I just bought an aftermarket cd player for my Grand Cherokee and I would rather not have to cut and strip wires so I want to get an wiring harness adapter. My question is, can I just get any wiring harness adapter or do I need the direct connection adapter that is specifically made for Chrysler to Kenwood?
Doug is spot on, but missing one thing that im going to add in real quick. The wiring harness makes things simper because it is color coordinated with the aftermarket wire radios. Some chrystler/dodge/jeep come with an existing amplifier that must be bypassed in order to have sound come through the speakers. Lucky this bypass is easy as connecting a wire. (quick note, buy only metra install kits- wiring harness and dash kit) On the wiring harness there will be a blue wire (not to get confused with the blue wire from the radio) coming off of it. This needs to be hooked up with the red wires, or the blue wire from the radio's wiring harness which is the amp remote wire. This bypasses the amp.
You just get the jeep wiring adapter and then solder or use crimp caps/butt-connectors to connect the wires to the aftermarket harness that comes with the aftermarket headunit. Also, depending on what year Jeep you have you may need an antenna adapter. AND I believe on the Jeeps (like the chryslers) there is not a usable ground wire in the factory wiring harness which means you will need to ground the aftermarket ground wire to the chassis via an existing bolt or drilling. Or, if the stock radio has one of these metal-mesh things affixed to the back, you can use that thing as well. But when you match up the Jeep harness you buy to the factory harness and you will be able to tell if there is ground wire in factory harness.
