Factory radio wiring. Mid to late 80s radio in an 81.

[ZiRiu]

Posted this in my Durango seat thread but might as well make a full post here too for some input

I picked up a fancy tape deck from the junkyard on Friday. It has the original connectors but there's a bit of a compatibility issue.

Front of the deck


Labeling


Wiring


My stock 81 AM/FM has the 2 circled connectors which are for the speakers and is powered by a single red wire going into the fuse box in a socket labeled "radio". I did a bit of digging and I think the brown, black, and orange set with the fuse is for the back light and is wired into the headlight switch to dim the radio at night. Power of deduction says the red and blue wires on the right of the fuse must be for power. I might be able to splice in a connector on that and wire it to the fuse box just like my current radio. That only leaves the white wire at the very top which I have no idea what it does.

[letank]

Tom's site is best for electricals

http://oljeep.com/gw/elec/GW_wiring.html

IIRC blue is usually for electric antenna, you guessed right the orange for the illumination dimmer. Could not find or rather see the white... on the schematic

[ZiRiu]

What is the electric antenna? It's not pictured but there's another socket for the same style antenna my old 81 radio uses.

That 84 wiring diagram seems to have the connections I have but it's very hard to read. The blue and red connector is C305 but I can't see where that's marked on there. I'll study it a bit more and see what I come up with. It also looks like in 86 they moved to the more common all-in-one plastic connector so that places this radio from 80 to 85.

[ZiRiu]

Took a shower and looked at the 84/85 and 86 radio diagrams for more info.

I'll make sure the red wire is power and splice that onto a connector the fuse block accepts. The dimmer may be hard to get working so I'll probably take the main power wire for the radio lights and put that on another on/accessory connection so I have lights but just no dimming at night. A manual dimmer in the glovebox is something I could rig together too. I also remembered about radio memory for any stations I might save so that could be what the white or blue wires are for. If I find out which I'll wire that into an always on connection.

[letank]

"electric antenna" : telescopic or retractable, power antenna, those radio are generic, and were installed on different models beside AMC, so the wiring serves a wide array of vehicles.

for the dimmer you can splice from one of the dash lights such as the easy to remove heater control light bulb, or the orange wiere going to the clock, or better the ash tray light.

took a peek at the generic haynes, the blue seems to be for electronic tuning, whatever it means, and a grey for power antenna....

Indeed the memory is a bit of a pain, disconnect the battery and loose your settings, the old push button radios are better for that. But we mostly listen to our playlists from cell phone or memory sticks.

[ZiRiu]

But we mostly listen to our playlists from cell phone or memory sticks.

That's mostly my idea for getting the tape deck. If this one plays nice with a tape deck aux adapter I might not even bother with the memory or lights. Sure I could have gotten a walmart special head unit but that would have meant cutting the dash.

Also the wiring is a mess under my dash from the previous owner. I see a wiring harness replacement in my future.

[csuengr]

Go here.

http://www.classiccarstereos.com/

all the knoby radios you want, with a warranty.

[ZiRiu]

http://www.retrosound.com/product-p/197 ... 1-900c.htm

That's the one I've been looking at from retrosound but still from either website it's $200 vs the $5 junkyard radio. If I were to use this as just an aux jack it would be only power and speaker wires. I'll bookmark your website too for when I do get a new wiring harness and can start fresh but that might come after I put on replacement rear quarter panels and get it painted.

[letank]

http://www.retrosound.com/product-p/197 ... 1-900c.htm

That's the one I've been looking at from retrosound but still from either website it's $200 vs the $5 junkyard radio.

It is a lot of $$ for units that sold for $60 2 years ago. The VW radios were really inexpensive, but the vendors realized that Porsche and Jeeps had the same requirements.... and the prices went up.

The slave speakers or blue-tooth are a solution, but is hard to find a good powerful one. Some have the right 12v voltage input, but now it is the usual usb at 5v. Time to add a modified cigarette lighter insert with the usb port:

I did not buy this nor endorse this specific product, but a good example

http://www.amazon.com/Car-Charger-Power ... r+usb+plug

[ZiRiu]

I saw a build thread a while ago where a guy made a metal cup holder to put between the bucket seats and he left a space on the bottom for a nice little speaker pod. With a fresh harness and having the seats and carpet removed leaves a lot of space and options to mount speaker and route wires.

I can probably mount a cheap din radio under the dash where the AC vents usually go and use the stock radio hole as phone holder. Like I said, options.

[Charles Kline]

That radio is awesome, good find!

I'm glad you're going to get it working.

[ZiRiu]

Did some digging and I think the red, orange, and brown need power while the black is of course a ground. White or blue might be the antenna but the blue is on the same connector as red so maybe that's the always hot memory. I looked at some diagrams on oljeep but they weren't much help because the one diagram with connectors like this was blurry.

I still need to find a safe way to test it but I think I'm on the right track.

Edit: I'm going to strip the connectors from the power wires and see what does what with some alligator clips and a battery. If all goes to planned it should be in the car tomorrow or saturday.

[Cheap Hobby]

The blue is on the same switched power as the unit so antenna will go up and down so keep the free end tapped when power red wire. Can't remember if the orange is dash light dimmer or the memory. I think it is dimmer and brown is memory. Based on the picture the end on the white wire it is a male spade making it a power out may have been for an accessory.

[ZiRiu]

I wouldn't allow myself to have lunch until I got it in so here it is.



After some testing by hooking wires right up to the battery terminals with alligator clips I found the wires I needed. Based on one of my previous pictures I twisted the brown and red wires together and used a heat shrink butt connector to attach them to the red wire w/ fuse block connector from the stock stereo. Next I used a crimp ring terminal on the black ground wire and simply connected it to the radio support just behind radio. Hooked up the speakers and antenna and it works perfectly when the key is at on or acc. Tape deck tried to eat an Aerosmith tape I had to test it but hopefully an aux adapter works. I have no always hot wire attached but it seems to save any stations I put in. Perhaps internal battery?

[Charles Kline]

Raising losses back from the dead, I found the same radio. Did you ever figure out what the lone white wire was for? It’s not shown in any wire diagrams.

[letank]

depending on year of manufacture, the radio wiring started to be standardized, check this chart

https://www.carxtc.com/Jeep-GRAND-WAGON ... 38842.html

says left front speaker (+), on the 89 TSM it says right left speaker

Good luck

[Charles Kline]

Referring to the lone white wire at the top of this photo.

Wiring


My stock 81 AM/FM has the 2 circled connectors which are for the speakers and is powered by a single red wire going into the fuse box in a socket labeled "radio". I did a bit of digging and I think the brown, black, and orange set with the fuse is for the back light and is wired into the headlight switch to dim the radio at night. Power of deduction says the red and blue wires on the right of the fuse must be for power. I might be able to splice in a connector on that and wire it to the fuse box just like my current radio. That only leaves the white wire at the very top which I have no idea what it does.