Installing aftermarket HU without a harness (91EB)

[metalhed]

Trying to figure out why I keep popping the HU fuse.

I know where all the speaker wires are, they've been left disconnected for right now, but all exposed wires have been taped off with electrical tape.

I've been looking all over for a wire color diagram for a premium sound system, but none of the colors match up with mine.

I have black (ground of course), blue (remote?), yellow with a black stripe (battery i'm guessing?), and a green with a yellow stripe (ignition?)

I'll disconnect the battery cable, put the power cables in their respective places and tape them off, plug the harness into the HU, and reconnect the battery cable.

I've done this multiple times, trying different combinations of wiring, and always blow the fuse. All the speaker wires are wrapped in a thick shield, so those are all out of the way.. There are two other wires hiding away in there that I never used with the other aftermarket HU, so I figured I'd just leave them be again.

Never did an amp bypass.. I'm wiring the HU so the signal goes through the factory amp, to the speakers. I doubt this could be a problem, but maybe it is.

What else could I be overlooking?

 

[Alec]

I would do the amp bypass even if that isn't the problem, though it is a possibility. Sound quality will be much better, and using the stock amp you risk damage to your speakers and HU.

 

[metalhed]

Well I already ran 16ga monster cable to each speaker location, but haven't hooked it up. I neglected to label + and -, so that'll be a different beast altogether once I'm ready to go that route. I'm planning on just using a flashlight and using a battery on the speaker end to determine pos and neg, but I lack the patience to undergo such a task at this moment.

My main priority right now is getting power to the HU.

Gone through 8 fuses so far =P So it's most likely operator error. I just need to figure out what I'm missing.

[edit]

I haven't tried hooking it up without the remote lead.. If I'm not mistaken (and probably am), that blue wire is what sends signal to the stock amp?

 

[Robb]

Why are you guessing power wires? A cheap multimeter would help you out a lot here.

 

[metalhed]

What would I look for as far as using it on the wiring?

there are two 12v wires (battery/ignition) right? One would have power coming from the battery with the key off, and the other would be dead until I turned the key?

Even if the wiring was swapped, I've already done every combination multiple times, so I'm wondering what else could be the problem?

 

[Robb]

You probably also have a "light" hot wire also. It would tell the radio to dim when you cut on the headlights.

I am not saying that you have or anything, but if you swapped a couple of the wrong wires, it is possible that you have shorted something in the HU itself, which is blowing the fuse.

Factory wire colors can be close to impossible to interpret just by color. I have seen black hot wires and blue grounds. I installed an auto-dimming system the other day that used 12v constant red and 12v ignition yellow, exactly opposite of just about every HU wiring colors. A multimeter would help you determine exactly which leads are getting juice at which point and which is a ground.

 

[metalhed]

Hmm.. That may be my next route then.

The deck has a door switch and alarm, but I don't know if I feel like even messing with that.

If it comes down to it, I may just take it to a shop and have them hook it all up for me so I don't have to cut and splice wires that I know nothing about (for the alarm).

Until then, if there's any way to find a wiring diagram for a 91 premium audio system, then I'll just install it without the bells and whistles.. Plus I wouldn't have to buy a multimeter just to install a headunit, you know?

Installdr.com has a diagram for a 95+ system, but there's no link for the 91-94.

Dead Link Removed

You can see what I'm talking about there. Plus the "amplified" wire coloring in the Quick Wiring section doesn't match up with mine.

I would call crutchfield, but they tried to sell me a wiring harness last time, which does me no good.

 

[metalhed]

Just updating this real quick. If you ever need to know the factory wire colors on a 91 EB (behind the HU area anyway), then here they are:

Black - Ground
Red - Ground
Blue - Amplifier Turn On

Light blue w/ red stripe - Dimmer
Orange w/ black stripe - Illumination

Yellow w/ black stripe - 12 Volt Accessory Power
Green w/ yellow stripe - 12 Volt Constant Power

Most people probably know this already, but I couldn't find that information anywhere. Had to take it into a shop and they sorted it all for me.


As it turns out, the HU was bad.. So that's where all my problems were.

Thanks for the help guys.