My truck was stolen and recovered and the thieves took the radio and much of the interior paneling. I’m finally putting a new radio in it and there is a cut wire hanging next to the radio harness that I would like to identify. The picture below shows the radio harness on the right and the cigarette lighter connecter on the left. What is the red with black stripe wire coming out of the harness? It’s much longer than the wires going to the radio connector, and all 8 wires are present in the radio connector so it doesn’t go to that. Truck is base model with no power anything. Thanks

 

Thieves Suck! Glad you recovered the truck...

But...
What model?
What Year?
Pls see signature.

 

My bad....Truck is a 1995 Pickup Ex-cab 22RE 5spd. No options except A/C

 

I feel like I have seen some like that behind my glovebox and the small one was the light in my glove box! The blue harness looks like heating and air but that’s my best guess! 91’ 4Runner 3vze! And I’m sorry that happen but Karmas a B and they will get theirs! Least you got her back! Good luck

 

This is mostly a guess, but R-B is the color of the backup light +12v circuit. Perhaps your truck came with a separate wire to run an optional rear-camera? (even 1995 sounds a little too early for that).

From the location in the dash, another guess would be the light in the ash-tray. But, not likely to be R-B.

Before you just give up, put your multimeter (or even test light) to ground and try a few switches.

 

I have the same question regarding the factory AM/FM radio Red/Black wire with the separate radio harness connector. I have installed a Boss Bluetooth AM/FM receiver, did not connect the Red/Black wire to the new harness, and the only thing not working is the digital clock memory. I did have an extra blue capped wire (power antenna) and an orange wire coming out of the new Boss receiver that I left unconnected. Ideas?

 

I determined that the mystery red/black wire is the dimmer wire. It comes from the dash light brightness rheostat and outputs a voltage from 0-12v depending on the brightness setting. It's inverted, so maximum brightness is 0v and minimum brightness is 12v. I'm not sure why this wire has its own connector, but your picture showing it also going to the radio gave it away.

In my harness, the blue wire with yellow stripe in the corner of the connector is the always hot wire for the radio memory. See if you have power on that wire with the ignition off. My harness is missing the power antenna wire so I had it unconnected on my old receiver.

 

Power antenna!!! No wait.