Mysterious Yellow wire
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 980
Likes: 202
From: West Hartford CT
Mysterious Yellow wire
Let me set the scenario for you. 73, SBC, MSD Fuel injection,...yada yada,.. I am replacing and old stereo with a modern one when I open up the front of the console, remove the old stereo, carefully label the wires and start the reconnection. Easy enough, then as I'm connecting wires and getting the new pigtail in place I notice an obscure yellow wire disconnected from who knows where and connected to two other wires, the brown wire running to the cigarette lighter, a grey wire disappearing into the front of the tranny tunnel. Its clear it was connected to something but without completely removing the Heat and A/C controls and the center console I'm just guessing. Anybody have any other ideas? I have tested out the stereo hook up all is well. The next thing is to start the car and see if the Heat and A/C switches work. Outside of that it beats me, I don't have power windows so there not coming from that and the E-brake light worked when I put the key into pre-start position.
Any other ideas?
I suspect one of the prior owners spliced an extra wire to something but what I don't know, and if I can get away without pulling the center console I would be happy.
Any other ideas?
I suspect one of the prior owners spliced an extra wire to something but what I don't know, and if I can get away without pulling the center console I would be happy.
Team Owner
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 37,637
Likes: 3,117
From: Crossville TN
A yellow wire being connected to a brown and a gray wire means that one [or more] of those wires was not installed by the factory and has no relevant color notation. Yellow is normally for a 'switched 12vdc' source wire; gray is normally the color for insturment/dash illumination circuits. The cigarette lighter is usually powered by an orange wire [fused, unswitched 12vdc source]...rather than brown.
You will have to determine which...if any...of those wires is a power source wire and how the other two wires are integrated with it. Tough to tell what's what from a narrative description of colored wires from a computer screen. Photos might help.
You will have to determine which...if any...of those wires is a power source wire and how the other two wires are integrated with it. Tough to tell what's what from a narrative description of colored wires from a computer screen. Photos might help.
