So....

installed a walmart stereo cd player. naturally the wires didnt go hand in hand with the orginals but i thought i had it figured out. There were two wires that i didnt use, a brown and a red/blk stripe. Put it back together and parking lights/dash lights didnt work. After some research, the brown wire is a ground but i cant figure out the red/blk stripe wire, so i grounded it to. Turn the key on, radio works, turn the lights on, they work and the power to the radio goes out. Where does this wire go to? i have a haynes manual that is just about useless and i've been trying to look at that online manual of the 93 pickup but cant fgigure it out.

 

did your cd player not come with a spec sheet telling you what wire dose what, simple installation there will be remote power, constant power, ground, and your speaker wires, oh and a dash light. you will save yourself a lot of trouble if you use a harness for your truck. that or get a cheap voltage tester, and probably educate yourself a little and you can probably figure it out as for some one telling what that wire dose over the internet and being right...good luck

 

Go ahead. Run it off a cliff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihyj-0f9QI8

 

the radio will work perfect with the lights off, meaning everything "needed" is hooked up, but i think its something to do with the dimmer wire cause shouldnt the radio face "dim" when the lights are turned on?

 

so, just drive without lights, who needs to see?

 

I've had a few aftermarket radios in some of my vehicles and the display on them have never dimmed when the lights are on. Now the factory radio in my wife's tahoe does dim when the lights are on. I've put aftermarket radios in at least 3 vehicles and my golf cart and the all worked fine including amps. You wired something wrong most likely. All you need is switched power, constant power and a ground to make a radio work properly (actually you don't even need the constant power if you don't mind the clock being wrong). That, of course doesn't include 2 wires (+&-) to each speaker.

 

but what changes in the wiring once the lights are turned on? as i said, radio works perfect when the lights are OFF.

 

From the deck you only need the red, yellow, and black wires. you need to find the proper wires for the red and yellow to attach to and either find the ground wire for the truck or just ground it to clean metal.
then hook the speaker wires up and you're done.

check the fuses for any that may have blown.