I have a 73 F250, took out the old stereo and am in the process of installing a new cd player. Everything was going great 'til I tried it, seems there's a problem with the wiring, the stereo won't turn on. I'm pretty confused as to how this could have happened, I was careful about it.

1. The cb now doesn't work, could I have lost a ground wire somewhere without realizing it? Or did the cb just finally die?

2. New stereo has 3 wires that bother me, dimmer, ignition and battery. I think ignition and battery are in the right places, but have nothing to connect the dimmer to, should I leave it loose (and taped up) or add it to one of the other connections?

3. It seems there also is a speaker in the top of the dash, should that be connected too or is it okay to leave off? Where would I connect it to if I did decide to use it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm at a loss as to what to try now.

 

Did u check the fuse? The speaker on the dash is probly toast. I wouldn't hook it up. You can leave the dimmer wire taped up. It's to dim the radio when you dim your lights but I'm not sure you have a dimmer wire available on a 73. Doubt the CB died. It's probly tied in with your radio wiring.

 

Only thing I would add is the Batt is a const 12 volt, the ign is 12v tied to the key...this can be continuous 12v, just remember to shut the radio off!

 

Does the CB share power with the stereo? Pretty unlikely that it would go on the blink at the same time you decide to work with the truck's wiring.

Tape up the dimmer wire and leave it.

Double check the wiring on the ignition and battery wires. If you have a multimeter, use it to check for voltage. Also, find out from your owners manual or other resource which fuse protects the radio. Blowing a fuse is a pretty common thing to do when installing audio components, unless you remembered to disconnect the battery first.

If none of the above work, verify the radio is good, either by installing it in another vehicle (just the power and ground) or use alligator clips to test it off your battery. See if you at least get lights on the front panel. The radio being bad is a long shot, but it does happen.

 

I checked the fuses today, replaced two that looked bad (yes, I put the same kinds back in), stereo still doesn't work. Also, I did remember to disconnect the battery before doing anything else.

The cb does share power with the stereo as far as I can tell looking at all the wires. It's been acting up lately though, I thought it was close to dying before I even started this project, which was why I was wondering about that.

I couldn't find anything to connect the dimmer wire to in the truck, I thought it might be okay to just tape it up, but wanted to double-check anyways, it didn't say anywhere if I could or not.

How would I go about testing it with clips off the battery? "Battery" wire to positive and ground to the frame?

I was careful about reconnecting the same wires I disconnected from the old stereo, so I'm fairly certain I'm not missing any. Is there a possibility that one of those had a short or something in it that made it stop working after moving them around a bit? If so, maybe I should look into that problem, though I'm not sure about what kind of wires to use to replace them. I don't have an owner's manual for the truck, just a Chilton's which is no help in the electrical dept.

I will look to see if we have a multimeter tomorrow so I have daylight to work in, I have a tiny garage and the truck won't fit inside with any room to spare. (Plus I'm storing the neighbor's motorcycle temporarily in there while she finishes moving).

Thank you all for your help.

Christina

 

OK...let's ignore the CB for the moment.

Do you have a multimeter? If not, and you're planning on doing more 12V stuff with your rig, you might want to invest in an inexpensive one. They come in really handy.

Was your old radio still working? If you don't have a multimeter, you cantemporarily connect the old radio to the battery/ignition/ground leads to confirm that you're getting power.

And yes, if you need to test straight from the battery, you'd tie the battery and ignition wires from the radio, to the positive side of the battery. Tie the ground wire from the radio to some good ground (battery negative is probably OK for this purpose).

Let me know what happens...