INSTALLATION....

I have plenty of install experience but it is 15-20 years old.  Times have changed my friends.  It used to be throw a head unit in the dash, hook up a constant power, switched power, ground and pre-amps.  Not so anymore.  The head unit is still the same but the Bluetooth module, Sirius Satellite radio modules, steering wheel controller...  All of these things are seperate components and require their own power, mounting place, and splices (tapping into vehicle wiring).

The key is doing things right the first time.  I sat in my house and patiently soldered together all of the harness connections and then used heat shrink tubing to seal the connections..

Picture of the mess..

Close-up Showing Soldered Connections and Heat Shrink

Once I got the Crutchfield wiring harness soldered to the D3 harness to my satisfaction it was time to put the radio in the mounting kit.  This was relatively straight forward but if you want things to look right take your time.  Insure you get the head unit flush on all four corners of the mounting plate.  With the D3 mounted in the Metra mounting kit it was time to head to the garage.  I carried all of the components to the garage and used my Bakflip tonneau cover as a staging area for the gear..

Most of the Components and Wiring on the Bed..

I cannot lie, the installation was a bit of  a challenge to me, at least the planning and layout was.  I started by removing the dash center stack trim.  This is done simply by pulling at the bottom above the ash tray.  It comes of hard the first time but a little easier thereafter.  Once I pulled the trim I simply took out the four 7mm screws holding the radio in and was left with a hole in the dash opening and the stock Sirius receiver mounted in the stack.

Dash With Radio Removed and Stock Sirius Receiver Visible

I was really torn on the stock Sirius receiver.  I didn't have a sheet metal shop to fabricate my own shelf and the Sirius receiver seemed to be perfect.  So I just left it in and used it as a mount point for the rest of the components.  Before I did anything else at thing point I had to tap into the dash wires necessary for everything to work.  I needed to tap into 2 stock harness pins for the PAC steering wheel controller, 1 wire for the VSS (speed sensor), a constant 12v line and ground.  I used the stock harness switched 12v and ground for the PAC steering wheel module but wanted to use a separate constant 12v and ground for the Sirius module and bluetooth module.  Since both are low amp draw components I tapped directly into the cigarette lighter live and ground.  The live is constant (regardless of the ignition switch) and the ground is solid.  As I am a non-smoker I figured this circuit should at least do me SOME good!

Picture of All Wires Tapped as Necessary for Installtion

Here You Can See The Pioneer Harness Hanging and the Associated Mess!

OK, now that all of the power lines and harness tapping was complete, it was time to start putting components in place and running bus cabling.  Let the real messiness begin! Before I installed the actual D3 I needed to wire up the back of it completely as I would not be able to access it later.  In the next picture you can see the D3 in the dash and all associated wiring hanging haplessly below.  You'll notice the stock Sirius receiver is hanging at an angle in the picture.  The reason for that is I dropped the right side so that I could route wires behind the unit.  Before I mounted anything else it was reattached solidly. 

When mounting the metra kit in the dash it looked great, but when I put the dash center console back on I noticed the top of the mount sat back a little further than the edge of the dash.  I resolved this by buying some longer #8 machine screws and then stacking 3 #8 washers and taping them in the stack.  I then applied a 3 washer stack between the mount kit and the dash on both top corners.  This brought the kit to flush with the dash and really made a difference in the appearance.

D3 Installed But a Mess of Wire Awaits!

I mounted the Bluetooth adapter using velco (cheesy I know) on top of the old Sirius receiver.  Below the receiver I used the factory Sirius tuner's mounting screws to attach the Sirius SC-C1 receiver.  This positioned it perfectly to connect to the stock Sirius antenna and also provided a secure mounting point.  In the pic below you can see the bluetooth module and Sirius receiver already in place, and the Pioneer Siriius bus controller staged for mounting.

Getting Close!  The Bigger the Mess the Closer We Are!

Once I finally got everything mounted up the way I wanted to it was more than a typical rats nest!  At the same time I have to admit that everything fit nicely where I placed it.  I wrapped all the cabling as neatly as I could but when you're talking about this many cables/wires there's only so much you can do!

All of the Components Mounted in Place

Same Picture as Above, But Components Are Labeled.

Now all I need to do is pop the center stack trim back on and pray to God that everything works!  I recommend that once you have everything hooked up and mounted you test every aspect of the install before putting the dash back together and tightening everything down.  In my case I was installing the PAC steering wheel button controller so I needed to leave the dash kit off until programming was complete anyway.  Because I took my time and insured all of my wire taps were secure, everything was tightly wound, and mounting points were secure I had an easy time of programming the PAC and insuring everything worked.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED....

With everything wired up and working the dash went back together perfectly.  I did notice that with the Metra kit that the top of the mounting kit was set in a little further back than I liked, leaving a gap.  I remedied this by buying longer mounting screws and stacking 4 washers between the mount kit and the dash on the top two screws.  This worked like a charm and really trued up the install appearance.

Back Together Again!

A few notes on installation.  The PAC steering wheel controller went MUCH smoother than I expected.  After reading endless nightmares about resisters needed that weren't included, programming fiascos, etc, I expected the worst.  Truth be told..  After I tapped into the two necessary harness wires the unit functioned perfectly and programming was straight forward.  I highly recommend that for an F150 you follow the directions directly from the PAC site.   All in all when you take your time and research thoroughly before starting, installation wasn't that hard.  It took a lot of time (I probably spent 7hrs on this) but it was decent and definitely worth it!

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