theesir

I am a few days away from reinstalling the gauge bezel in my '69 after installing a new interior wiring harness.
There is a radio connector on the wiring harness. I am installing a new aftermarket CD stereo. Is it possible for me to wire the stereo to the wires that make up the radio connector in the harness?

If not I will be returning for advice on where to connect things

BHRIG

You could use the wires but why not use the new after-market
radio as a reason to upgrade both the wiring and speakers that are
about 40 years old?
If the original speakers are still in use I'll bet new, more modern, ones will give the system a much better sound.
Good Luck

1nicecorvette

should not be a problem. as long as the wires aren't frade or broken, butt connected up, black taped etc. they are no different then what you deal with in today's cars.

0Willcox Corvette

Yes it is a good time to upgrade some things in the system, but you can use the original connector and just install some male terminals on the aftermarket radio and plug them in.

We do this all the time in our shop and basically we find the factory power connector and then isolate with our multi-meter the power and ground on this connector. Once you find this install some terminals on the supplied radio and plug them in. Once you plug in these wires you can then wrap the connector either with electrical tape or conduit to keep the new terminals from coming in to contact with anything else.

The only issue is the memory wire which will need constant power so you’ll need to run this to the fuse block direct.

Willcox Inc.

RunningMan373

Stock will work fine for switched power and gnd. run a 16 gauge or better to the 'Batt' terminal in the fuse block for constant power.

dstaley

In case it makes the installation easier somehow, you won't need a wire this heavy if it helps you any. You can actually go much smaller, as the constant power wire normally only supports long term memory (clock, radio memory presets, etc) if it has a 1A or so fuse. In most radios there's much less than 10mA (that's 0.010 amperes) so that it won't deplete your battery over extended periods of car disuse.

As small as 26 or 28 AWG would be fine for current draw this low.

theesir

Just for clarification. There is almost nothing in the cab (wiring wise ) that is 40 years old anymore. New wiring harnesses (interior and power window), vacuum hoses, speakers, stereo and all.

I am trying to avoid having to "bubba" the wiring harness and that's why I thought about trying to connect the radio to the connector on the new harness. Its the constant that I guess will be the only issue. Contant power to the radio back in '69 wouldn't have been an issue.
Is there anything else in the cabin that gets constant power? DO I have to run the contant all the way to the fuse box? The lighter maybe?

BHRIG

The clock gets constant power......I believe the wire it is the orange one which connects to the back of the center gauge cluster via a mulit-connector.(if you have a clock)

That connector and wire should be the closest to the new unit.

Hope this helps