Power wires for after market radio

[PeterCS]

How should I wire the red (switched) and the yellow wires for my Sony car radio?

thx,

PeterCS

74 2002 Inka

[Mike Self]

The switched wire can be attached to the "ignition on" terminal at the ignition switch, and the "hot all the time" radio lead (for memory, clock etc) can be attached to the corresponding wire also on the ignition switch.  That one is usually a thick red wire that shows +12v all the time.  Check archives for which wire is switched, as the color changed from early to late cars.  Use piggyback terminals but use insulators to make sure the extra bulk of the additional terminals don't short each other.

 

mike

[Stevenc22]

Your 74 may have an unused switch ignition wire by the hood release handle. You can just make a jumper wire from that plug to the radio to give it switched power.

[Mike Self]

56 minutes ago, Stevenc22 said:

Your 74 may have an unused switch ignition wire by the hood release handle.

Steven is absolutely correct.  If it's the wire I'm thinking of, it goes to fuse 11 and is present on 72/3/4 cars and is the feed for the tii's electric fuel pump, unused on carbureted cars.  So long as your radio doen't have a big honking amplifier, that 8 amp fuse at #11 should provide more than enough capacity.

 

mike

[JohnS]

On my tii's I like to have the radio connected to non-switched power because of the Electric fuel pump turning ON when switched power is turned ON.  I know I risk leaving the radio on by mistake and thus draining the battery, but often I like to listen to the radio when the car is parked and turned off.  If it wasn't a tii, I'd go with switched power though. 

[visionaut]

4 hours ago, JohnS said:

On my tii's I like to have the radio connected to non-switched power because of the Electric fuel pump turning ON when switched power is turned ON.  I know I risk leaving the radio on by mistake and thus draining the battery, but often I like to listen to the radio when the car is parked and turned off.  If it wasn't a tii, I'd go with switched power though. 

Like John mentioned, I went with switched-power for my 02 stereo hookup. (For the headunit, the amp is direct-wired to battery)

 

But not for the electric fuel pump issue, which can be resolved via use of a tach-based fuel pump controller (like offered by Revolution Electronics). My main reason was the power draw from my system.

 

I dig sitting parked chilling to tunes too, but made the trade-off since I found rather quickly do it too long and you need a jump... lol

 

Edited August 13, 2022 by visionaut
Left out amp connection..

[JohnS]

I've only got a Blaupunkt radio (with Bluetooth module plugged in)  with two speakers and no extra AMP, so I can sit and listen to tunes for 2 hours without any issues even when charging the iPhone (if listening through Bluetooth, rarely, mostly radio).  I've got a really good high AMP alternator and a fairly new Interstate battery too.  But, the jumper cables are always in the trunk just in case... ?  

Edited August 14, 2022 by JohnS