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I put the faceplate on the stereo in my 87 f150. Next morning...dead battery. Looky like the previous owner(s) wired it up incorrectly. It's been fine for weeks with the
faceplate off. So, I'm guessing they used a wire behind the dash that is live all the time. (is that supposed to be that way??).
Is there a HOW-TO on connecting into the in-dash wiring to do this properly? Or just probe the wires under the dash to see which ones are providing 12V switched
on the key when in the ACC or ON position and not live when in the OFF position.
Easy way would be look at your year model vehicle radio wiring diagram. Look at the radio wiring diagram and buy the connectors that will plug into your vehicle existing harness
just took the unit out of the dash. they used a metra style connector into the 2 wiring harnesses inside the dash and connected the stereo wires up color for color to the leads on these harness...
humm....so why is the stereo drawing power when the truck is KOEO position? what I noticed on the stereo is that when the key is in the OFF position, if you hit the stereo ON button, it comes right on. shouldn't you have to be in ACC mode or KEY ON position for this?
Well it may not be color for color. With the radio wiring diagram if it not printed on radio and cannot locate a manual makes it a little harder. But the pigtail from radio makes it fool proof or almost fool proof to wire it to the Ford adapter connector.
That must be an antique JVC if you could not locate a manual for it.
this is how it is setup (with each wire coming from the stereo to the matching color in the harness). So, does this leave the ignition switch being problematic?
They may have both the memory wire and the power wire wired to the same constant power feed?
Common to wire them that way, as some people want to be able to use the radio with the key off
OK, update,,, the RED wire from the stereo IGNITION wire was connected to a 2 -> 1 splice connector. One side incoming to this splice connector was a 12V lead that was hot ALL THE TIME. The other side on the truck side came from the truck radio wiring harness. I removed the 12V lead that was hot all the time and just connected the red from the stereo to the red from the wiring harness and the stereo ONLY comes on now if the key is in the ON position. The stereo won't come on now in with the key in the OFF position. Bonus!!
Now, trying to figure out which wire from the truck wiring harness should be providing 12V in ACC position and determine which wire on the stereo that wire should be connected to.
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