Wiring an aftermarket radio

I posted a thread in general automotive but didn't get much out of it, so mods feel free to delete or move either thread

Anyway....I bought a jeep and the previous owner wired the radio straight to the battery with no fuse or anything. I don't know a lot about electronics, but how can I re-do the wiring to where it gets power when I cut the ignition on only? I guess I mean wire it like a stock radio.

 

what year jeep? i can look up factory wires for 12v constant and also switched.. just let me know what year and i should be able to get you wire colors..

 

The jeep is a 93 2 door sport

 

cherokee im guessing?


if so red is constant (should be bigger then most of the other wires)
and blue is switched (same size as most of the wires)
both are in the ignition harness!

 

Awesome, thanks. I'll check it out today.

 

no problem.. let me know how it goes

 

I took the deck out, there is only one harness. Then he has a wire going to ground. From the deck there is a red wire and a yellow wire taped together and spliced with a white wire that goes straight to the battery.

Also, if you know anything about the interior light i'd like to hear it. I checked under the hood for a fuse but nothing for it. There is a fuse block to the left of the steering column but nothing there to tell me which fuses go where. I can take a picture if it'd help. There are some wires going to nothing.

 

if they are together and going striaght to the battery you need to cut loose the red wire and run it to the ignition harness to the blue wire... on the aftermarket radio the yellow wire should be to the battery/ always have power and the red wire should be to the blue in the ignition harness or to the fuse box tap into a fuse that has power when the car is on but not when its off.. basically the red wire on the radio has power when the car is on but no power when the car is off ie makes the radio cut off when the car is off so it does not drain the battery..

 

I looked up under the steering column, there is a rubber tube like thing containing wires that run up te column toward the ignition,horn, etc. I saw one blue wire out of like 20 and no red wire...

 

use the red wire from the aftermarket radio harness and run a wire from there to the blue wire that you found under the dash and just splice into it..

 

I see, from what I understood you said there was a red wire and a blue wire coming from the ignition harness....where I only found a blue wire.

 

The red and yellow wires spliced to the white wire went straight to the battery. The wire in the upper left corner went to ground. And then the others hooked to the factory harness.

 

easiest thing for you to do is where they yellow and red aretogether with the white... take the red wire off of that so that only the yellow is connected to the white.. then run a seperate wire sonnect it to the red and run it to the fuse box and tie it around a fuse that is a 10A fuse or 15A fuse and put the fuse back in the fuse holder... so you have any type of power tester like a meter? as it is now with the red and yellow on that white wire does the radio stay on all the time?

 

I have a meter, but yes in it's current state I can use the radio without having the key in the ignition. Here is a picture of the fuse box under the dash:



I don't know what any of the fuses are for because I don't have the cover for the box. The red wire connected to the 10a fuse goes to nothing. The hacked up white wire in the lower left corner runs up to the headlights I believe.