Step by Step story

1. Owned kicker subs in my previous two vehicles, so of course I needed to put them in my "temporary" '97 Four Runner.

2. Went to Wal-Mart to pick up a wiring harness, but didnt not work. It listed the right toyota dates/model on the back, but still no luck. (Vehicle did have keyless entry and security on it, but neither of those options worked when I got it. Maybe this could have changed what the wiring harness from wal-mart plugged into)

3. So tore out the radio, cut the previous wire hook-up that plugged into the back of the stock radio, and attempted to line up the wires with the wiring harness of my new deck. NO LUCK. But we copied down what slots each color went into in case we ran into this problem.

4. Went to Junkyard to get a similar wiring harness hookup on another toyota, didnt work when we attached the wires to our copied down list.

5. So havent had radio, nor subs, since march in my vehicle. Luckily, I bought a crotch rocket so I have some entertainment now when I drive.

Anyone have any solutions for this pathetic problem? I need my radio/deck/subs back because cold weather is coming soon, and my bike doesnt work well in snow like the 4-runner does.

Thanks for any input, but im leaning towards either sticking listening to my Zune while I drive or bringing the vehicle into best buy or something and see what they can do. The only reason why im driving this 4-runner is becasue I sold my GMC truck and this was an extra vehicle my dad never drives.

 

1st thing to do is check the acc fuse or radio fuse to see if you possibly blew it when you cut all the factory wires. did you test the actaul factory wiring after you cut them or did you just attempt to match the aftrmarket radio wires by just guessing what went where? this is a pretty easy way to test all your wires enabling you to them hook up the aftermarket harness to the correct wires.

what you will need:

digital multi meter

crimp caps or electrical tape

you can make your own ground rather than trying to figure which is ground. just put a small ring terminal crimp on the end of the radio ground, and when you go to reinstall the radio put the ring terminal on one of the bolts that mounts the radio to the vehicle and you will have a ground since those bolts go directly into metal.

next take your multi meter and give it a ground ( can usually put the ground lead in the ignition cylinder and it will ground ) then one at a time test all the wires until you get a wire with voltage on it ( should be between 10-12 volts ) that wire is your memory wire that allows the radio to remember its preset functions. this wire will be the yellow one on the aftermarket radio harness

next turn the ignition to acc. obviously you will need to find another ground for the meters probe. once the acc is on test the wires again until you get voltage and that will be your switched power. this will be the red wire on your aftermarket head inot

to match the speaker wires up i will list the factory wire color and then the corresponding aftermarket color


LEFT FRONT:
pink ( + ) purple ( - ) white ( + ) white w/ blk stripe ( -)

RIGHT FRONT
green ( + ) blue ( - ) gray ( + ) gray w/blk stripe ( - )


LEFT REAR
black ( + ) yellow ( -) green ( + ) green w/blk stripe ( -)

RIGHT REAR

red ( + ) white ( -) purple ( + ) purp w/ blk stripe ( -)

you will have two blue wires left over on your aftermarket head unit. one will be solid blue and one will have a stripe on it. the blue with stripe will be your remote wire to get run back to the amp and the solid blue will be your power antenna lead and you will need to hook this into the factory antenna wire. i am not positive of its color but can give you the harness location.

if you take the larger plug of the two and hold it so that the clip is on the top, you will have a row on the bottom with 6 wires in it. counting from left to right go to the # 4 & 5 wires, those two should be your factory antenna so you want to twist those two together with the solid blue wire from your aftermarket deck.

you will also have some left over wires from the aftermarket deck cut them and crimp the end so no wires are exposed, these wires will be orange and possibly pink, then you should have all your stuff working. and if you for some reason have any left from the factory harness do the same




hope this will help you out


good luck

 

Wow thats great. What setting do i use on the multi meter? I already have one.

 

it all depends on your meter honestly, i have two meters and each one has a different type of symbol for the setting. one has just a V with a solid line and a dashed line above it, and on my other one it has the number 20 under ac power i believe, easiest way is to put the terminals to your battery and change the selector until you get a voltage reading from the battery

jason

 

Thanks for the awesome directions. Im going to have my friend, whos a electrical engineer glance at them since he knows tons more than i. If he doesnt have any luck, im going to circuit city.

 

im sure you guys will figure it out, as i said just make sure to check all fuses first

 

Yea i checked the acc fuse and it still has the correct fuse and still is perfect. I went for a drive in it to get a pizza and my blinkers didnt work. strange how they dont work when i took the radio stuff out

 

that is most likely your blown fuse then, find which fuse controls hte blinkers and replace it, after you rewire everythiong corectly. it blew because something was crossed

 

We got it all figured out. I didnt know that older vehicles had a seperate amp for the speakers. I was used to the amp being built in with the radio. So we went back to walmart and bought the wiring harness and put it in the correct spot. Also got the amp and subs hooked up. But the amp I have isnt powerful enough to power both subs so I gotta buy a new one. Haha