Stereo wiring advice

[dave73chally]

I need some suggestions/opinions on my stereo install. The current wiring is hacked and spliced all over take a look below:





I'm thinking of pulling all of the wiring and starting fresh. I'd wire the speakers new, constant power to the batt terminal on the fuse block, switched to the acc on the fuse block. Does this seem like a good plan of attack? Do I need an inline fuse on both the batt and acc wires?

Also, is this one of the tri accessory plugs I've read about? I thought they were under the steering column, this one is by the map light and the yellow wire is not hooked to anything?

[Bullitt-]

Looks like an aftermarket radio harness?......1st yes all power wires should be fused.
 I was transferring a stereo that had been in my 90's Jeep that already I had put an adapter on for that purpose so when I wired my Challenger I obtained a reverse adapter for the same model Jeep & spliced all the necessary speaker and power wires to it before putting in car, now removal & install is  plug & play and all the splicing, soldering, heat shrinking can be done outside the car.   

See it here http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=21379.msg516379#msg516379

[Plum6Pak]

Hey Dave, I just went through some of this and you're plan is all good, I'd replace with new and then you can clean it up and run it how you like. As far as the power, if you have an amp, the amp will need to be hooked to the battery, the stereo should power up from the accessory side, it should have an accessory wire that powers up the amp when you turn on the stereo but not knowing what type of system you have it's difficult to say for sure. if it doesn't have an amp, then you're right to switch the power wire to the accessory side. if it does have an amp you need a 30 amp in line fuse on the battery and again, not knowing what you have it needs a fuse on the accy too. Here's a 70 Challenger wiring diagram that may help you identify the wire you are asking about. Hope that helps.

[Oldschool]

I think GreenFishie does this stuff a lot. Maybe he can stop by and chime in....

[dave73chally]

Thanks guys. I already bought a harness adapter and reverse adapter for quick plug and play. What size inline fuse should I run from the BATT terminal on the fuse block and the ACC terminal on the fuse block?

Also, is it possible to wire a 2 way plug off the single ACC terminal on the fuse block? I also plan to install an aftermarket tachometer and was going to use the ACC terminal for power but will have to find a different route if the stereo takes up this slot.

[Bullitt-]

Should be plenty of power available on the ACC terminal for a standard stereo & a tach....I've used that and the BAT for constant power but found it nicer to plug into other sources in the harness as extra power wires are difficult to route to the fuse box neatly in my experience. 

[HP_Cuda]

Bah aftermarket wires, they will drive you nuts.

At least you should be able to trace the stereo connection (normally an orange three pronged plug) from the diagram already provided.

Then you could use the ACC terminal for the tach.

[dave73chally]

Thanks guys. I attacked a chunk of it after work. That 3 wire plug was aftermarket indeed to power the old headunit. It was spliced into the map light. Nothing is routed or spliced cleanly and there is electrical tape everywhere ahhh ha

[GreenFishie]

Plum smacked it right on the head.

I can't tell you what a bad ... very very bad ... idea it is to run power directly from the battery to the head unit. Always wire from the cabin accessory.

Those pictures bring back some memories though. I learned the hard way by just taking the cutters to the harness in my first "install". When you're 15 years old ... you know it all until you figure out that you don't. After that, whenever someone brought me their car ... it was almost always the same situation and I would tell them to bring me the original plug ... and then slap them on the back of the head.

I would find an original stereo connector for your car and follow the diagram Plum posted. Take everything back to stock. From there you just pick up an adapter on-line or at pretty much any stereo/electronic store or big box chain that sells car stereos.

I would however go with beefier speaker leads.

As for fusing, that's what running off accessory is for. Any head unit you buy today will also come with both an internal fuse and an in-line fuse on the hot wire. About the only thing you'll need to run ... and this is only if you're going with an electronic deck as opposed to an original analog deck ... is a continuous power line. This can also be wired into the cabin fuse box. You'll need it in order to keep your presets, time ... and all that. It would also be a good idea, should you do that, to add an inline fuse to that specific wire. It looks like they took the lazy way and just a continuous line into the most accessible hot wire they could find instead of just taking 2 minutes and some zip ties and doing it right.

Good luck ... because that looked like a mess begging for a fire.