Car Stereo

[supertubbsy]

Just been a given a very nice second hand car stereo/CD player and speakers, which are about 5 years old I recon, and I am just wondering how to connect it up into my 1969 2 door 1000. I know where im going to put it, its just a case of electronics and wiring to connect it up! I also need wires to connect the consol to the speakers them selves, so anywhere I can get hold if them id be greatful, and what they are called! =D

[polo2k]

most modern stereos now use ISO connectors, they can be identified as 2 chunky 8 pin connectors, one has a clip in the centre of the short edge, the other has a clip offset to the corner on the short edge.

If you google this then you should get the wireing diagram.

if its not these connectors, then post a pic. it could be a manufacturer specific connector, or an OEM one from another car

Most importantly! if its a modern stereo then it will be negative earth, if your car is +ve earth then it will blow the stereo. see which battery terminal is connected to the body. if its the positive terminal then you will need to change it over.

[supertubbsy]

There is a huge lump of wires with a chunky black box coming of the end which is split into two and in one half there are 8 pins, in the other half there is 5. Does that sound right?

How do I go about sorting out the polarity issue? Ive read somewhere about earthing it to the actual CD player consol...

Im not very technically minded either haha!!!

Ben

[bmcecosse]

Does your car have a dynamo? As Polo has mentioned - you MUST make sure the car has been converted to -ve earth. If it has an alternator - it will already be -ve earth.

[polo2k]

Post a pic, it sounds like the one with 8 wires is the speaker outputs (there will be pairs of each colour wire one solid, one with a black stripe.
The other block will likly have
Black - Earth
Red and yellow - Permenant live and switched live (I cant remember which is which but of you get it wrong, it wont store radio stations when off)
Skinny blue - Remote turn on - this goes live when the unit is on (often used for amps)
Pink - Telephone mute, when earthed the sound cuts out.

But post a pic to be sure.

[MarkyB]

Solid yellow is generally for an automatic aerial.

[polo2k]

I forgot about the aerial remote, quite often lower cost units just use the remote wire. The way to check is to look at the thickness of the cable, if its one of the fatter ones, its a power cable.