stereo wiring problem

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Apr 12, 2004 | 11:34 PM

montangrunt

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stereo wiring problem

Here's my problem. I have an older CD-player that I'm trying to put in my 1988 F250. After removing the current cassete player, I found that their are 5 (power) wires leading into it. They are, HOT, ACC, Ground, Main Light Switch, and Instrument light. However, on my wire harness to the CD player, their are only 4 wires, the other four are for the speakers. So how do I hook it in?? Anybody got any ideas?

Apr 13, 2004 | 12:22 AM

acerockola77

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Joined: Apr 2003

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From: WA

Get a harness from Walmart, they're like 5 bucks. The wires on the CD player should correspond to the harness, then it's plug and play from there.

On the back of CD players I have installed there is usually constant, ground, acc and remote turn on for an amp, plus the 8 speaker wires.

Apr 13, 2004 | 12:30 AM

montangrunt

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The old tape deck does not have a wire for an amp. the five wires are, constant, ground, and acc. Then according to the diagram, it also has a wire comming in from the main light switch, and a wire going to the instruments. So I'm still lost because the new CD players simply has four wires, constant, ground, acc, and I'm assuming the other is for the amp.

Apr 13, 2004 | 12:34 AM

MavStallion

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Joined: Jan 2004

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From: Pittsburgh, PA

I have to agree with getting the adaptor to wire the stereo. I've installed car stereos for a long time and using the harness adaptors make it virtually foolproof. I installed a JVC stereo CD player in my '91 and using one, it took only minutes and everything connected just fine. Better to invest the couple of bucks and cut out the guesswork.

Apr 13, 2004 | 07:30 AM

LoosMaster

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Joined: Sep 2003

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From: Louisiana

If your cassette player is fatory it has the lights controlled by the headlight switch. The aftermarket CD players don't have this capabilty and are not used. The constant is hooked to an unswitched power for memory. The acc goes to the switched power, gnd is obvious. The other wire, if it's blue is for a power antenna. If you don't want to hard wire this radio in, I would suggest doing the adapter as mentioned. There is no power wire for the amp, it's signal from the radio is via rca jacks.

Last edited by LoosMaster; Apr 13, 2004 at 07:32 AM. Reason: added info