[wsad]

I plan on installing a CD player in my '80 300D, but one of the wires that it needs to be connected to is a 12 volt constant wire that is always hot. Taking out the Becker, I didn't see one, so does anyone know the best way of going about getting a constant lead to the receiver?

 

[wsad]

Unless. . .

Unless the brown wire attaced to the Becker radio with a ring terminal is the constant source? Or is that the ground?

Also, there is one black wire that can't be disconnected from the receiver (I don't think). Anyone know what it is? It has a bullet connection in the wire a few inches from the radio.

(I have the radio with the two knobs)

 

[heckflosse]

Can't help you with the Becker wiring but the best place to run a constant positive will...

Can't help you with the Becker wiring but the best place to run a constant positive will be from the hazzard switch.

 

[wsad]

Opened up the switch

That's a good suggestion. It's easy to access and close by. I found that the red wire with a white stripe is the hot wire. But how do you think I should go about taking a lead from it? Would cutting the wire, and then connecting both of it's ends with the receiver's wire with a wire nut work? Or is that a bad technique? I don't know a lot about electricity!

 

[pondscum007]

i think that should work alright, i have done tons of similar connections in my computer w...

i think that should work alright, i have done tons of similar connections in my computer with no problems... just make sure you put heat shrink tubing, tape, or a twisty-wire splice thing on it, you dont want to have bare wire exposed anywhere

also, where are you running your wires? ill be doign the same thing soon (once i get enough money for the head unit ;p ) and have been poking around at the console... is there a way to pop the whole thing off?

 

[wsad]

Here's what I'm doing

I purchase a wiring "harness" from Crutchfield.com for my 1980 300D. I believe it is the exact same one for your car as well. If you go there and click on "What fits my car," you should find it. It costs $15.

But anyway, it contains one double-ended plug that you put between the connection at the cigar lighter. It has a red (switched power) and black (ground) wire coming off that you use to attach to the head.

The rest of the "harness" is actually composed of four speaker harnesses, one for each speaker. In my Becker radio there are only two speaker plugs, because they go to the fader and then to the four speakers, but I think I remember hearing someone else say that they have four plugs in their radio, so I think you might be able to use all of these harnesses. I, however, am going to rewire all of my speakers directly and not use the harnesses (except for the red and black one).

How I'm going to run the speaker wire, I don't know. If you can use all of the speaker harnesses, then you won't have to run any wires except for the constant wire. I met an electrician and he said the best way to get a constant would be to just put the end of a wire between the end of a fuse and it's holder (one that has constant power when the car is off).

If you want to do it without the harness, then you can just do the constant, the antenna jack & antenna wire, take the red switched power from the cigar lighter, the ground from the back of your current radio, and just speaker wire to the new head unit.

Oh, and also, if you're blue remote/antenna wire on your new head is a female quick connect, and the antenna wire from the car is also female, you need to get a double male connector (if you can find one), or just wire-nut them together I guess.

Sorry for the long response!

 

[Gvigorus]

Trying to install a new radio in my 240D right now. Before i came across this post, i was going to run constant 12 V off of the clock in the cluster board. What do you guys think of that instead of hazard switch?!

 

[Erin]

I ran mine off my clock as well. It was easily accessible and I've never had any trouble with it.

 

[jdc1244]

I’m old school - I used to install radios for a few extra bucks back in college – we ran live wires from the battery. That’s what I did with my 300 D.