Hi,

I'm sandyinbc's son. My dad has semi-permanently loaned me his 1965 valiant custom 100. I drive it 20 miles to and from work each day and will be using it as my snowboard car for the winter. Because of my lifestyle I figured it was time for new springs so i've ordered the jc whitney 5 leaf set. I also decided the car needed some music.

I've never installed a stereo before so I need to know where some wires go. On the bottom of the cd deck it has the following:

Yellow (battery)
Orange (Illumination)
red (accessory)

So the yellow goes to the fuse box for power. do the orange and red go with the yellow?

Thanks
Alex

Yellow, yes, 12 volt+.

Orange: sometimes this connects to the dimmer switch. Many newer cars have a lead already wired for the stereo. I think it might be a variable ground wire. You might want to double check that with the manufacturer. This could ruin your display if hooked up backwords, so don't guess.

Red, Accessory: this is a remote wire to activate an amp, cd player or other item. You do not want to connect it to 12+. It should not actually power the accessory device, but a relay for that device. Most amps have the relay built in and have a connection called "remote" with will allow the stereo to turn it off and on.

A critical part of stereo wiring that is often done incorrectly is ohms. The Ohms symbol looks like a horseshoe. Many factory speakers are rated at 8 Ohms, but it can vary quite a bid depending on the manufactures whim. Most aftermarket stereos require 4 Ohms minimum or they will overheat and burn out very quickly. Wiring a 4 Ohm stereo to an 8 Ohm speaker system may result in having to turn the radio all the way up to get what should be half volume at 4 Ohm.

With two 8 Ohm speakers there are 3 possible Ohm values depending on your wiring diagram:

4 ohm, 1 channel, parallel wiring.
8 ohm, 2 channel, 1 speaker per channel.
16 ohm, 1 channel, serial wiring.

With four speakers or speakers of different ohm values, the combinations become rapidly more complex.

Matching the speakers to the stereo produces better quality sound than creative wiring, but they don't have to cost a fortune to sound really good.

All my advice is very general and based on some assumptions that arn't always true. I suggest you talk to a professional if you're in a hurry, or read up and get an understanding of what you're doing that's more complete than my posted example. I hate seeing people make mistakes when help is available.

If you can give me specific Ohm values and more info about what you are planning I'll gladly offer some more specific advice.

With this knowledge, my friends and I were able to build "booming systems" that would rattle the china 6 blocks away. (back in the day ) I've helped guys with 10 times as much invested, because they couldn't understand why my cheapo system sounded better (and louder). I've replaced serveral expensive stereos for people who didn't want to take my advice the first time.

I gave up the hobby a few years back and currently listen to the single speaker AM/FM factory piece in my truck.

What!!!! I said 'IN MY TRUCK!!' (joke about hearing loss )

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1980 Aspen 225 super six

Slant6Ram, usually blue is the wire that you connect to turn on amps, remote power antenna, etc.

Red should go to key on +12v, so the deck turns off when you turn the key off, and so you can't turn the deck on when the key is off. Orange isn't a variable ground, its just a +12v input. Like you said, meant to go to the dashboard light switch so when you turn on the dash lights the lights on the deck come on as well.

The wires are usually labeld one by one with a small tag on them. If all else fails and you can't find the instruction manual, the companies website usually has it there or just google your model number and I'm sure you'll come up with something.

S6Ram--sorry...I have to disagree...

I have installed 20+ aftermarket CD players. Universal color coding for aftermarket stereo wires:

Yellow: 12volts (hot at all times)
Red: Ignition switched 12 volts (on when key is in "run" or accessory" position)
Black: Ground
Blue: Power antenna or remote wire--(remote wire is used to turn an amplifier on or off when the radio is turned on or off)
Blue w/ white tracer: second remote wire--not all decks have this second remote wire
Orange: Illumination--not all decks will have this wire either, many new ones are just 'on' all the time because of LED displays.

Then there will be white, white w/ black tracer, grey, grey w/ black tracer, green, green w/ black tracer, and purple and purple w/ black (or white) tracer. These 8 wires are the speaker wires for front and rear right and left. All wires with tracers are the speaker negative wires. I forget left/right, but white and grey should be the front speakers, and green and purple will be the rear speakers.


Run the yellow wire to a hot lead in the fuse box or straight to the battery. Use an inline fuse (It probably already has one).

Run the red wire to the original radio's ignition-switched power wire, or run it to the fused side of the "radio" fuse in your fuse box.

Run the black wire to any bolt behind the dash that is going through metal. You should be able to use the location the original ground strap for the radio was bolted in.

Run the orange wire to you dash lighting circuit. Your original radio wires may or may not have this wire already. If so, use it. If not, find the dash lighting circuit wire behind your instrument cluster and tap into it, you can also tap into this circuit at the fuse box.

If you do not have a power antenna and are not running an amp, insulate the ends of the blue wires with heat shrink and tuck them away. If you are running an amp, connect the blue wire (one of them in the case your deck has two) to the "remote" terminal on the amp.

You will be best off running new speaker wires, as the originals are not meant to carry the wattage new decks put out (between 12 watts and 40 watts nominal, depending on the deck), but you can connect the wires from the new deck to the original speaker wiring if you wish...but you need to find which wire is speaker positive and which is speaker negative. If your deck is putting out over 15 watts nominal, your speakers will sound like crap with the original wiring.

The only 6 ohm and 8 ohm speakers I see are in home theaters & stereos. I have never run across an automotive speaker that was not 4 ohms (excepting subwoofers...which are aftermarket) But I will concede I have not worked on anything older than a '72...so speakers with higher ohm rating may have been used in older cars/trucks...

-S/6

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The "Silver Bullet"
87 Ram D150

Super6, we have perfect timing

I have seen some odd 3 and 6 ohm oem coil speakers, ford I think they were.

I concede that it has been a few years since I've done radio wiring and that I was guessing on the color coding. Thanks for correcting me.

The 8 Ohm speaker was for an easy to follow example, not a rule. I'm sure you can agree that Ohm matching is pretty important and it was the concept that I was hoping to offer not model specific information.

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1980 Aspen 225 super six

The ohm rating of speakers is indeed very important. Running speakers with the incorrect rating can blow a head unit or amp in a hurry. I have just never run into anything but 4 ohm car stereo speakrs, so it is usually not of any concern.

If an amplifier & subwoofer will be run in this setup--the ohm rating of both the amp ans sub or subs is extremely important. How multiple subs are wired in affects things greatly, and for long amplifier life, the amp must be stable to at least 1 ohm LESS than the resistance from the subs. This is more critical the lower the ohm rating of the subs get.

EG: Single sub, 4 ohm. Amp should be 3 ohm stable---can run a 4 ohm stable amp, but the life of the amp will not be as great (may or may not go out in a few years)

Twin subs, 4 ohms each. Wired in series (8 ohms total) the amp should be 7 ohm stable (closest rating you will find is 6 ohm stable). Wired in parallel (2 ohms total resistance) the amp needs to be 1 ohm stable. I have had three separate brands of amps that were 2 ohm stable blow up in approx 1 years time while running two 4-ohm subs in parallel (2 ohms total for the speakers)

I am currently running a zero-ohm stable amp on the same two subs wired in parallel, and have been for nearly 5 years.

Sooooo....S6Rams explanation on ohms should definitely be taken into consideration.

-S/6

Okay, I think that answered my questions. Thanks for your help. Hopefully I'll be cruisin with tunes in no time.

Alex

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Hey, does anyone know wher I can buy a new am/fm/tape deck that has the old two post style controls? I hate these new stupid LED display decks or the decks that a bunch of buttons that do a gazillion things based on the combination of buttons you push. I want the old volume/fader and tuner/balance KNOBS, like came form the factory for 40 years.

ANyone have a suggestion? Thanks!

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Reed check around your local car audio stores or good guys/circuit city/bestbuy/walmart. Or even your local car parts store

There are still a few models around in the style that you describe.

Check some of the ads in magazines like Muscle Car Review, Mopar Performance, Hemmings, etc. There are several companies making shaft-type radios with classic faces and modern electronics.

I snagged one of the last Kenwood shaft-style head units as an Xmas present last year, right as they were being discontinued (it was the floor-model). There may be a few still laying around, collecting dust. It sounds GREAT, BTW...

VM