Installed new Kenwoord DDX9702s

Ford SportTrac Forum

Help Support Ford SportTrac Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Jul 15, 2015
Messages
13
Reaction score
1
Location
Raleigh, NC
I am really pleased with the new Kenwood DDX9702s head unit I recently installed in my new (to me) 2007 STL.



The really nerdy part about it, is that you can use custom backgrounds with the unit, and I found one that kind of matched the carbon fiber look of the interior trim.

Here is how it looks installed:



72c2d2425e89356fd3f1f5ec35b3f1b1.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yes, got the Maestro, also a backup camera, and OBD2.

We had a series of minor misunderstandings about the wiring, involving calls to Crutchfield. There are so many connections to make, it was a little confusing. And the sheer number of connections made it a little cramped behind the receiver, and we needed to reorganize the wires several times before the whole mess would fit into the double din space.
 
I'm about to do this same install. I'm going to let an installer place & setup the unit. Do you have any pointers I need to be aware of with the installation? I like the background color of the face. Nice......
 
There are lots of little details not covered by the instructions. There are three installation manuals: Crutchfield's, the Maestro one, and the Kenwood one. You need to read all of them. The Maestro's harness mostly sits in between the Kenwood harness and the Ford harness. The diagram tells you which wires to connect with which, but what they don't tell you is that some Kenwood wires go directly to the Ford, and bypass the Maestro. There are some RCA plugs that deceive you into thinking they should be plugged into the back of the receiver. Don't plug them in, instead cut them off and connect them to the correct wires in the Kenwood harness.

I wish I had taken notes for you, but I didn't. Other installation pointers are: I installed the GPS antenna on the top middle of the dash on the stick-on ground plane plate supplied. I worried that it might not have worked too well, as the heated windshield's wires might have blocked the satellites, but no problem as it turned out.

On the other hand, I successfully installed the SiriusXM antenna on the back of the cab roof just in front of the third reverse light lens, running the cable under the lens and into the cab. I put a dab of caulk around the cable where it ran past the lens to keep water out. To avoid running a long video wire for the backup camera all the way from the rear license plate forward to the receiver, we cheated and got a little wireless transmitter/receiver. It works most of the time, with very good resolution, but it can be a bit intermittent, and I would've run the wire if I had to do over.

I also replaced the AUX jack on the center console with a remote USB/HDMI jack; this is incredibly handy for plugging in my iPhone for charging and navigation using Apple CarPlay, which works fantastically well. There is no nav built into the receiver itself.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Latest posts

Top