'78 Radio Question
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 490
Likes: 7
From: Cincinnati OH
'78 Radio Question
I've been having a nagging problem with my '78 that the radio (elect. AM/FM Cassette) has never remembered the time or presets. I took it out and found a orange and brown harness coming from the back of the radio that was disconnected. My service manual says it connects to the instrument panel wiring harness, but I find no corresponding connector anywhere. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Eric
Eric
Instructor
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 168
Likes: 4
From: central Washington state
Re: '78 Radio Question (Ominous C5)
Ominous;
I can't tell you where the orange and brown wires hook up, but I can tell you that the reason your time and pre-sets get lost each time you turn the key off is that you must have a constant 12-volts to the radio unit that is not switched. By that I mean that it's not controlled by the ignition switch. The only way I know to solve your problem is to get a wiring diagram for your car (and hope that your wiring harness hasn't been so cobbled up that you can stll make some sense of it.) Since you already have the radio out of your car, a temporary solution might be to use a battery charger or a fully charged battery to figure out what wire does what by trial and error, then duplicate that hookup with new wiring from the fuse block. There should be outlets there for battery 12 volts (unswitched, hot all the time) and switched 12 volts. Maybe even accessory 12 volts (power in the accessory position of the ignition). Have fun!
I can't tell you where the orange and brown wires hook up, but I can tell you that the reason your time and pre-sets get lost each time you turn the key off is that you must have a constant 12-volts to the radio unit that is not switched. By that I mean that it's not controlled by the ignition switch. The only way I know to solve your problem is to get a wiring diagram for your car (and hope that your wiring harness hasn't been so cobbled up that you can stll make some sense of it.) Since you already have the radio out of your car, a temporary solution might be to use a battery charger or a fully charged battery to figure out what wire does what by trial and error, then duplicate that hookup with new wiring from the fuse block. There should be outlets there for battery 12 volts (unswitched, hot all the time) and switched 12 volts. Maybe even accessory 12 volts (power in the accessory position of the ignition). Have fun!
Racer
Joined: Sep 1999
Posts: 464
Likes: 0
From: Conyers Georgia
Re: '78 Radio Question (Ominous C5)
Eric, the orange wire in the 2-pin plug is the constant 12v wire. The brown wire is the illumination wire for the radio . Take the orange wire to a constant 12 volt (like the orange wire going to the cig lighter)
