New Radio Install Confusion May 21, 2021, 08:10:12 pm There are 9 wires from old install and 12 wires from new Radio. What the original install shows does not match what I see. I am at a loss. Help!
Re: New Radio Install Confusion Reply #1 – May 21, 2021, 08:23:29 pm most older radio installations tied the left speaker negative leads together , and same for the right. You must now separate them, and run a separate negative lead for each speaker. This is because the newer amplifiers drive both the positive and negative side of each speaker with a separate amplifier. In other words, for four speakers you have in effect eight amplifiers. All else equal, this supplies four times the audio power as before. So, where the speaker negatives are wire-nutted together behind the radio, separate them and connect them directly to the individual speaker outputs. A standard ID test for the speakers, before connecting anything, is to connect a AA cell across the speaker leads, and observe how the cone moves. If it moves out, the battery positive is connected to the speaker positive. If it doesn't move at all, you have the wrong leads for the speaker you are testing.Steve 3 Likes
Re: New Radio Install Confusion Reply #2 – May 21, 2021, 09:47:27 pm Go to Crutchfields web site....they have harnesses, kits, on line help. The newer radios have extra wires for keeping power to the radio for presets, etc. I was able to get a factory plug to plug into the existing harness and then plug into the new radio plug without cutting/splicing wires...(this was on a 2004 frontier) but they may have what you need to make the job a plug and play....that is if someone hasnt already butchered the factory harness plug. 1 Likes
Re: New Radio Install Confusion Reply #3 – May 22, 2021, 02:17:22 am Steve is correct that you'll need to separate the negative speaker wires where they are wire-nutted together and wire them separately to the new radio. The trick is to correctly identify which wire goes to which speaker. Here's a chart for wiring up the radio, less the negative side of the speakers. Pull the inline radio fuse and go ahead and wire up the power (battery and switched), ground and the 4 positive (+) speaker wires.New RadioLD WiringFunctionRedRed12V SwitchedYellowOrange12V BatteryBlackBlackGroundBlueNo ConnectionPower AntennaGreyGreyRight Front (+)WhiteGreenLeft Front (+)PurpleVioletRight Rear (+)GreenBrownLeft Rear (+).OK, now for the hard part... the speaker (-) negatives. Find and remove the wire-nut that connected the blue LD wire and 2 additional wires. Those 2 additional (loose) wires go to the (-) negative side of the left-front and left-rear speakers. Tape off the blue wire. Pick one of the wires that came off of the wire-nut and trace it back. Now if your lucky, they used zip-cord wire for the speakers and you can follow the the zip-cord to see which channel the other half of the zip-cord is wired to. Use the table above to see if it was left-front (white, new radio) or left-rear (green, new radio). If not, then your going to have to follow the wire to see if it goes to the front or back. Either way, if the loose wire goes to the left-front speaker, then connect it to white/black. If it goes to the left-rear speaker then connect it to green/black. Connect the other loose wire to the unused radio wire (white/black or green/black).Follow the same steps for the right-front and right-rear speakers. Find the white LD wire that wired-nutted 2 additional wires. Tape off the white LD wire and trace the 2 additional (loose) wires. Grey/black connects to the right-front speaker (-) negative and purple/black connects to the right-rear speaker (-) negative.Put the radio fuse back in and check the front, back, left, right balance. Hopefully everything works as it should. Good luck, just take your time and you'll do fine.- John 1 Likes
Re: New Radio Install Confusion Reply #4 – May 31, 2021, 10:00:44 pm Quote from: Steve - May 21, 2021, 08:23:29 pmmost older radio installations tied the left speaker negative leads together , and same for the right. You must now separate them, and run a separate negative lead for each speaker. This is because the newer amplifiers drive both the positive and negative side of each speaker with a separate amplifier. In other words, for four speakers you have in effect eight amplifiers. All else equal, this supplies four times the audio power as before. So, where the speaker negatives are wire-nutted together behind the radio, separate them and connect them directly to the individual speaker outputs. A standard ID test for the speakers, before connecting anything, is to connect a AA cell across the speaker leads, and observe how the cone moves. If it moves out, the battery positive is connected to the speaker positive. If it doesn't move at all, you have the wrong leads for the speaker you are testing.Good to know. I have wondered why the speaker's negative leads were separated on newer radios, never realizing that each speaker had two amplifiers. Do bad things happen if all the negatives are grounded or if the leads are reversed on one speaker? Is the smoke inside the wires going to come out? It's very hard to get the smoke back in a wire.Larry
Topic: New Radio Install Confusion (Read 222 times)
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Topic: New Radio Install Confusion (Read 222 times)
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