I just bought a new CD player and I'm having some problems hooking it up with the existing wires. There is no harness from the truck just bare wires.

The bare wires from the truck are RED, WHITE, and BLACK that were used on the head unit I removed. There is also a GREEN wire that is uncut and was not used before.

The unit I removed was connected RED to RED, and BLACK to the trucks WHITE. It also had a GREEN that connected to the trucks BLACK wire.

The harness for the new CD player has a YELLOW wire for the 12V power source, a RED wire for the 12V ignition, and a BLACK wire to be grounded on the truck somewhere.

This is probably simple and I'm an idiot but I thought I would ask because I blew a fuse in the CD player already, which I have replaced now.

I thank you for any help you can give.

3/22/2010 9:06:01 PM

do you have a multi-meter or test light?

3/22/2010 9:29:24 PM

Yes but i couldn't get it to pick up anything. I haven't used it but once or twice ever so I'm not all that familiar with it.

I do not have a test light

3/22/2010 9:31:28 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kMTHwjy6Z8&feature=related

3/22/2010 9:51:36 PM

^ I have never seen that before until now.

3/22/2010 10:07:37 PM

that does help lol

3/22/2010 10:09:28 PM

I'm sure you know this, you need to find which is +12, switched +12, and ground.
A test light would do that for you. You can pick them up for a few bucks, or I'm sure someone here could let you borrow one (myself included).

3/22/2010 10:21:10 PM

that guy in that buick has a death wish...and it would involve him going sideways into that row of trees.

3/22/2010 10:33:53 PM

the speaker wires should be self explanatory, so all you need is a constant power wire, an ignition power wire, and a ground. all of those wire should be in that area and used with the old radio. this has been said before, just wanted to throw my 1 cent in.

3/22/2010 10:39:07 PM

i've got a haynes manual for that truck somewhere, i'll see if i can dig it out. although, their wiring diagrams/color codes can be worthless.

3/23/2010 2:50:36 AM

^ I have that manual as well and it doesn't have that wiring diagram in there

I am going to work on it right now. Hopefully I can get it working today.

3/23/2010 5:15:50 PM

http://www.yotatech.com

3/23/2010 5:38:56 PM

Get a multimeter and set it to volts. You can use a $7 one from Walmart, you don't need anything nice.

Strip a wire back. place red probe on wire and black probe on known good ground. check for +12V with the car off and battery connected properly (constant power). Check for voltage with the key in the accessory position (ignition switched). Now check for voltage with the key in the ON/RUN position (engine off) and the parking lights on. This is your illumination wire so the radio lighting dims properly or does whatever it's supposed to do when the parking lights are on. If you are testing the wire to see if it's a constant ground, take key out of ignition. Set meter to ohms (some have a "beep" continuity tester) and place one probe on the wire and the other on a known good ground. If there is resistance it is a constant (non switched) ground or a power wire that has a short.

Do that on each wire you are testing, making sure that you don't let any wires accidentally touch something. Most likely the red wire is constant, the white wire could be switched (or it could be illumination), and black is ground.

[Edited on March 23, 2010 at 5:44 PM. Reason : if he made this thread he probably can't read wiring diagrams well, they are confusing at first]

3/23/2010 5:42:25 PM

Yeah I can read the diagrams, but I was running out of daylight Sunday and trying to get it hooked up.

I just finished hooking everything up and replacing the factory speakers.

Success!

3/23/2010 7:20:19 PM