aftermarket radio wire question

[Mr. D]

HI to all, well in the warm area of las vegas we are only getting into the mid 30's-40's during the day & at night in the 20's crazy for the desert.

My brother in Denver said it was only 16 during the day burr...

Well I bought an aftermarket stereo that I am installing in ol blu. I pulled the old radio shack radio my Dad put in and the dash doesn't have a big gapping hole so I am going to put the stock radio back in that spot one day.


My question when I am wiring in the new radio the instructions state that the yellow wire needs to be wired to the positive battery. I assume this is so the memories of the stations and the clock display work.

I am a little nervous about having a constant power source feed to the radio at all times. For now I just tied it into my red power wire that goes to the radio fuse. I just use the buttons & reset the station every time I turn the radio on. Maybe, I could put an inline fuse on the yellow constant power source wire.

Any suggestions or comments greatly appreciated.

Laters-Mr. D

[Lowell]

Sounds like you have a similar radio to the one i put in my 65. I got a wal mart brand that plays mp3 discs or regular cds. As for the yellow wire you will be okay as long as you have a fuse in the line. Its only there so your clock and the memory buttons will keep there memory. It draws very little current from the battery.

[Uncle Skip]

The reason you wire one of the wires (yellow) to the constant hot terminal is because you don't want to lose your settings on the radio when you turn it off. It draws almost no amps but it keeps the radio "hot".
The other wire (red) should tie into the regular accessory/ on circuit so you can turn the actual radio on and off.
You need a fuse on both wires.
If you don't use your truck on a regular basis and have a battery cut off like I do, you'll have to live with re-setting your radio every time you go to ride around or cruise.
No matter how small the drain, if you don't drive it regularly, the system will discharge and run down the battery.
Batteries are expensive.
Batteries that discharge regularly go bad quickly.
ERGO....... If the truck sits, disconnect the battery.
U@ss

[dotcentral]

On the 70 I had I spliced the wire for the memory to the cigarette lighter, with a radio shack inline fuseholder. If you don't have a lighter, maybe tap into the dome light?

[MadMaxetc]

I wired the radio, amp and the DSII in my truck all at the same time. So what I did was hooked up 3 relays (Run, Start and Run+Acc) I also put a block in for constant power. This is where I put my dome light and yellow radio wire.

Put fuses on all of them.

If you drive your truck once a month or more you shouldn't have a problem.