Hi I’m new on this forum and recently bought a nice old p38… yeah it’s slow..2.5 engine with over sized wheels but I really like it and would like to pick someone’s brain about stereo wiring.. any takers?
Depends what system it had originally and what year. There were 4 different stereo systems fitted over the years. Earlier cars had a Clarion head unit and could have had the Low Line system, with a bass speaker in each door and a tweeter at the top of the front doors, a Mid Line system with bass and midrange speakers in the doors and tweeters at the top of the front doors, or the High Line system with the same speakers as the Mid Line but with amps in each door, a sub in the boot and steering wheel control buttons. Later cars had an Alpine head unit and the premium system had a DSP amp in the boot which is notoriously unreliable, fails regularly and will cost a fortune to replace.
If you have the Low or Mid line system, the connectors at the head unit are standard DIN plugs so any aftermarket head unit should just plug straight in. If you have the High line with door amps you either need to make up some attenuators or bypass the amps and fit crossovers instead.
PS, welcome to the forum
Okay I will have another look tomorrow if time allows but need to say someone got in there before me and replaced the original head unit with an aftermarket and clipped the wires from the junction box! On inspection I can see that there is 4 pairs of speaker wires and then a white wire a red wire a black wire and a purple wire any clue as to which is which?
Purple is permanent live, Black is ground, White/Pink is ignition switched live and Red/White is a panel light feed so the backlight comes on when the lights are switched on. The 4 speaker pairs are a colour and a matching colour with a black stripe (which goes to the negative of the speakers), Yellow is left front, Green is left rear, Red is right front and Blue is right rear.
Gilbertd wrote:
Purple is permanent live, Black is ground, White/Pink is ignition switched live and Red/White is a panel light feed so the backlight comes on when the lights are switched on. The 4 speaker pairs are a colour and a matching colour with a black stripe (which goes to the negative of the speakers), Yellow is left front, Green is left rear, Red is right front and Blue is right rear.
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I got a good look at the wires and realised that the unit I bought had been messed with someone had pulled the yellow wire from the block terminal and relocated it so when I plugged it in no contact was being made I relocated the wire to the correct position and yes it all worked perfectly thanks for your help
Aftermarket stereos usually have a yellow and red for power, one permanent and one ignition switched. You often find that they often have inline connectors so you can swap them over as some cars have them wired one way and others the other.