATLY appreciated here guys. Thank you again.

Someone??? I know that there are people out there that have done this before... what am I going to do about the pins and wiring here guys?

My suggestion would be to go to the Ford dealer and ask to look through their kit of terminals (hopefully you have a clueful dealership) for the ones you need.

They have 6" of wire attached, and you should be able to stick them in the holes where there are no terminals.

Otherwise, people have used a serial port connector from a PC which has an 8 terminal socket on a ribbon cable to connect to the clock.

Other option is to ask for Motorcraft WPT-276 which is a 6-terminal female pigtail which looks like it should fit and is listed for a clock application.

The dealership should have a catalog, but I'll post the link for the catalog when I find it again...

I'm pretty sure that the connector is still present on the 98.5. You should find it when you remove the "Contour" panel that is installed in place of the clock. At least that is what several others have posted. I think the connector disappeared in mid 99. If the connector is there it should be a plug and play situation.

I have already pulled the "Contour" plate out and what is behind there is a plug that is a 6 pin that has 2 wires in it. I have no issues with using that EXCEPT that there are only 2 wires present in the plug that are used for the PATS system... the problem is that I don't have any pigtails for the other 4 holes that are not filled... they are just blank. That plug without the proper female pins and pigtails does nothing for me unless you guys have a better idea for me.

Sorry, I just re-read Brians post where you say that they have a box of terminals. I will ask to go through it... the dealership that I go to is VERY helpful and are very knowledgable about things like this and seem to enjoy helping out on little projects like this... hopefully they can help. I will let you guys know. I haven't heard from them yet, but will probibly call shortly so that maybe I can stop in on lunch and grab the parts.

Well, I checked with the dealership and they don't have the part in... he said that it was on backorder so it should be another day or two. I asked about the terminals and pins and he said that they have drawers of them and that I could go through them no problem to find what I want. Looks like this is going to work out pretty well then. I will let you guys know what happens once I get the part in.

If you can't find the terminals you need in the drawers, you can most likely remove them from the motorcraft pigtail I mentioned above, or chop your existing connector off and replace it with the pigtail.