Please help - basic wiring questions?

[MusangMama]

Thanks for your time. My daughter bought a used 1999 Ford Mustang V6 basic and it still had the factory stereo system. She's just trying to get a little sound for now (old radio didn't work said it was a loose wire).

I have a first - most important question please. The car battery is unplugged and I stripped the tips of the wires in the car. Do I need to insulate them in any way before she starts the car? She will probably have to go to work and run errands before I can get her radio installed. Thank you!

And the details I am trying to figure out ...

She bought a really basic Pyle, and an install kit (actually 3 before she got the right one, supposedly).

The new radio and the wiring harnesses are easy to deal with - 4 color-coded wires for power/ground/antenna/12V and 8 color-coded wiring harness for the speakers. Fits in the radio like a charm.

The problem is the wires from under the dash. I started with the most likely, and have now cut through them all (I hope I didn't make a mistake) and I'm not finding what I expected to find.

3 of them are bundles of very colorful wires that all appear to be for speakers (purple, gray, etc.). One has 7 wires and what looks like a tuft, one has 8 wires and a loose few wires that looks like a stripped 9th wire, and the other is still attached to the harness and has 7 wires but a blank space in the harness that looks like it should have an 8th wire.

One is a bundle of thicker copper wires all twisted together and within a single insulator sheath. One is a bundle of very thin copper wires, all twisted around a core that looks like hollow plastic and all enclosed in a single insulator sheath.

All 5 of the above described wires were hooked into her old radio. The top three by 3 wiring harnesses. and the bottom two by other plug-in-type connectors.

I'm at a loss. I have no idea how to figure out what wires to hook up where, and I'm especially concerned with the power, ground, etc.

Please, I know this is a really basic question, but can anyone take a moment to help? I'm also more concerned about safety, and not messing up anything in the car than anything. This car was all she could afford, and we stay busy fixing stuff. I spent all day hopefully getting the engine cooling working. I worked on my car when I was her age, but it's been a while. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

Thanks very much.

Click to read more...

 

[gstokes]

The factory uses a floating-ground speaker system, you need a floating-ground adapter to use aftermarket head unit..

FLOATING GROUND ADAPTER | by Scosche

 

[MusangMama]

Thank you, that begins to make some sense. I'm still looking at too many wires, but if I can read some details I might be able to figure it out.

Can I go back and ask that really dumb basic question .... what do I need to do with the wires since I've exposed them all? Do I need to tape everything off until we can get the adapter and get it installed? That's not a problem, but is it ok if I just tape each bundle up as it is?

If I mess up her electrical system, I doubt we'll have a way to fix it, and she needs the car.

Thanks so much!

 

[gstokes]

use a multimeter or test light and find out which wire or wires have power with key on or off, tape em up..

bad idea to leave hot wires dangling around..

the others you can wrap as bundle and tape up..

 

[MusangMama]

Thanks very much. That's what I thought.

Not sure if I have testing stuff available - but I will tape them all off in the meantime before reconnecting the battery.

I thought that's what I needed to do - I just wanted to make sure that was good enough.

Sorry for the dumb questions - I just didn't want to make an even dumber mistake.

Thanks again. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[fasfocus00 5,000+ posts]

This so awesome. The blind leading the blind.

 

[MusangMama]

This so awesome. The blind leading the blind.

You know, I don't know anyone around here. That may be so. I realized after I signed up that this probably wasn't the place to come for help with my situation, since y'all are all very into your stereos and all, and that's really cool.

I'm just trying to help a good kid who's having to pay her own way have some tunes in her car. Without shorting out her electrical system or causing other problems in the process. I moved here not long ago, don't know anyone to ask for help, my husband got laid off 6 weeks ago and went to look for work in another state. Leaving me trying to keep things together. With very few tools, since he took most of them with him.

I spent today replacing her thermostat - twice. But at least that got done. I guess it inspired her to want to have a radio working too.

Forums are usually great. Someone is usually willing to help, and if the advice turns out to be bad, someone else will usually correct them.

Just trying to do the best I can. But like I said, I guess this probably isn't the right place for something like this, and I do apologize. Thanks anyway.

 

[Robert1211]

I was also dealing with the same problem all the answers are pretty helpful thank's lot for everyone who gave such useful answers in this thread you really solved my problem, this forum is amazing, I am really looking forward to this Forum to solve my other issues, really it's a great community out here.

Robert From--- WestCables deals Cat5e, Cat6 Network | Ethernet Cable with accessories

 

[fasfocus00 5,000+ posts]

You know, I don't know anyone around here. That may be so. I realized after I signed up that this probably wasn't the place to come for help with my situation, since y'all are all very into your stereos and all, and that's really cool.
I'm just trying to help a good kid who's having to pay her own way have some tunes in her car. Without shorting out her electrical system or causing other problems in the process. I moved here not long ago, don't know anyone to ask for help, my husband got laid off 6 weeks ago and went to look for work in another state. Leaving me trying to keep things together. With very few tools, since he took most of them with him.

I spent today replacing her thermostat - twice. But at least that got done. I guess it inspired her to want to have a radio working too.

Forums are usually great. Someone is usually willing to help, and if the advice turns out to be bad, someone else will usually correct them.

Just trying to do the best I can. But like I said, I guess this probably isn't the right place for something like this, and I do apologize. Thanks anyway.

nope, you clearly are misunderstanding the statement of "the blind leading the blind". the guy gstokes doesn't know what he's talking about. he's a noob and think that he knows everything. I'm an installer, I'm certified, I've been doing it for almost 20 years. I run into people like you that just need some help or guidance but for some unexplained reason some joker comes along like gstokes that can ruin someones experience. since I'm in this business to make money I always want to see someone have a good experience no matter what, even if it's just a radio install. I like keeping my customers coming back for the experience and the outcome. the "floating ground" that gstokes is trying to get you to buy an adapter for hasn't been used since the late 80s with less than a handful of vehicles in the very early 90s. your car is just a harness and you match up the colors. your car has a separate location for the CD player? you have 3 plugs coming out of the factory radio, 2 plugs are for the radio itself and the 3rd goes to the cd player. than theres the antenna plug. what car harness did you get?

 

[MusangMama]

Thank you, fasfocus. I appreciate the follow-up.

And I want to apologize. Since you didn't comment beyond that, I thought it might be a matter of implying that the advice I had been given might not be good, but with nothing else offered than that, I didn't know what to do next. I stayed up all night watching wiring videos and reading about it.

The problem is that I'm dealing with cut ends from the car wiring. And I'm not so sure anymore that it was a factory job, though why someone would have bothered to reinstall such a crappy stereo and speakers makes no real sense. Although I suppose that's what we're doing in it's place. She's been listening to music from her phone, so this is a big step up for her, and she's paying her own way on Subway wages so it's all she can afford right now.

Yep, separate CD player, and she was planning to keep the one that came with it.

I think the wiring thing I have came with the radio, actually. It plugs easily into the back, and there are charts for the wire colors in the radio owner's manual. The other end is loose wires. I hoped I could match up the wires I needed from the car and maybe heat shrink it together. I used to do jewelry soldering, but was used to a desk and ideal conditions, not working in a car install, and I'm not at all sure I can solder the wires. I've worked with heat shrink plenty though, if only I can find my gun. I did find the multi-meter though. (The garage is hubby's and I leave it to him but he's out of state for a while.)

The problem is, what's coming from the car is a mess, as I described in the first post. I have 24 wires of a size that match the wiring harness, and two wires that are contained in a cable the size of co-ax.

If I can figure out how, I'll post a pic in a sec.

I'm also concerned because we're talking about being wired into the car's electrical system, and I don't want to fry anything or even worse, cause a fire. We're on our own here, and can't get by without her car, and there is no way to afford major repairs. She has to go to work in three hours, so in the meantime I'm probably going to see if (hopefully!) it's safe to make sure the wires are all flush-cut with insulation and tape them off. I only stripped about 1/4 inch to get a look at what I was dealing with, because there's not a lot of extra.

And that's where we are. I just want it first of all to be safe, and trying to figure out where to go from here. Most installation information online involves just plugging in what's already there, not dealing with loose wires coming from the car.

Anyway, thanks for the follow-up. If nothing else, I greatly appreciate the explanation of where you were coming from, and I understand your frustration with those kinds of situations.

 

[MusangMama]

Here's the wires from the car:

And the one to show better:

 

[fasfocus00 5,000+ posts]

thanks for the pics, the harness that is still there with the 2 red t-taps is the harness that handles power, you can reuse that one than just run speaker wire from the radio to each door speaker. you can use the other harness adapter to match colors for ignition, 12v, ground, I have the reverse harness that you would need if you wanted to remake the factory plugs but you'll also need a wiring diagram too. I personally feel that just running speaker wire from the radio directly to each door would be the simplest for you. as you can see gstokes has no idea what he's talking about and that I was not attacking you as you're just looking to be pointed in the right direction.

 

[CSCStang]

I looked this up if you want to just match wire colors:

+12v constant: (always has power) Light green/Purple

+12v switched: (needs the key on for power) Black/Pink

Radio ground wire: Black

Radio Illumination Dimmer Wire: Light blue/Red

Radio antenna trigger wire: Orange/Light blue

Left Front Speaker (+) Orange/Light green

Left Front Speaker (-) Light blue/White

Right Front Speaker (+) White/Light green

Right Front Speaker (-) Green/Orange

Left Rear Sreaker (+) Gray/Light Blue

Left Rear Speaker (-) Tan/Yellow

Right Rear Speaker (+) Orange/Red

Right Rear Speaker (-) Brown/Pink

 

[MusangMama]

Thanks, I didn't want to not acknowledge the help here. I haven't had a chance to work on it yet as she's been working a lot of shifts the past few days and helping friends take care of some things that came up, and I haven't had a chance to look into it at all.

She does have a friend of a friend who may be able to take a look at it and point us in the right direction if I don't have enough info here and in the booklet to do it. It might be a few more days before we can schedule anything. You wouldn't think a couple of 18-year-olds on summer break wouldn't be so busy, but they both have jobs and the friend is trying to get a business off the ground (baking, not stereos, LOL).

Thanks. I may need to ask more, but I did want to say thanks very much for the help.