Could someone help me here or point me in the right direction? I need a wiring diagram for a 1976 Electra Limited. I am trying to put in a CD player and I want to know what wires are for what. The original radio was a Am/8 track, no FM radio. Anyone know what to do? The 1976 Buick shop manual doesn't have radio wiring diagrams.
radio wiring When you pull the plug on the back of the original radio, with luck there will be a sticker or stamped letters on the back of the radio telling what each connection is for, e.g., rf for rt frt speaker, 12v for power, etc. If not, it's not all that difficult to figure out. Look under the rear pkg tray, and you can check the colors of the wires for the l & r rear speakers. Check those colors on the radio plug and you've got those figured out. Shouldn't be too difficult to continue from there. You should already have 4 speakers, so find out which is which, locate the power supply and it should be easy. You CD instructions may help a bit here, too. Good luck.
Ok, I checked into it. I have a few more questions for you good people. I have a 1978 Town Car, it had to be re-wired because all speakers were grounded to a common point. I am assuming this 1976 Electra would need the same treatment. 1. When I had the Lincoln "re-wired" I don't know what they did. How would I "re-wire" my Electra 2. I am only seeing one wire coming off each of the rear speakers. I see two wires coming off each of the front speakers, why only 1 in back, but two in front? 3. How come the CD player gets all of that extra noise from the common ground, and the 8-track/AM radio does not?
If I were you, I'd run new wires everywhere. I didn't use one original wire for my CD player. I wired the switched and constant wires to the fuse block, and ran all new speaker wires under the carpet to the trunk. Also ran new wired to the front speakers in the dash. Ground wire speaks for itself. Find a metal part on the dash to ground to. Also, same thing applies to Amp outputs and remote power wires.
speakers If there is only one wire on each rear speaker, then the speakers themselves ground to the body. Since the fronts are mounted to the dash pad (not metal), then they need a ground wire. Are you planning on putting in new speakers in the rear? I assume so, so there's not a problem. Just install them and run the wires behind the rear seat and under the carpet. You might be able to follow the original track of the original wires. It will take some work to get everything up there, but it's not hard, just time consuming. On the front speakers, you may not be able to use anything else than original depending on the mounting, size and location. On many of these cars with pad mounted speakers, you're stuck with those. Still not a problem, since you have 2 wires on each. One is +, the other (common color usually) is - (ground). Ground the - wires from the rears along with the - wires from the fronts to a metal part of the dash. Probably there is a ground wire on the CD unit which could go here too. Find the 12V wire and use that for power. You should be in business.
This has been a big help. I still need to clear a few things. 1. I will re-wire the speakers. A + and a - to each of the new rear speakers. A new + and - to each of the front speakers. Do I have to pull the seats or carpet out? Does the wire run under the footplates on the bottom of the door jams? 2. So I will have to run new wires to the fusebox for a constant and switched power supply? Will I need a new fuse for the constant power, since I am assuming the AM/8track didn't use a constant? 3. I attached a picture of the 3 3/8" speakers up front. (Replacements would be 3 1/2"?) They have an odd magnet shape and I think I would have to do some modification to the mounting bracket which is one screw and then two things you slide into the dashpad. If I can't modify these to fit, would I be able to use the 10ohm speakers with a newer CD player? THANKS FOR THE HELP FRIENDS
radio wiring You shouldn't have to take out the front seats, but you might need to remove the lower rear cushion to get access to the trunk panel and the wiring. If it's a 4 dr, then you'll need to remove the sill plates from both rt doors; if it's a 2dr, take off the pass. sill plate. You should be able to squeeze the wires under the carpet from the rear seat area to the sill plate. You may also need to remove the rt. kick panel to allow the wires to get under the dash. You could probably follow the old rear speaker wires. I'm not sure what you mean by a constant supply. If you mean an always hot line for the memory and clock, then you can either go to the fuse box, or splice into a "hot" line, like the cig. lighter. Whatever is easier. The 12V power (switched) can be spliced into the original 12 v plug as it's already switched power for the original radio. Get a "probe light" at the parts store. Makes the job a lot easier. If you're lucky, then you might find the speakers which will work. Take your old ones and compare. The depth is usually the problem. Without looking at the application, I can only guess. Yes, you could run those speakers, but the sound reproduction wouldn't be the best. If all else fails, you could go with just the rears. Good luck.
Ok guys, I was ablt to mount the 3.5's up front, I had to make my own mounting bracket, but it works. I don't know if the dash will go back on yet, but I hope it will. Do you know if they build mounting kits for the 1976 Gm C-body cars? Or does anyone have any ideas on what to d for one? I preffer not cutting into the car, or breaking any original parts. I want everything to be reversible. The cigar lighter is attached to the original 8track mounting plate. Any ideas?
I mounted a CD in-dash on my 75 LeSabre (same dash layout) and replaced all four speakers. The new front speakers I ran into the same problem as you and had to make my own brackets, but the work great. I also did not want to my dash plates to make the new radio fit, so here's what I did. I found a plastics supplier in town and asked if they had any scrap black plastic sheeting. They did. I took a look and bought a large sheet for $1.00. It's lightly textured on one side and glossy smooth on the other. I took off the "woodgrain" trim panel and removed the original filler. In it's place I cut a new filler from the plastic sheeting (the original filler also has the lighter trim on it so new filler was made for that as well). Once I got the correct filler sized, I cut the opening for the new CD player, slipped in through, secured the radio and VOILA! CD sound in my Convertible !!
Okay, I was getting ready to wire the rear speakers tonight, and I ran into a few snags. One, They run the two original (blue and brown) wires under the carpet, and the second isn't a problem yet, but something I want to know. I posted a picture of what looks like a heatsink in a computer. It was connected to the 8track/AM radio and has 6 wires. Blue, yellow, green, green, yellow, blue, in that order. To give you an idea of where that thing was, the hole in the right of the pic is the ashtray compartment, the metal rod sitcking out is the brace for the original 8track/AM radio and the black item on the left is for the heater hose and vent. My question is, first what is that? And second, with a new CD player, will I need to hook that thing back up, or can I remove it and store it? Thanks a plenty!
radio It is a heatsink. Since it's part of the old system, and you're removing that, you could simply leave it alone or take it out. Doesn't matter, since it won't be connected to anything. If the old speaker wires run under the carpet, and not along the side, you could try to see if the wires will pull through. Often they are attached at points along the way, so they may not pull. The idea is, if they will pull through, then you could attach the new wiring to the old, pull it through from the rear or front, and the old wiring would string the new in the same location. That's probably not going to happen, but you might get lucky. If the old wires don't pull through, the you'll need to string the new wires at the most convenient spot which is along the pass. side, under the sill plates and under the rear seat into the trunk compartment. You can leave the old wires in place since they'll be dead, it won't matter. Since the trunk on these is huge, you have an easy time of hooking up everything under the package tray.
Okay I'll just pull it out and store it. I was wrong when I said the wires run under the carpet. The wires for the rear speakers move from the radio, to the foot area of the front passenger. There is a plastic plate that they run behind and then from there you remove the sill plates on the right side, and they are sitting in there in a plastic tube. Part of them do run under the carpet though, but I think the plastic guide tube is long enough to where I won't have to hunt around the carpet for long. If anyone else is reading this doing the same thing I'm doing, you will need to take out both the rear seat cushion and the rear seat back. It's really easy, you will need a T-50 male star socket for removing the seat belts though.
I have all the speakers wired. Now I am trying to find what the last 4 wires are for. There are two yellows and a gray and black. I am guessing the black is the ground wire. I think gray must be power and the two yellows are for the lighting?
wiring Your instruction sheet for the CD player should've listed all the wire colors and what they're for. If it didn't, you need to find out what's what. You're probably right on the black being ground, but the others???
The car. The deck has a color-coded diagram. It's the Buick wires I'm not sure of. So far the black is ground, the gray is the 12v power, the two yellows, I dont know yet, and I am thinking of using the idea of running a constant 12v wire off of the cigar lighter. Would I need a bigger fuse for that? The old 8track shared a 10amp fuse with the transmission downshift.
According to my 71 manual (which may have NO connection with a 76 wire color) GREY is dash lighting and yellow runs to the fuse box. Have you checked a volt meter on these wires yet?? With the ignition on and off?
radio wiring I thought you were talking about the wiring from the CD player. On the cars, gray is normally instr. lights. You need a probe light (sometimes called a continuity checker). These is a cheap, but indispensible item. It looks like an ice pick with a plastic barrel and a wire lead with an alligator clip. Hook the clip to ground, and use the point to probe the connection. It'll light up when there's juice to it, so it's very easy to check what's what. With everything off, you can see what has power for the CD clock and memory. Turn on the ign. and you see which lead is 12V power. Turn on the lights, and you can see what's the instrument light wire. Very simple and foolproof.
I'll do that right now. I guess I could check for continuity with my multimeter? The only thing that lead me to believe gray would be power is because it is a single wire and I didn't think that the power wire would have two yellows although it could be. Gray did seem like an illogical color for a 12v. I live in Renton, it's pretty big, its in King county.
