Installing aftermarket radio in 81 rabbit, need wiring help!!!:)

[tkisling]

 Hey guys, just wanted to know if anyone could point me in the right direction for installing a modern aftermarket radio in my 81 rabbit diesel. Is there an adpater harness available for this vehicle? I have searched the web and couldn't find one. If there are no adapter harnesses available, are there factory color codes?

[Rabbit79]

Crutchfield sells stuff like that. I'm not sure if they'd go back to an 81 Rabbit, but it'd only take a minute to check on their website.

[tkisling]

I tried crutchfield, no luck   JC Whitney claims to have a harness to fit my vehicle. But I wonder if they really do since I can't seem to find one somewhere else.

[Rabbit79]

Something to think about if you buy an adaptor is that not only does it have to plug into the car wiring, it has to plug into the new radio as well, so you'd have to make sure both ends of it match up. I looked at the wiring schematic for an 81 and all it shows for the radio is a black wire for power and the usual brown wire for ground. Not a thing on speaker wires.
FWIW whenever I put a stereo in I usually just cut off the factory plugs on the car side and replace them with bullet terminals. With all the different car stereos out there I'm sure there are a bunch of different plug configurations. Whenever I change a stereo now all I have to do is pull the plug out of the stereo and crimp on appropriate bullet terminals to match up to how my car is already set up.

[tkisling]

Does anyone know the wiring color codes for the radio/speakers?

[Baron VonZeppelin]

From an 81 Rabbitruck with front speakers only.

3 wire snap-in plug:
Grey with Blue stripe = illumination/lamp
Red = power supply
Brown = ground

4 wire snap-in plug:
Tan with Black stripe = driver front speaker positive
Brown = ground
Lime Green with Black stripe = passenger front speaker positive
Brown = ground

If you have factory rear speakers, your speaker wire plug(s) might be 2 of the 4 wire plugs joined together, or 2 seperate 4 wire plugs - or an 8 banger.

You should be able to wing it on in from there, with these listed.

Rock On

[Rabbit79]

One other thing, these new radios usually need a constant 12v source for the memory pre-sets and clock and all that stuff. I just ran a wire over from one of my un-used 'H' terminals off the back of the fuse box.

[Rabbit on Roids]

Something to think about if you buy an adaptor is that not only does it have to plug into the car wiring, it has to plug into the new radio as well, so you'd have to make sure both ends of it match up. I looked at the wiring schematic for an 81 and all it shows for the radio is a black wire for power and the usual brown wire for ground. Not a thing on speaker wires.
FWIW whenever I put a stereo in I usually just cut off the factory plugs on the car side and replace them with bullet terminals. With all the different car stereos out there I'm sure there are a bunch of different plug configurations. Whenever I change a stereo now all I have to do is pull the plug out of the stereo and crimp on appropriate bullet terminals to match up to how my car is already set up.

usually you just get an adapter harness that just plugs into the existing factory harness, then you splice the harness from the stereo and the adapter harness together. ive never seen a pre made one that was for a specific vehicle and a specific stereo setup. every adapter harness i get looks pretty much like a wiring harness that comes with a stereo.

[Rabbit79]

Something to think about if you buy an adaptor is that not only does it have to plug into the car wiring, it has to plug into the new radio as well, so you'd have to make sure both ends of it match up. I looked at the wiring schematic for an 81 and all it shows for the radio is a black wire for power and the usual brown wire for ground. Not a thing on speaker wires.
FWIW whenever I put a stereo in I usually just cut off the factory plugs on the car side and replace them with bullet terminals. With all the different car stereos out there I'm sure there are a bunch of different plug configurations. Whenever I change a stereo now all I have to do is pull the plug out of the stereo and crimp on appropriate bullet terminals to match up to how my car is already set up.

usually you just get an adapter harness that just plugs into the existing factory harness, then you splice the harness from the stereo and the adapter harness together. ive never seen a pre made one that was for a specific vehicle and a specific stereo setup. every adapter harness i get looks pretty much like a wiring harness that comes with a stereo.

I didn't know that.... I've never actually used one of those adaptors, but I always figured the whole purpose behind them was to have something that is just 'plug in and play', without any extra wiring work on your own behalf. I guess though if you have to do some splicing and crimping it's easier to do it out of the car than trying to snake your arms up inside the dash. Guess I should keep my mouth shut on stuff I'm not 100% sure on. My apologies.

[Rabbit on Roids]

you splice the adapter harness together with the stereo harness. then install the whole thing into the rig after its one piece. the wires you splice to are sacrificial and can be un plugged from your un touched wiring harness if need be.

[tkisling]

Since I could not purchase a harness adapter, I cut the old factory plug off the radio. It was just an AM/FM radio. It had a 3 wire pug and a two wire plug attached to it. The 3 wire plug had a red, brown, and blue/gray wire. The other plug appeared to got to the front speakers. It had one white/black wire and one brown wire . I hooked up a pioneer deck and nothing happened. Can anyone help me?

[rallydiesel]

You're going to have the remove the all speakers and check continuity of each speaker terminal to the radio harness plug. Then you just splice each vehicle wire to the corresponding new radio harness wire. It's just a matter of spending the time with a multimeter. Pretty easy if you only have two speakers.

[tkisling]

Why doesn't the radio turn on when I connect 12v power and ground?

[Vincent Waldon]

Your Pioneer deck probably has two power wires... one that expects power all the time and one that expects power when the key is "on"...  if you post the model number of your deck we can look it up for ya and confirm.

[tkisling]

Its a Pioneer DEH 42. I hooked a wire directly to the + battery terminal and ran it to the 12v constant orange wire on the radio. I also connected the red ACC wire on the radio to the red VW wire that served as power for the old radio. Then I ran the black ground wire for the radio to the brown wire on the car. Just can't figure out what the deal is with this thing.