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General Information => Troubleshooting => Topic started by: tkisling on May 07, 2010, 12:10:44 am
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Does anyone know the wiring color codes for the radio/speakers?
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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Why doesn't the radio turn on when I connect 12v power and ground?
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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.
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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.
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Try connecting the acc and pos radio wires to the + battery wire and the connect the grounds. If this doesn't work, check you ground. Make sure there is continuity from this wire to the battery -.
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Ok, so for the record here's the Pioneer wiring color code:
Orange: constant 12v+
Red: switched 12v+
Black: ground
Green: left front +
Green/black: left front -
Gray: right front +
Gray/black: right front -
Green/red: left rear +
Black/green: left rear -
Gray/red: right rear +
Black/gray: right rear -
Blue: control output for amp or power antenna
There's a very very good chance that the original "red" wire that used to go to your Rabbit radio is *not* switched on the key... as a test per Rallydiesel to confirm that your deck works you can try:
Pioneer red + Pioneer orange --> your temporary wire to the 12V terminal... it's not fused so be careful!
Pioneer black --> a good ground
If that works you know your deck is fine... you'll then likely need to find a source of switched power for the Pioneer red lead...the power to the rear defroster switch on the dash is usually on the key.... a test light or multimeter will be needed to confirm. You'll also want to confirm constant power to the original Rabbit red lead... if not, could be a blown fuse.
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1. Was the existing am-fm working in the car ?
2. Is the Pioneer new - or used ? (might be dead unit)
The red wire from original plug is switched power, with key on, if fuse or wire is not bad.
The grey/blue is hot when parking lights or headlights are activated.
I checked this with test light before originally posting.
Strange you had just one set of speaker wires though.
My A1's have a preforated section on top of dash like where a speaker "could" go. But neither have/had one there. Both have speakers at each side of dash. Maybe your car came factory with a Mono radio and single center dash speaker, not Stereo radio (red-dot) with 2 or 4 speakers.
Without a harness adapter, I (just me) would have left the plugs untouched and ran my own new wires from scratch. But i'm a stickler in that respect.
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he cut the pig tails off the stock deck and spliced them onto the pioneer. thats the closest thing you could do to buying an adapter kit. i was going to mention cutting the stock harnesses off the stock deck. thats what i did..
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Here are some pics of the wiring situation.
1. Factory radio wires for radio: red, brown, and blue/gray
http://img413.imageshack.us/i/img0829yb.jpg/ (http://img413.imageshack.us/i/img0829yb.jpg/)
2. Factory speaker wires: brown and white/black
http://img404.imageshack.us/i/img0832m.jpg/ (http://img404.imageshack.us/i/img0832m.jpg/)
3. Pioneer radio wires: orange, red, black, and blue
http://img32.imageshack.us/i/img0839r.jpg/ (http://img32.imageshack.us/i/img0839r.jpg/)
I just can't figure out how to get this to work. Anyone have any ideas?
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What happened when you did this:
Pioneer red + Pioneer orange --> your temporary wire to the 12V terminal... it's not fused so be careful!
Pioneer black --> a good ground
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I hooked the radio as you said to the positive battery terminal and the ground of the radio to the negative battery terminal but nothing happened. Note that I only hooked up the orange wire on the pioneer deck to the positive terminal on the battery.
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Note that I only hooked up the orange wire on the pioneer deck to the positive terminal on the battery.
You gotta hook up both the orange and red wires to a source of power... both Rallydiesel and I have suggested you ignore the factory wiring for the moment and just hook both orange and red directly to the battery... to confirm if the deck works or not.
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Can I use the negative battery terminal as a good ground?
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Yes you can ground to the negative battery terminal - while you have both the orange and red wires connected to positive.
Then turn the unit on.
And also, the speaker wire i called tan/black stripe - is actually a dingy old white/black stripe wire in the daylight. I was viewing it with a flashlight at night...ooops.
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I will try this after work and see what happens. Thanks guys :)
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I hooked the orange and red wires on the pioneer deck to the positive battery terminal and the black wire to the negative terminal and nothing happened. No luck :( I think maybe this pioneer radio deck is dead. Kinda strange since it worked in my brother's car before he gave it to me.
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I have seen a few radios that have a fuse on the radio itself. Usually they plug into the back somewhere. Might want to check for that.
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Fuse is a okay
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after you hook power to the red and yellow wires, push the source button and watch it come to life. the orange is for dimming the deck lights when you turn on the dash lights.
Yellow - constant 12v +
Red - switched 12v +
Black - Ground
with those wires hooked up, it will work fine.
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it has now yellow wire. I will try using the SOURCE button to turn it on and see what happens.
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it has now yellow wire. I will try using the SOURCE button to turn it on and see what happens.
What yellow wire?? None of your previous posts or pictures mention a yellow wire... nor does the wiring code from Pioneer??!! ??? ??? ???
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On a hunch, i'm going to guess it was a small typo.
"It has NO yellow wire" ...was probably intended.
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Hooked it up today as per your instructions. No luck :(
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swap out the fuse and try again, I've seen fuses that look alright be bad fuses.
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Well, after trying and trying again and again with the older Pioneer deck, I gave up and trying to install it. So I decided to wait and get a different radio. On a routine trip to Goodwill this weekend, I stumbled upon an older Kenwood AM/FM cassette deck for 9.99. I still had the box and wires and bought it since it was so cheap. I am happy to report that as of now I am blasting tunes from the radio in my Rabbit. :) The deck itself was and older design much like the factory radio. But obviously it had much newer tuning capabilities and a digital display. So I just wanted to thank you guys for dealing with me over the past week or so. :)
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No worries... glad to hear you got 'er running.
I'm a huge music fan as well... can't drive without tunes, right?! ;)
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just so you guys know, pioneer radios DO have a big yellow wire. steady current from the battery. i have 5 different pioneer decks in vehicles and laying in my shop. they all have a big yellow constant power wire. they have to have it to function, it powers the memory, and is the main power supply for the deck. to get a pioneer to function, you gotta have the yellow hooked to the batt +, the black hooked to a ground, and the red hooked to the switched power from the key. if someone wants to tell me again that pioneers have no yellow wire, i will gladly supply you with pictures :) ive installed more pioneer stereos than i will ever be able to count. and they all had to have the yellow wire hooked up. kinda like beating a dead horse here, but there are yellow wires on every semi-modern pioneer made within about the last 12 years..
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There was no yellow wire on MY pioneer radio.
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Ok, so for the record here's the Pioneer wiring color code:
Orange: constant 12v+
Red: switched 12v+
Black: ground
Green: left front +
Green/black: left front -
Gray: right front +
Gray/black: right front -
Green/red: left rear +
Black/green: left rear -
Gray/red: right rear +
Black/gray: right rear -
Blue: control output for amp or power antenna
The web site I got this from (can't find it again now, of course!) said that there are two versions of Pioneer wiring codes... and the DEH-42 is wired using old skool version. I can believe it...it is a cassette deck, after all.... one step away from 8-track!
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It's actually a cd deck. :)
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that was the only other option, the deck was ancient. usually the orange wire hooks to the dash lights, and the yellow is the memory wire. so, i guess we are both right..