Radio Help

[Bdrennan]

Alright, so my car (73 Mustang Vert) has factory AM/FM radio. I am trying to install a Custom Autosound Slide Bar radio.

Factory radio has two connectors, speaker wires in on and power wire in the other. It also ground to itself.

Power wire has three wires. One to black wire (power) and two for lights.

On the Custom Auto radio power wire is red and yellow wire is for constant. I know our cars don't have factory constant. So without the yellow wire connected radio will not maintain presets. Problem I have is I cant get power to the radio at all.

Am I supposed to hook all three of the factory power/light wires to the red and can I ground the new radio to itself like the factory did?

Do I have to have the yellow wire connected for radio to have power?

Thanks for you help.

 

[goodnigh]

PM Midlife, he can help with that.

mike

 

[Don C]

Solid black is usually a ground wire. The white wire with a purple stripe is the power wire that is turned on by the ignition switch. The light blue wire with red stripe is for the light. The black with white hash marks is the common for the speakers, white with light green hash marks is the right speaker, and orange with light green hash marks is the left speaker.

The factory radio typically gets its ground from the mounting strap at the back of the radio.

The easiest place to get a constant power lead is usually from the cigarette lighter circuit, but I would add another fuse after the cigarette lighter, if the constant power wire doesn't already have one.

Do not connect all of the wires together. If the black wire is a ground that would cause some excitement, and connecting the power and light wires together would power all of the dash lights whenever the key is turned on.

 

[midlife]

Don is right.

You're confusing three wires on the power plug with the number of connectors, which should be two. There are two wires (white/pink) that are switched power, and a blue/red wire that is for the lamps. For aftermarket stereos, you'll need a third line for constant power (for memory channels); I usually tap into the cigarette line for that.

 

[Bdrennan]

Do even need the wire for the lamps? Seems that I should just hook the red wire from radio to the white/purple and run the yellow spliced to the cigarette lighter. The other two wires don't seem necessary.

The factory radio was ground to itself, so I'll ground new radio to something in the radio mount area.

See any reason this doesn't work?

Solid black is usually a ground wire. The white wire with a purple stripe is the power wire that is turned on by the ignition switch. The light blue wire with red stripe is for the light. The black with white hash marks is the common for the speakers, white with light green hash marks is the right speaker, and orange with light green hash marks is the left speaker.

The factory radio typically gets its ground from the mounting strap at the back of the radio.

The easiest place to get a constant power lead is usually from the cigarette lighter circuit, but I would add another fuse after the cigarette lighter, if the constant power wire doesn't already have one.

Do not connect all of the wires together. If the black wire is a ground that would cause some excitement, and connecting the power and light wires together would power all of the dash lights whenever the key is turned on.

 

[Bdrennan]

Alright folks, completely stumped and frustrated.

Connected red Aux wire on new radio to two white/pink wires on older radio "switched power". left blue/red wire unconnected.

Spliced yellow constant wire into blue cigarette lighter wire.

Tried grounded radio to itself (like the old one was) and to Radio Bezel screw.

Nothing, radio has no power.

Old radio worked. So I know the wires are good.

Don is right.

You're confusing three wires on the power plug with the number of connectors, which should be two. There are two wires (white/pink) that are switched power, and a blue/red wire that is for the lamps. For aftermarket stereos, you'll need a third line for constant power (for memory channels); I usually tap into the cigarette line for that.

 

[midlife]

Make sure you put the key to ACC.

I'd try and ground the radio to the chassis. Without a ground, the poor electrons have no where to go, so no current can flow.

 

[Bdrennan]

Thanks everyone for your help. After a few curses, a couple of beers and some hard to reach wiring, I got everyone hooked up and working.

Now I seem to have a loose wire in my glove box area somewhere, as speakers will cut out completely if I hit a big bump. If I open and slam glove box, speakers come on again. Both speakers cut out, so it has to be something loose in there. So more investigation to come.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Thanks everyone for your help. After a few curses, a couple of beers and some hard to reach wiring, I got everyone hooked up and working.

Now I seem to have a loose wire in my glove box area somewhere, as speakers will cut out completely if I hit a big bump. If I open and slam glove box, speakers come on again. Both speakers cut out, so it has to be something loose in there. So more investigation to come.

I am more confused on this than anyone here probably. I just received the two AM 8 Tracks that I bought off eBay. They are for 73 Marked D3ZA-19A242 AB.

There are two wires on one plug that look like blue with red stripe and yellow with black stripe.

The other plug that I guess is the speakers has a black with white hash marks that I think is common for the speakers.

There is a white wire with green hash marks that I think is R.H. Speaker.

There is an Orange with maybe a green hash that I think is L.H. Speaker.

So is the Blue wire with red stripe for the light in the radio and the Yellow with Black the hot wire for the radio?????

I have attached a couple pics since the descriptions up the chain are different in colors.

I wanted to test them before the warranty runs out but also do not want to fry anything either.

Give me something mechanical that I can work with, lol.

David

 

[midlife]

Yup, that is the correct wire colors, but doesn't necessarily match the 71-73 power line to the radio (white/purple). In earlier years, it was yellow/black.

The earlier years stereo speakers were solid white and black on one side, and solid orange and black on the other side.

 

[Butch65]

Thanks everyone for your help. After a few curses, a couple of beers and some hard to reach wiring, I got everyone hooked up and working.

Now I seem to have a loose wire in my glove box area somewhere, as speakers will cut out completely if I hit a big bump. If I open and slam glove box, speakers come on again. Both speakers cut out, so it has to be something loose in there. So more investigation to come.

Bdrennan

I'd suggest pulling the dash pad off and looking in from the top to troubleshoot this as the wiring harness runs just below the dash and just above the glove box. We just rebuilt our heater/ ac box, and pulled the dash to access everything easier. Best thing we could have done, as we found all kinds of little Gremlins waiting to cause trouble, including poor connections, corroded terminals, bare wires. We could see that a previous owner had work done as the wire trunk was displaced from all of the factory keepers and was just laying on components. Now everything is neatly and securely put back in better than original condition.

BTW - we installed a Retrosound head unit in ours, with cross overs ,amp and sub for the trunk.

Shawn