Ive got alot of experience installing radios and systems in cars but this car has me whooped lol. Ive got a 73 maverick im trying to switch out to a cd player. I need to know what wires are what? Can anyone help me out? Thanks in advance, Mike
If you have the standard AM radio, should only be 4 wires going to it. There are two plugs with two wires each. One plug has two black wires, that goes to the speaker in the dash. The other plug has a black wire and a blue wire with a red stripe. The black wire is the switched power for the radio. The blue wire is for the dash lights, and won't be reused. You will have to run a wire for constant 12V to keep the memory in your modern radio. The black wire goes to the switched 12 volts so the radio turns on and off with the key obviously. You will have to install speakers and run wires to them.
You may want to use the blue dimmer/dash light wire if your cd player has that feature so that the display lights wont be so bright while driving at night. Also there is no ground wire in the stock setup (it grounds through the strap that goes to the back of the radio to support it) so one will need to be added which isnt that big of a deal.
i thought i seen 2 plugs..1 with the 2 black wires as you said and i thought the 2nd had 4 wires. Ill relook over it. Thanks for the help fella's
It's possible that the speaker plug had 4 wires if the car had a stereo radio with the kickpanel speakers....
Never seen one with 4 wires on one plug, but I have never seen a factory "stereo" car either. Worst comes to worst just use a test light and see which wire turns on and off with the key. I didn't bother with the ground wire on my radio, the factory support bracket goes to a good body ground, and my radio (a Pioneer AM/FM/CD) grounds just fine through that. Never seen one with the option to hook the original dash lights to it.
I figured it all out and got it hooked up. The 2nd plug had 2 wires that joined up and ran into the radio as one. Thanks for the help guys! Now i just need to make me something where it sits on the bucket tray better.
I tried to use my original radio mount and got in a hurry and cut the hole to big lol.....so now i have to buy another for it to look decent and sit right.
