I have a 1970 custom 'lark with the factory radio, that i'm switching for a kenwood system, the question is haw do i wire it? the car had one speaker in the front (middle of the dash) the only wires I see are the yellow from the instrument pannel a black and green wire (connected to the original speaker) and the anntena cable. what am I missing? I know there will need to be a wire supplying power from the battery and a ground (which I'll mount to the fire wall) please help
If I were you I would run a new 12v wire from the battery for the stereo (constant power)Make sure it is fused at the Batt. side, check the yellow for 12v switched and if so then use it for that on the radio. As for the speaker wires, I'd run all new wires anyway cause the new radio will put out more power and those 30 yr old wires won't cut it (if it came with them ) That's how I did it with my new Pioneer and it sounds great with aftermarket speakers. HTH
did you mean strait from the batt. to a 12v then a new fuse then to the 12v wire and finally to the new radio?
If you have a factory clock, that will have a constant 12V that you can tap into. The yellow wire should be the switched 12V and the black the ground. Definelty run new speaker wire to new speakers, as that factory speaker is a 10 ohm unit.
Yeah, Run a wire directly from the +batt post with a fuse right at the battery... I'd double check the gauge of wire for the factory clock before using (I can't remeber but I think there only like 16ga. or so). For a newer Radio (espicially if it's a high power unit) I would use at least 12ga. constant power wire. Which you would have to run. And like 14ga. for the speaker wires. The clock wire will be enough to run the radio.... but I wouldn't trust 30yr old wireing to run anything more than it was intended for. (clocks don't pull that much amperage) An easy way to tell if the clock wire is "big" enough is to look at the factory fuse rating... If it is the same at the radio then it should be fine... if smaller than the radios fuse rating then don't use it. Fuse's are desinged to protedt the Wireing from overloading and the size of the fuse is an indication of how much the wire can handle. I don't mind useing the yellow wire since all it really does is turn on the unit. My personal opinion is that 30yr old wireing and new equipment just isn't a good mix. HTH
What are you going to do for speakers?? I can imagine 6x9's in the rear but what about the front?? If your not looking to cut up your panels, check out TimR web site... He's a member here. Last I knew he had instructions and good pics for modifying your exitsing usless front speaker to house two 3 1/2's or 4in speakers. I did it to mine.... the sound is real good and you can't tell where they are. Found a link (hope it works): http://members.shaw.ca/ritc1/speaker.html
