radio wires question

[rossthefisherman]

I got this radio out of a 91 ford crown victoria car and am trying to wire it in the fishouse but all i got is a bunch of wires. Anybody good at elecronics and color coding? Which wire is power, ground, light, and speakers? Anybody got a idea let me know thanks.....

[PierBridge]

web page

[Jeremy airjer W]

Standard radio for a crown vic. If some of the wires don't match you may have 1 of the 2 radios that ran of an amp.

[rossthefisherman]

airjer it looks right but i got a few questions about what wires to hook up on the positive side of the battery and which ones in the diagram for the negative. can i e-mail you, or can you e-mail me, or if you wanna just put it right here that would be fine if you understand what i'm trying to get at here.

thanks,

ross

[Jeremy airjer W]

No problem. The light green with yellow and the yellow with black should each have there own 15 amp fuse connected to the + side of the battery.

If you want the unit display to be backlit then connect the light blue with red and the orange with black to the positive side of the battery as well, preferably fused I would guess maybe a five amp would be sufficient. on second thought let me check the interior light diagram tomorrow to see if both of these wires have power or if one is power and one is ground. I should be able to post an answer around 3:00pm

The black wire and the red wire will go to ground. Yes I know what your thinking but remeber its a ford radio that came out of a ford vehicle that was designed, engineered and built by ford!

Hope this answered you questions!

[rossthefisherman]

so if i got one fuse holder to prevent from frying the radio again, learned from past experience.... do i wire it in at the battery on the positive side or right befoore the radio on the positive side to prevent from reverse polarity? Is the one wire that is constantly hot for memory cause in the fish house i really don't need that because we are taking the battery and switching them all the time or will it work by just sticking it with the other hot wires.... Thanks... again, ross

[Jeremy airjer W]

I would say the closer you place the fuse to the battery the better.

Most radios need both of those power supplies to work properly. I would suggest wiring them as in the diagram with two fuses protecting two wires.

[The_Duckslayer]

I believe that the LTGRN/YEL wire is hot all of the time to provide the radio with constant battery to maintain the memory for the buttons that you have programmed. If the radio is not going to be connected to the battery at all times then I do not believe that wire is actually necessary for the operation of the radio. Have a good one././Jimbo

[marine_man]

Quote:

---

Is the one wire that is constantly hot for memory cause in the fish house i really don't need that because we are taking the battery and switching them all the time or will it work by just sticking it with the other hot wires.

---

You're going to want to either disconnect or put the hot all the time wire on a switch for when you're away from your fish house... if left long enough the memory circuit in the radio will draw your battery down a long ways...

marine_man

[Whoaru99]

Quote:

---

so if i got one fuse holder to prevent from frying the radio again, learned from past experience.... do i wire it in at the battery on the positive side or right befoore the radio on the positive side to prevent from reverse polarity? Is the one wire that is constantly hot for memory cause in the fish house i really don't need that because we are taking the battery and switching them all the time or will it work by just sticking it with the other hot wires....

Thanks... again, ross

---

It's pretty risky to rely on the fuses to blow for reverse polarity protection.

It's better than nothing, but...

If reverse polarity protection relying on the fuse to blow is the biggest concern, I'd go with a fuse about 1/2 what is recommended and see if it blows under normal operation. If the smaller fuse holds, you have better chance of it blowing before the radio in a reverse polarity situation.

That whole reverse polarity situation is really best satisfied by getting some keyed connectors/plugs of one sort or another. Sure it costs a few bucks, but so does replacing burnt up stuff and the time to mess around with it.

[Jeremy airjer W]

The orange with black (one of the 2 illumination wires) comes out of the dimmer. I cant seem to find where the other ends up?

[rossthefisherman]

so i really won't need that one correct because i have no dimmer? Also thanks for all of your time and effort airjer I think you've been a big help i all ready am a step further then a couple days ago. Hopefully give it a shot tomarrow.

[Jeremy airjer W]

If you don't need to backlight the buttons then you would not need to hook up either. The dimmer just controls the amount of voltage going to the radio illumination circuit. 12 volts the lights would be at there brightest. at 6 volts they would be much less intense.

[rossthefisherman]

Thank you airjer, THanks to you for all your help i know got tunes in the fish house once again til we fry that one lol Now take some time and go catch the big one and don't let him get away.....Happy fishing

ross

Thanks a milion for all your extra time and help

[Jeremy airjer W]

Any time!!