I am in the midst of wiring a new, digital-display, mp3-file-playing, CD player
into my 78 Midget. It has to live in the glovebox due to it's depth, but
that's another story. The issue here is the wiring (surprise!)
The Midget already had a moderately modern CD player in it, with a Yellow line
(power always on), Red line (power on when key turned to accessory or running)
and Black line (ground). I pulled out the old harness, wired everything to the
new harness and checked with a voltmeter to see that the Yellow and Red lines
did, in fact, have 12v to them (checked against black ground wire). Plugged it
into the CD player. NO POWER. The Jensen tech support guy suggested
disconnecting everything and test the machine by wiring the Red and Yellow
directly to the battery (+) terminal, and the ground directly to the battery
(-) terminal. I got out my jumper cables and did this (looked ridiculous!) The
stereo lit up just fine.
I now thought that maybe my ground wasn't good.
I did all of the below with the car key set to accessory:
I ran a fresh 18 gauge solid wire from the Black wire to the main ground bolt
in the engine compartment. That didn't help.
I left the new ground wire in place and then tried running a fresh 18 gauge
solid cable from the Red line directly to the (+) terminal on the battery. I
left the Yellow wire in place. That didn't help.
I then restored the Red wire and attached the Yellow wire to the new
direct-to-battery line. That didn't help.
I then connected the Yellow AND Red wires to the new direct-to-battery line.
THAT WORKED. Stereo works great, playing through speakers attached to pre-amp
outputs, via a separate amp.
I then restored the Black wire to the original ground. Stereo still works.
So then, what does it all mean? Before I started monkeying around with the
battery, both the Red and Yellow were showing 12 volts against the stereo's
Black ground wire. Is the issue that there not enough amperage to light up the
stereo? The stereo has a 10 amp fast-blow fuse built in, so it must use much
less than that.
I can run the Yellow and Black wires directly to the engine compartment, but
the Red wire MUST go somewhere else. What should I hook it up to?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the way, next week I should get in the mail my NOS British Leyland AM radio,
to fill the hole in my console and look authentic. I plan to hook that one up
too. More fun will be had, no doubt.
Steve
78 Midget
/// unsubscribe/change address requests to majordomo@autox.team.net or try
/// http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive/spridgets
|