How to install a player

How to: Install a car cd or tape player.

1-Disconnect the negative battery cable.

2-Carefully remove the original radio without damaging it.

3-Try to buy a wiring harness, if possible. Best Buy, Circuit City and Crutchfield all have excellent assortments of mounting kits and wiring harnesses.

4-If you can get a wiring harness, then the wiring will be a snap. Just follow the instructions, and you’re ready to go.

5-If you can’t get a wiring harness, then follow these basic rules:

5a-check to see how many speakers you have. A car with 4 speakers will generally have 8 wires. Some cars with 4 speakers may only have 6 wires, because some factory radio manufacturers had the dumb idea to use the negative wires as a ground. Most new aftermarket receivers are far more advanced and don’t do this.

5b-after finishing wiring up the speakers, you will notice that there shouldn’t be too many wires left dangling. Find a multi-tester and test for a ground wire. This will read 0 Volts in all positions. Some cars, such as the 90's model Ford Thunderbird have about a dozen different power wires going to the receiver. In order to make sure you have found a valid ground wire, tape up all loose wires, and re-connect the negative battery terminal. Then check all wires one at a time, with the headlights, interior lights, etc. on to make sure that it stays at 12 Volts. When you have found the ground wire. Tape all the wires back up and disconnect the negative battery terminal again.

5c-Now there should only be a few wires left. If you have a power antenna, you will need to follow the above procedure for finding the ground wire, except now you are looking for 12 Volts to read on the multi-tester. Try reading the wires amperage also. Most power antenna wires will only have about .5 amps going through them. If this still doesn’t help, try going to where your power antenna is located, and checking the color of the wiring at the antenna. If there’s a blue wire at the receiver with 12 Volts with little amperage going through it, and a blue wire at the antenna with the same readings, chances are that’s the antenna wire. If you have no power antenna, then skip this, and never try to install a power antenna b/c they’re not worth hassle. They lock up in cold weather and have bad habits of going out every couple of years.

5d-At this point, there should only be a couple of power wires left and possibly a dimmer wire. Check the papers on the new receiver that you are installing and if there’s no dimmer wire, then tape off the factory one.

5e-Now there should, hopefully, only be two wires left. One will be a 12 Volt switched wire, and one will be a 12 Volt constant wire. These are easy to distinguish. Simply hook up the negative terminal on the battery after taping these wires off. Then check, with the key switch turned to the off position, to see which wire has 12 Volts, and that’s your 12 Volt constant wire.

5f-Follow the same directions with the other wire, but this time the wire should have a 12 Volt reading in the accessory position.

6-If there are any external amplifiers you wish to hook up, don’t forget to plug the RCA wires into the receiver at this point to save the hassle of pulling the receiver out again. Also remember to use the power antenna wire, or remote turn-on wire, to the REMOTE switch on the amplifier, if you’re hooking one up.

7-After all wires have been connected and the mounting kit is assembled, then just slid your new radio into the stock hole.

good info.. thumbs up