Looking to put an aftermarket clarion sd card/cd player into my 97 XK. I have found the mounting adaptor plate on ebay uk but have a couple of questions.
1. Do I want/need the xj6 plug adaptor (i.e. is it the same)
2. I want to retain the steering controls, what adaptor have people used that works.
3. Does the factory amp have the same plug type as aftermarket stereos?

 

Have you tried Crutchfield?

 

Trevor - can't answer all your questions but ......... could you confirm that you have the early Harmon-Karden head unit and premium system with amplifier in the boot ?

In which case - the wiring is different to that with the later Alpine units.
Firstly - the CD player is routed back to the head unit - in later cars, it connects direct to the amplifer.
Secondly - the head unit is the same in both "standard" and "premium" kit - in later cars there's a small switch on the head unit to opt for one or the other.
Thirdly - The head unit connects to the amplifier using standard "din" connectors rather than the special Alpine connectors used in later cars. This makes it easier to identify the function of individual wires.
I have no idea whether the steering wheel controls function in exactly the same way on the Harmon-Karden kit as with the later Alpine kit.

What you CAN'T do is just get a new head unit and plug it into the old amplifier - it's not just audio signals, but also control signals for the CD player / power on & off etc.

 

Crutchfield's got nothing.

Yes mine is the XJ6/XJ12 style unit with the rounded sides.

 

Where is the LCD display - at the upper right-hand side, or in the middle at the bottom ??

 

Upper right hand side.

 

In which case it is the early Harmon-Karden unit.
CD player is connected to the head unit, with (I'm pretty sure) a standard 8 pin din connectors.
When I modified mine for an "aux in" connector, I used one of these and just butchered it a bit !!

8 pin din mk2 POWERLINK Cable connect BeoLab loud speakers to Bang Olufsen 50cm | eBay

Connection between head unit and amplifier is also a standard 6 pin din connector but I'm not sure what pin has what function.

 

Okay you are talking above my head now. So does that mean I should be able to just plug a standard aftermarket radio into the amp? My changer is starting to give the standard codes and not work so not planning on hooking that up but would like to retain the amp and the hand controls. It is the same that came in the xj6 right so the harness should be the same right?

 

Trevor. Sorry if I was a bit vague.

No - you can't **just** plug an aftermarket head-unit into the existing amplifier. But - because the early kit is (compared with later stuff) fairly simple and uses standard connectors - I would have thought a decent car-audio company would be able to modify the connector at the head unit end and make it work for you. Steering wheel controls I'm not so sure about.

The good news with the earlier Harmon Karden kit (as you have) is that the CD player is connected via the head unit and not directly to the amplifier (as with later Alpine kit) so the wiring is much less complex and almost certainly easier to modify.

All the wiring diagrams are available here :
www.jagrepair.com
and a good auto-electrician / in-car entertainment specialist should be able to work it out from those.