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Flynavy · 12-17-2011, 08:23 AM

I would like to replace the old am/fm 8 track in my 74 with a new automotive type that has a cd player and a usb port. After checking around with places like Radio Shack and Best Buy it seems as if new units come with a plug in wire harness that is specific to the auto it will be installed in. Also the installer at Best Buy said that unless my origional speakers have a ground wire run back to the new radio the will not work.

Not being a electronics type guy is there a simple way to change out the radio without getting into all sorts of rewiring of the new radio?

Thanks for the help. Paul.

FreshAir · 12-17-2011, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flynavy

I would like to replace the old am/fm 8 track in my 74 with a new automotive type that has a cd player and a usb port. After checking around with places like Radio Shack and Best Buy it seems as if new units come with a plug in wire harness that is specific to the auto it will be installed in. Also the installer at Best Buy said that unless my origional speakers have a ground wire run back to the new radio the will not work.

Not being a electronics type guy is there a simple way to change out the radio without getting into all sorts of rewiring of the new radio?

Thanks for the help. Paul.

I'm not going to be much help but I had to chuckle because I put the original 8 track stero am fm radio BACK into our '71 Buick convertible. It works pretty good but not with the after market radio CD player. I now understand that I will have to install separate speakers for the 8 track.

Neil

Flynavy · 12-17-2011, 09:33 AM

There's a ton of wires going from the fader off to to speakers. My old radio has lost the left/right balance and I'm not sure if the 8 track works at all. If I can figure out how to relace it my old one can go to someone who could use it.

barts · 12-17-2011, 10:01 AM

If your trailer is wired like our '71, there are two wires going to each speaker, so no worries there....

In the end, a radio/tape deck in an Airstream is a pretty easy install.

You have a +12, ground, four pairs of speaker wires, and an antenna.

In our trailer, the speaker wires seem to have lost any indication of which wire is + and which is -; this matters because it sounds better if the speakers are in phase. If you want to figure this out, have someone watch the speaker while you briefly connect a 1.5 v battery to the two wires; whichever wire makes the speaker cone move out when connected to the + terminal on the battery is the + wire from the speaker. Label the speaker wires when you're done, of course, for
the next person who has to do this :-).

If the stereo has an 'enable' line, connect that to +12 since there's no ignition switch here :-).

- Bart

Flynavy · 12-17-2011, 01:13 PM

The problem is all the new radios I look at come with a wire harness adapter that is plug and play for the specific auto that it is being installed in. What I have now is two plugs which control left and right balance and a set of 8 or 10 wires that are hard wired to the fader switch.

Aage · 12-17-2011, 01:27 PM

I would imagine that the new radio comes with a diagram of the colour coded wires that are connected to the plugs it has on it.

Also, most newer auto radios have their own built-in fader.

If this is true, snip off the player's connectors, bypass the fader, and, using barts means of confirming polarity, just put it all together using those little Marr connectors.

Aviator · 12-17-2011, 02:27 PM

This is a very "do-able" project. Pick the radio you want. (The specific car model setup doesn't matter as you will cut off the plug) The radio will come with a wiring diagram. It is just a matter of matching the same items together.....Left front speaker to left front speaker, etc.

Soyboy · 12-17-2011, 04:39 PM

Crutchfields is your friend when it comes to car stereos etc. They have great customer service/tech help that might aid you in answering your questions.

Mexray · 12-17-2011, 06:28 PM

Funny story...
We ordered a new Class C Moho on a Ford chassis back in 1977...
The 'Stereo' option at the time was an 8-track or Cassette Tape - in my wisdom of the day, I opted for the 8-track, knowing it was the future - right!

Well, I had a box full of old 70's 8-tracks to play in our 'new' 78 AS with it's 'futuristic' 8-track stereo system...

I use our XMradio coupled to the stereo system with an antenna coupler for all the latest tunes...

jimmini · 12-17-2011, 06:42 PM

We just used our old radio and went to SiriusXM satellite radio.

Works real well when Boondocking out where there is NO radio and NO phone service.

Flynavy · 12-20-2011, 05:51 AM

Ordered a new am/fm/cd player from Crutchfield today. They have a harness to deal with the negative ground. The tech said I will not have to run new speaker wires which would be next to impossable. We'll see how it goes. I think I will also install a side mount am antenna while I have things apart. Then if I decide to change out the tv antenna in the future I won't have to deal with that.

moparjohn · 03-26-2012, 11:26 AM

I'm also upgrading to a am/fm/cd streo. I have my brother over, as he is much better than I at these things. We still could not get it going. The radio we took out was an old Kraco, am/fm caasset. It had a 4 way plug on it, with a red, black, green, and grey wire. A ground (white) and the antanna. The front street speaker is blue/black, the rear was green/black, and the curb side were both red/black. They are original AS speakers, not sure about the radio. Can anyone offer insight to getting it hooked up? We can get power/tuner on and change controls. No Sound!! MPJ

samb · 03-26-2012, 03:39 PM

I have hooked up two used Toyota radios (AM, FM, CD, cassette) in my trailers. I could not figure out the multitude of wires and plugs from the radio, so I took the radio to Stereo King. The nice folks there tested the radio and then labeled all the wires for me no charge. After that it was a simple matter to do the hook-up. If you are dealing with a used radio that has an amp make sure to hard wire a ground between the amp and radio. It will not work without this. I found this out the hard way.
Sam

moparjohn · 03-26-2012, 05:50 PM

It's a new radio, I'm sure on the radio end of it. It's the Airstream wires that I'm not sure on. Thanks MPJ

ck21084 · 03-26-2012, 06:05 PM

If you have a telephone toner you can just hook up the wires and a noise will be produced from each wire you test that corresponds to a speaker. These are available from home depot or lowes.

Aage · 03-26-2012, 09:44 PM

Or go back to Bart`s method for checking phase. It`s also a good method to determine which speaker is which. Take a AA cell, and put it across the + and - wires, very briefly: the speaker will click (if the speaker works).

Go one step further, and remove the grill; when the speaker`s cone comes toward you as you make the click, you are touching the + speaker wire to the + terminal of the battery.

It sounds a whole lot more complicated than it is.

Skater · 03-27-2012, 06:03 AM

Your Airstream may have common ground speaker wiring, which the radio isn't expecting and can't deal with. A quick search on Google turned up this (see page 3). The way to tell would be to test for continuity between the ground wires of the speakers.

moparjohn · 03-27-2012, 06:29 PM

OK, for starters the rear curbside is orange, not red. Each speaker has a second (black) wire. In looking behind the Airstream control panel I can see the speaker wires comming (from the roof area) down to behind the storage box under the control panel. I cannot (yet) see where they are connected (or how) to the wires that pluged into the radio. I also have not counted how many black wires come into the plug. I tried to look at Skaters info but could not get onto the page. I know ground is white, power is red (has an inline fuse) that leaves one green and one black on the radio plug/harness (old one) the connection has a plug that has a "Y" pattern on the pegs that carry current. Any more thoughts? It will be at least Friday before I can did in again. MPJ

moparjohn · 03-27-2012, 06:35 PM

Got the page to view, interesting, but still not sure what one I have, float or common. Help! MPJ

SL4BLLT · 03-27-2012, 07:01 PM

FlyNavy,
we just upgraded our system with a Plyes am/fm/cd/weatherband/Sirius that has a port for usb or aux. The original speakers hold the load ok. Basically an in-dash boat radio.

We went with the WB due to all of the bad weather along the East Coast and it has the ability to be set to the NOAA station that is the closest. The aux we will connect our Sirius MP that we use elsewhere too, or we have the option of another XM account if we go full time eventually.

Our old radio's CD player was not working due to leaving a CD in there for five years, so it needed to come out. Guess doing that has a tendency to not make it work.

Pick it up on Amazon as a close out for about $84 down from $235.00 Hopefully I'll remember to take out the CD's when I use it.

We'll keep you posted on both pos and negatives.

I'll ask the techs at ODM, who installed it what was the diagram and hopefully get back to you over the next few days.

SL4BLLT