my rs / alarm 2005 ford f150

I recently purchased a new vehicle - a 2005 Ford F150 (extended cab, 8' bed work truck).  Two of the things I couldn't handle on the new truck was no door locks and no remote start.  So, after having the vehicle for about 4 days I went to my local shop (Car Stereo One) and got hooked up with a Clifford 50.7x and 3 actuators (each door and tailgate).

I didn't get a security bypass, I figured who needs one.  This oversite cost me a few days because I ended up ordering one off of Ebay.  Not a huge deal, I'm a busy guy and knew this entire install would be spread out over several days with limited pockets of time to work on the vechicle (I have a 5 month old daughter).

Before I get to the install let me give a bit of background on myself and my skill level.  I have a bachelors of science in technology degree (majored in electronics and computer technology) and while I was in college I was a full time installer for 3-4 years at several different Circuit Cities (depending on what city I was in at the time).  I can safely say that pretty much everything I know came from CC training - so keep that in mind as you review my work!  I performed this entire install in my driveway at my house (the truck won't fit in my garage).  My garage, however, is probably better equipped tool wise then most install bays (60 gallon industrial air compressor, air tools, power tools, Fluke meters, ocilloscope, soldering irons, hand tools, drop lights, drop plugs, drop air lines, etc).  Here are a few of the main tools used

(this is for Howie)Bed of Nails meter probe attached to my Fluke 189 meter (Rigid cordless drill in the back):

DEI Bitwriter (borrowed from shop):

Grommet Poker (for putting holes in OEM grommets):

Soldering gun (for big wires):

Butane soldering iron (for smaller stuff):

My most important "skill" used throughout this install is my technique for stripping bigger wires.  First, I cut in to the insulate like I'm going to strip the wire.  I then release the strippers and cut in the insulatation again about 3/8" away from the first incision (look at the brown wire):

Then, with the pliars on the end of my strippers, I remove the insulation slug by pulling gently on it - make sure you don't grip the actual copper wire because it will break if you are not careful.  If you do it right you will have this:

The next important step is to prep the brain thoroughly.  I like to find ALL the wires in the vehicle and then I can accurately group (and twist) my wires together in a manner that leaves a clean install.  Here is what I started with:

By the time I eliminated unneeded wires and grouped necesarry wires together this is what I had:

I then taped up the looms and unused wires.  I, personally, like to cut and leave the unused wires in the car instead of ripping them out - that way if I want to add something down the road I don't have to worry about fitting wires back in the harness.  Here is the alarm fully prepped:

I actually started with adding the door lock actuators.  I figured the tailgate would be the hardest, so I started there first.  It turns out it wasn't too bad.  The only thing that caused me a little issue is the fact that my tailgate is removable and I didn't want the actuator wires to make it difficult to install.  To remedy that situation I ordered a weatherproof two pin trailer plug from Del City (about $2). 

I first removed the liner on the inside of the tailgate to expose the locking mechanism:

Squeezing the actuator in wasn't easy because of limited room and I wasn't able to get a good shot of it, but you can see the screws that hold it in place:

I then soldered some LONG wire to the actuator - remember it's an 8 foot bed and then an extended cab to get through:

Next, I routed the wires out the bottom of the tailgate:

Then, I cut the wire and soldered in the plug:

To get the wire to the front of the vehicle I drilled a hole in the back of the vehicle right above the bumper near where the wire came out of the tailgate.  After I drilled the hole I sprayed it with some beige spray paint (didn't have white):

With the hole drilled and painted (to prevent rust) I added a plastic grommet for protection:

I then loomed, taped, and tucked the plug:

Now to the doors!

The doors were pretty basic, pull the panels off, mount the actuators inline with the lock rod, and route the wires as OEM as possible through the OEM wire tubing in to the cabin.

Actuator mounted and connected to lock rod.  The actuator is on the back side of the door skin, but you can again see the mounting screws to get an idea of where it is:

Wire twisted and routed through door (green and blue twisted wires):

The passenger side was very similar so I won't detail it.  When I got all the actuators installed and tested (using the battery in my drill to lock and unlock them) I routed all the wires to the drivers kick panel and tucked them away for a few days until I could get back on the project.

I take the point about the bed of nails, except yesterday I had the DEI tech manager with me  and he also used my method of a snap-on test light* with a Stanley knife on the end. I agree about hole painting, except hood switches, I spray hole and switch with lithium base. Also RTV the grommet to seal it .I still can't see the point of twisting the wiring but again I agree about not cutting off unused cables.

The not too amazing fact is that if you looked at my tools on an install, there wouldn't be much difference except for the brands used, i.e. Weller Gun and Pyropen.

*Don't recommend this method over using a DMM but I'm old school and have my own safety procedures.

To each his own - I'm sure there are several different ways to test wires that are effective and clean.  I've had the nails for years and I couldn't give them up at this point!

I do need to go back and seal my grommets - I have a lot more documentaiton to post, I got too tired last night, I'll try to get the rest up today.

The igntiion wires were twisted - they came out looking pretty factory after they were taped and loomed.  Pictures later!

On the actuator wires twisting them does make them easier to run - the actuator wires from the back were 20'+ ran down along the frame of the truck (next to an OEM loom).  Everything else, as I mentioned, was just for fun.  It is redundent to twist AND tape, but that is what I did.

Nice clean work on the taligate.  Looks good....Is that a Nissan/Infinity vehicle in the background there?  Can't make it out but that's what my guess goes too!  Howie, you may want to look again....the heavy gauge wires are twisted.  I personally don't twist any of my wires, (tape and zip ties), but nonetheless, it'll still look real clean when it's all said and done, twisted or not.  Nice Work Kevin!!

joch1314 wrote:

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Nice clean work on the taligate.  Looks good....Is that a Nissan/Infinity vehicle in the background there?  Can't make it out but that's what my guess goes too!  Howie, you may want to look again....the heavy gauge wires are twisted.  I personally don't twist any of my wires, (tape and zip ties), but nonetheless, it'll still look real clean when it's all said and done, twisted or not.  Nice Work Kevin!!

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Yep, that's my toy in the background - a 2004 Infiniti G35 - built motor, twin turbo.  500hp of Japanese fun!  I bought it new back in '03 and it only has 21k on it - I need to get it out more!

Alright, back to the install.

With the door locks done and the alarm prepped I moved on to mounting the siren and doing all the "under hood" work (siren, hood pin, and tach). 

There was a nice open spot on the drivers fender for the siren so I used two self tapping screws to secure it:

I then routed my tach and hood pin wires from inside the truck through the grommet and then pulled back my siren wire (I had never done it this way, in the past I pulled the siren wire forward).  It was a bit more difficult to pull wires in opposite directions, but I decided to follow DEIs recomendations and actually ground the siren inside the vehicle.  In the past I have grounded sirens to the mounting plate and in the past I have had grounding issues.

I connected the tach to the fuel injector closest to the OEM grommet (that I poked a hole through with my grommet poker) and then proceeded to the hood pin.  I, for some reason still unknown, used the hood pin supplied by DEI.  In my own experiance I know they don't last and they only cause problems, but I installed it anyway.  In the future I want to replace it with a magnetic switch, but this will have to do for now.  I solered the wire directly to the pin switch instead of using the supplied crimp connector and I covered the exposed metal with a synthetic grease - we'll see how it works:

Finally, all I had left was the loom (you can see the tach wire taped coming out of the added loom in the top pic):

With that done, all I had left was to connect everything to the brain!

OK, the last thing to do was to wire the brain up - all the sub sections of the installation have already been completed, leaving me honestly not much left to do.  The fact that this is a work truck (not many options) AND a very basic vechicle made it easy to make this a very clean install.

The first thing to do was to find a mounting location for the brain.  When I first pulled the brain out and realized how bit it was I knew finding a location for it was going to be hard.  Under the dash of the F150 there is basically only open space.  I tried a few nooks and crannies but wasn't happy with any of the locations under the dash.  I then proceeded to remove the cluster trim and luckily found a PERFECT spot right behind the cluster.  The brain fit perfect and it allowed me to run my ignition / OEM security wires down the passenger side of the column cleaning and then route my ground/door pin/parking light/brake/actuator wires down the drivers side of the column.  The only drawback was that it was impossible to actually work behind the cluster, so the install is only as clean as my prep (which is acceptable in this case).  It's really hard to "see" the brain in the picture because it is a tight fit and there is a large OEM wiring harness running over top of it:

Like I said, I ran all the "little" wires down the passenger side.  I was able to grab the parking light wire right at the switch - right now I regret not taping that last section of wire!:

That loom then continues down to the lower kick area where my door pins, ground, and brake weres were located.  I took an extra minute to trace out the brake wire because I didn't want to tap it at the brake as it would have been difficult to make that connection look OEM.  The little extra work paid off and it was right in the kick panel with the door pins:

I had to diode isolate the door pins and my little trick there is to solder a loop of wire on to both ends of the diode on the bench, then cut the loop and install the diodes as needed.  This eliminates having to wrap the diode around the OEM wires and makes it a bit easier to hide:

Here are the connections after being soldered (the ground is at the very bottom, soldered to an OEM ground wire):

With the wires connected I loomed and taped them and they disapeared in to the OEM wiring! (please ignore the actuator wires, I did them last):

I ran the antenna up the drivers A pillar and tucked it under the headliner.  I ended up mounting it right behind the mirror, behind some tint - I know this isn't best for reception, but with a 1 mile range or whatever I wasn't too concerned (and I now have too much range how it is!):

I then moved to the ignition wires.  This truck only has one ignition, one accessory, and one starter so it was cake.  The biggest issue was soldering all the power wires to the main power feed (there were three heavy gauge power wires and the power wire for the alarm).  In order to make the starter wire splice appear more OEM like I ran the DEI starter wire a little past the splice and bent it back to connect to the wire - this eliminated an awkward splice in a "busy" area that would have been hard to conceal:

After I got all those hooked up I was ready to test the system.  Everything worked great EXCEPT it would only remote start if I had the key in the ignition.  This was an easy one, my security bypass hadn't shown up yet so I was done messing with it for a few days.

Once the security bypass showed up I hooked it up as directed (right to the plug on the ignition key cylinder).  I programmed it as directed and it worked the first time!

Although it worked, I didn't feel that that was the best way to hook it up.  I traced all three necesarry wires from the plug down to the main ignition harness (where my other splices were) and I then soldered all the connections down at the base of the column.  I loomed and taped and was ready to put the truck back together!

At this point, looking up under the dash you can't see a thing.  I would be surprised if even a Ford tech would notice anything out of the ordinary!

I still had one thing left to do though, and thats tie in all the actuators.  I routed them up through the dash and to where the brain is.  I replaced the door lock harness that came with the alarm with a 451M (door lock relay module) I had in my toolbox.  I then hooked the door actuators directly to the 451M and tested them out - they worked perfect!  I then thought about how I wanted the tailgate actuator to work - I knew I wanted it to lock EVERY time I armed the truck so I hooked the lock wire up to the 451M lock output.  My original plan was to use an AUX channel to unlock the tailgate but I decided, in the end, to hook it up to the priority door unlock output.  After playing with it this was byfar the better way to go - it is very OEM like and I didn't burn up an AUX channel on an unlock task.  I didn't take any pictures of the relays, but they are all tucked behind the cluster with the brain and the security bypass - completely out of sight and very difficult for a thief to get to.

The only things I have left to do at this point, besides finish putting the truck together is to mount a door lock switch I purchased from Spal and to seal my grommets I poked.  This switch will allow me to electronically lock and unlock the doors from inside the truck and I'll have to buy some sort of silicon sealant to seal my two grommets (the second one was in the floor board for the tailgate actuator). 

In the end, I'm very pleased with the system and the installation.  I wish I would have ran a spare wire back to the tailgate so that I could add a switch to the gate and I wish I would have used a better hood pin, but both of those are easy fixes if I ever feel the need to upgrade.

I hope that this documentation will allow people to see the amount of work that goes in to a typical remote start / alarm system.  If you are reading this and have never done a remote start / alarm PLEASE note that this truck was about as basic as you get  - there was nothing difficult or out of the ordinary on it.  Many, many, many cars are much much much more compliclated then this!  Also, remember to test EVERY wire with a volt meter (not a test light).  If you aren't sure how to test for the correct wire seek professional help - hooking things up wrong is a quick way to damage sensitive electronics.  And, besides the fact there are usually multiple wires of the same color in the bigger bundles I have came across installation charts that were flat out wrong - verifying the connected BEFORE hand is the only way to catch those mistakes! 

WOW!  Is that a factory installed remote start unit?  It must be because nothing looks aftermarket at all! 

HIGH FI!!

Kevin...

1)Is the grommet poker you have pictured the Thexton tool? or is that some other beast and if so what is it and where did it come from?

2) Regading the L-bracket you are using for the hood pin, that looks like plumbers strap. Is that what it is? If so... isn't that stuff a little soft and wont the pin switch get folded over if/when the bracket bends?