I just bought a new (used) am-fm cd player for my 1982 280zx. It has the usual wires- red, black, yellow, and speaker wires. My problem is that I don't know where to hook them up. I cut off the stock wiring jacks from the stock radio, as the one made by Scosche didn't fit. I know red is power and black is ground. When I wired the yellow together with the red, I got the radio panel to light up, but no sound. I can't figure out which factory wires are for the speakers. There isn't 4 wires for the front speakers and 4 wires for the rear speakers. Did the factory have an external amplifier, possibly mounted under the front seat? I hope I haven't been too vague or confusing. Thanks a lot.

 

Z_Guy, some old radios ran a system where the two front speakers shared the same negative wire, but different positive wires. The same went for the rear. Most modern head units won't work with this setup. I find the best way to get around this is to put in new wires for the speakers, that way you eliminate the possibility of the speakers cutting out, and you can upgrade the wire guage (usually factory speaker wires are crap). If you are hell bent on using the stock wires, get a 1.5 volt battery and using the wires you suspect are the speaker wires connect the battery to the wires. when you have a matching pair, you'll get static from the corrosponding speaker.

Kolts

Perth - Western Australia

 

I'll try the battery idea. Here's the deal. there are two wiring harnesses. One went into the radio, the other into the cassette. I think the cassette had the harness with the red power lead. The remaining wires in that harness are: Black, Green/Yellow, Green, Blue. The other harness has: Yellow/Black, White, Green/White, Yellow/Red, Blue/Black, Blue/Red. Madhatter helped me out some, but I have some colors that he didn't mention. Also, does anyone know where to connect the yellow wire from the radio? i think that holds the memory when the car is shut off. Thanks.

 

If I remember correctly, the red one is for switched power , and the yellow one is the batter lead. I think the yellow one needs to be fused.

Kolts

Perth - Western Australia