I am still trying to get all of the quarks out of the truck I have purchased. This is one of the things not done correctly by the previous owner, the stereo install.

The stereo was wired to the cig lighter power and ground, not a good way to go at all.

I am trying to put together my dash back tonight and the stereo is apart of it. If someone could help me out w/where I could find these in the truck that would be great.

I have an 85 4x4 pickup

 

fuse panel for positive and you should have a ground already if not go to something metal the connected to the rest of the truck, a test light will help you out alot and they are inexpensive, and you will use it again and again.

 

I have a multi-meter that works pretty well. I didn't want to start cutting into wires and testing them. All of the stock stereo wiring is gone for the stereo. I have no idea where it went, but I can't find it anywhere. I'm going to have to run some new wires from the ignition area.

 

i ran my aftermarket stereo power wire off of the fuse panel in my old car because of that, see if there are any open places for a fuse you can put in and run it straight off with an adapter, or find a wiring diagram and see what harness the power wire comes from maybe and run a new one if you have to or maybe its still there and just cut. you stereo deck should also have a fuse on the backside to protect from overload so if you do it off the fuse block you will have two safeties in place.

kind of like this get the connector that the fuse slides into and the slide the whole assembly into the fuse block

http://www.greenhybrid.com/share/fil...lFusePanel.jpg

 

that thing is pretty sweet. Only if I had one of those fuse plugs right now and new what it was called. lol....

edit, wrong wires listed

 

I actually think I found the old harness. The colors are not anything mentioned above, but I'm going to poke around w/a multimeter and see if I can't identify the 12v constant and the acc.

 

i am pretty sure the ground will be white with a black strip.. constant prob is black/yellow.. and gray doesnt sound right for the switched.. but you never know.

 

yeah, that site is BS.... I found a red/yellow, white/red and I think red/black that is constant 12v under the steering column. On what I thought was the original deck wiring, there is no constant 12v. I have not checked anything for acc.

 

More findings:

White/black=ground
Red/Yellow=Acc. 12v

The constant 12v... anyone? this is the last wire it need to get this thing done

 

cant just run the hot to the battery side term? Its what the stereo place did with my truck.

 

That is exactly what I just did. There is a nice small hole in the firewall on that side too that I was able to run it in. Worked like a charm so far. I haven't got the stereo hooked up yet though. Still working on the rest of the wiring.

I'm callin it a night. I'll finish up tomorrow and let you guys know how it pans out. I'll post final results and the way I wired things up so someone else will be able to just check this thread and know at least one way to do it.

 

That is how I ended up wiring the radio in my '85. With the remnants of the stock harness all messed up from previous owners, I abandoned it (taped off all the lose wire ends except for the speaker wires) and ran a dedicated power and ground wire up to the battery. This way I have nice clean power for my radio and with constant power, I can run the radio with the engine on or off.

 

if you hooked it up you should only be able to run the radio when the key is in at least the acc position or more. Otherwise, I believe, you hooked up the constant 12v to the 12v acc on the harness, which is the red wire.

 

For those who have installed a stereo and have a 12v constant coming straight from the battery, did you install an inline fuse?

I'm pretty sure there should be one, but what size fuze did you use?

 

Size the fuse for your radio and other devices on that power line. I think I used about 15 amp fuse (in a 6 fuse block) to feed mine, powers the radio, CD changer and CB radio. I also added an electronic noise filter where the wires (power and ground) enter the cab for nice clean power.

 

For those who want to know. For a stereo install, I would recommend using this setup.

Off of the original stereo harness:
White/Black=ground
Green/Red=12v acc

For the 12v Constant, you need to run to the + battery terminal w/a wire and use that.

Hope this makes someone's life a little easier on an install.

Also I would put an inline fuse for the 12v constant. Put it within a foot of the battery terminal. As for the size 4Crawler ^ recommends a 15, but he is running more than just the deck so I would think a 10-15a would be good enough.

 

On my 85 PU I have a clock, I would find a constant there. All you have to do is get a 12v tester with a really sharp end and procede to pierce wires with the Ign off in the area of the radio cavity. You can wait till you find a wire on the radio fuse but I am not sure the radio fuse supports the constant to the radio maybe yes or no.

 

I don't believe there is a constant for the radio. Being an old one that doesn't keep times or have digital settings, it wouldn't have been needed.

There pob is a constant on the clock, but I'm not sure you should be 'stealing' power from that source, which is why I chose to go off the batt. Very easy in this truck and safe.

 

i found a constant in my truck.. could have been run but it is not directly connected to the battery.. maybe off a fuse block near.. i do not believe i used the clock constant either..

 

There are a few that are right under the steering column in the wiring harness. I believe red/white. I didn't want to run off of them because they are dedicated to other things and your deck can definitely draw a few amps and I didn't want to be blowing fuses and stealing power from other things that need it.