My radio job from hell...

[Rogue_Alphonse]

Now this confuses me a bit. It only works when the key is ON, not turned back to Accessory. It turns off if I use 4lo [pushbutton 4x4]. The speakers in the back doors are not there. I don't know if it ever had them or not, I haven't taken the door panels off to see yet. The front 6x9's are upgraded to 6" Kenwoods. It has an older Pioneer CD player in the dash, which has the worst hackjob of a wiring mess ever to make it work.

I understand it's an ex-police vehicle, but why the very odd hackjob on the radio?

My main points are, did it come factory where the radio shuts off in 4low, and has no speakers in the back doors?

I'll be tracing speaker wires and as many others as I can to make it work the way I want tom but if I have to run new I will. I want it to stay on when it's in 4low, or when the key is turned back... Oh and 4 speakers [and subs! ]

 

[Anime]

The power wires might be hooked up wrong, where both the constant (battery) and regular power (ignition switch) wires to the stereo are instead both wired into switched power, only when the key is on. There's also probably a wire to the 4WD switch that got wired into the stereo wires by mistake. Maybe they used the 4WD switch wire instead of the battery wire.

Hack jobs on stereo wiring are very common, when people are lazy and don't want to seek out and buy a wiring harness.

Even the base stereo had 4 speakers, obviously the radio shouldn't shut off in 4LOW, or for anything else other than being powered off intentionally.

 

[leftoverture]

The power wires might be hooked up wrong, where both the constant (battery) and regular power (ignition switch) wires to the stereo are instead both wired into switched power, only when the key is on. There's also probably a wire to the 4WD switch that got wired into the stereo wires by mistake. Maybe they used the 4WD switch wire instead of the battery wire.

Hack jobs on stereo wiring are very common, when people are lazy and don't want to seek out and buy a wiring harness.

Even the base stereo had 4 speakers, obviously the radio shouldn't shut off in 4LOW, or for anything else other than being powered off intentionally.

I agree. Somebody did a cheap hack job in there.

I never understand why someone would do that. Especially when you can order your head unit from Sonic Electronix and get a free wiring harness. Good luck tracing out the wires.

 

[Jason94sport]

I always do it right. I was annoyed when I went to replace the crap aftermarket one in my X after I bought it. The wires were all cut & spliced. No harness.
I was missing the rear speakers too. Though I'm sure just someone before me dumped them.
Get your wiring colors here.....
http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/vehicles.html

 

[charlescain901]

only time Ive ever done a hack like that was after my radio got stolen in my old turbo coupe. The Theives ripped out an old sony tape player that was bolted into the dash with torx bolts, completely destroying my dash. and wiring. they got the plug the harness plugged into. If theives were smart, they would have opened the glove box and popped the trunk. Amp and speakers worth 10 times the radio were in there.