Ok, I had all intentions of getting to the CB radio today. But apart from getting the radio mount situated, and antenna mount placed, I got hemmed on running the power to the radio. As there is no open spot on the fuse box on the 94.

my only other option is running power straight from the battery, which was my original intent anyway, and is the cleanest source of power.

I was looking for the dust boot cover to run power and ground leads in from the battery, and hook up to the CB wiring, but couldn't find that.

I've checked around FTE but apparently CB in the search is too short of a word and is removed. I have found sites that show how to make a wiring harness from coax, but nothing about how to wire it though the firewall on an OBS f350.

If anyone has a write up for these trucks on getting power to the CB, either from the battery or alternate means, let me know, because right now, I got nothing short of drilling a fresh hole and making a dust boot and RTV seal.

 

In my F150 I got power from an extra fuse slot I had in the cab, if I were you I'd run the wires back to the drain plugs behind the rear seat, than back up the frame and then upto the battery. You could run it under the carpet, under the interior side panels in the floor or against the head liner. Alot of options really.

 

The drain plugs behind the rear seat? I've never seen those, heck, that's the first I've ever heard of them! do you have a picture of that? that's a lot of wire running around though. But if they exist somewhere, it would save cutting a small hole and sealing it up.

 

I was under the impression there were drain holes behind the rear seats just like a standard cab truck... There are drain holes somewhere, have to be.

 

My truck has auxillary wires running through the boot in the steering column, where it passes through the firewall. I just tapped into those wires for several extras - they run right to the driver's side battery. The person just made a small slit in the boot and the rubber just about seals back up. No real issue I have found. You could also buy a "jumper"fuse at one of the part stores that lets you add an auxilary wire to it. I've seen those before too.

 

When I had mine I just tied the power into the AUX power point

 

Best place to add a power wire under the hood is the junction point on the starter relay. It's where EVERYTHING electrical on the truck, except for the starter itself, is powered. Just take the nut off, put a ring terminal on the aux wire and put it on the stud, and reinstall the nut.

Your other option for the interior would be an "add-a-circuit" fuse holder, something like this: Littelfuse Add-A-Circuit Fuseholder for ATO/ATC Fuses 071-580 . Just don't use that lame crimp terminal on the supply wire. Instead, solder the connection and cover with heat-shrink.

 

Edit - duplicate. Weird - I NEVER hit "Submit"; just had it in the preview window when ZoneAlarm crashed my browser. No idea how it got posted :shrug:

 

This is how mine is wired in. I made a harness so i didnt have to slice the factory one.

 

I never thought about that. Do you notice if the wires twist around in there? I could always re-seal with RTV

I've seen it on the TJ forums, people adding an additional fuse block, but would have no idea how to wire it up to add accessories to it. But I'm no electrical genius, but I do have some experience. I don't know where I would mount it though.

Unless they are under the seat somewhere, I haven't seen anything in my supplement or the Chilton, at least for my year. Still looking around on that though.

I have a few of the Fuse holders, not the mini kind though, just regular ATO. I could splice that into my 12V power point, and then couple it with either an interrupter or a toggle switch, so I could shut power off to the radio when the truck is turned off. It's not a bad idea, wiring it to the solenoid relay, but the post with the battery charging wire, might have an unstable power output, especially when there is input to the battery from that location.
I installed it to the battery last time, and always had a clean DX in my Audi. Which is were most people have said to place the wire, it's mainly just how I'm going to wire it there.

Zone alarm is junk IMHO. Avast AV is the best free AV I've used in years, and if you pay for the complete version, it's relatively cheap, like 20$ or something like that.. The free version has never let me down, and stopped quite a few malware from hitting my computer!

I could make a harness to mount to the Power Point, but at the moment only one works, which is the one in my ash tray. I also heard it's not the cleanest source of power, and could cause some interference with the radio.

Another question, when I mounted my power wire in my old Audi, I spliced a length of shielded coax as a relay, and then spliced in the power wires that came with the radio. Is that how most of y'all have done that too?

 

I know I said a few things more than once, my girl just got home, and I had to kind of rush the reply

 

There is an open fuse slot on all our trucks, its for the air bag.

I just ran it in from the front at first, but when I had to repair my box, i ran everything out of the back. its a PITA to make a new lead out of it, not easy.

 

OMG:

I just ran it in from the front at first

but when I had to repair my box

i ran everything out of the back

its a PITA

not easy

 

I've never heard of splicing in the coax cable as a relay. Not really sure what you mean. Mine is just connected to power and then there is coax from the antenna. I'm just running a Lil' Wilson and ran the cord in through the third brake light housing, along the headliner and down to the radio. Once I got it to seal up with a little dremel work, it doesn't even leak! lol

 

Do you have pictures of your coax install? I would like to mount the radio on the headliner, but i would need a spacer of some kind in order for it to stay level. It's that or I'm going to mount it on the dash.

I'll find the link for what I was talking about. The guy used shielded coax for power from the battery. It was something similar I used I believe, but the relay for my Audi was made by a friend of mine who was an electrical engineer. Pity when somebody hit my front end, and totaled the car, I never thought about pulling out that wiring.


EDIT:
http://www.links4jeeps.com/writeups/BasicCB/wiring.php

Yea, not sure exactly how it's supposed to work, and it's for a jeep, but I'd rather user bigger ga wire than coax, especially with distance from the radio to battery and current drop, the last thing I want is causing a fire somewhere.