wiring for factory stereo

[alivenkickin29]

guys -- my TA is an 89 -- it came with the 16 pin stereo which is missing -- i have picked up an older model that has the 12 pin set up -- i have the reverse plugs and the plugs for that stereo -- can this be wired up to the 16 pin wiring easily? Any help is greatly appreciated!

[merc3065]

It sounds like you might have the upgraded stereo system in your car. Is it a single square connector that looks like it should have plugged into the original stereo?

If you can get the pinouts of the 16 pin connector and get the pinouts of the 12pin connector and see which are commons and which are not...

I dont have either diagram on hand, but they might be the same in the 88 service manual, i'll have to check when I get home.

[alivenkickin29]

i dont know -- it has two wiring harnesses but someone cut the plugs -- i dont know what plugs i have -- its an 89 TA -- I can't get anything to work on the two stereos i have - i have a set of plugs that are blue, black and white -- can't get any combo to work -

[merc3065]

the blue, black and white plugs are your speakers FL, FR, RR, RL, power, grounds etc.

Theres also a brown and orange wire that is required to power up the older style radios.

Do you have a slider volume control on your dash panel? If so it's the premium upgraded radio system for sure and im not sure how to proceed if that's the case.

The white and blue connectors are for the speakers and their grounds. The black connector holds your radio ground, 5v power, power antenna relay and something else... (I think, just going by memory)

There is also an orange 12v and brown ground wire that is for the clock that needs to plug into the radio.

I'll take some pictures tonite of all the cabling inside my radio pod, as I have to do the same sort of thing, except mine is an 88. I've also got the hook ups for the UQ7 premium audio setup that I will take pictures of to let you compare.

[alivenkickin29]

that would be great - i have no idea what plug was on the end of these wires -- I'm kinda thinking that this wasn't the 3 plug set up and maybe was one single plug but im not sure -pics would be awesome!

[merc3065]

Ok, here's what i've found out.

The UQ7 (premium audio) connects into the wiring harness identical to a standard radio.

The only difference is the connectors....

I'll show the differences below in some pictures...

The UQ7 amp puts power to the rear sub woofer speakers via a Blue white and Blue black wire.

The UQ7 amp is a 15 pin connection, 5 rows of 3 pins each. Each wire is for the speakers, power, subs and so on.

This is the UQ7 harness at the radio side of things
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/8/web/608000-608999/608785_119_full.jpg

This is the UQ7 amp showing the connectors (picture didn't turn out too well)
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/8/web/608000-608999/608785_121_full.jpg


Below is the standard connectors you will find in a firebird/camaro

There should be a total of 15 wires that connect to a standard OEM radio.

The wires are as follows...
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/8/web/608000-608999/608785_120_full.jpg
(Note: The first colour in a combination wire is the more noticeable of the 2. Ie: Black/Yellow means, Black wire with Yellow stripe)

The hookups for the radio are in the following sequence...
The wires are seperated into their proper quadrants when looking at the back of the radio.
I don't remember which goes to what speaker, but when you have the connectors in place to look at your speakers, you should be able to figure that out easy.

2 prong black connector, wires: Brown (GND), Orange (12V or 5V? always on for clock memory)

Read them left to right.
Blue->White->Black

4 prong blue connector Rear Speakers
Wires:
Lt Blue(Spk+) |Yellow Or Yellow/Black (Spk+)
=============================
Dk Blue(Spk-) |Black/Yellow Or Dk Brown (Spk-)

4 prong white connector Front Speakers
Wires:
Grey Or Grey/Black(Spk+)|Dk Green(Spk+)
=============================
Orange(Spk-) |Lt Green (Spk-)

4 prong black connector radio power etc.
Wires:
Pink (12V Power at key on?)| Yellow (5V?)
=============================
Grey (Dimmer) |Black(GND)

Final cable is the antenna, big black wire with a single pointy metal plug on the end that goes in the round hole on the radio.

The wires in your car may be different colours from the above as I noticed that even with the same model years (2 different 1988s, 1 GTA, 1 T/A). They had different coloured interior wiring for a lot of things including the speakers. I'm guessing this may have had to do with the steering wheel controls and the digital harness in the GTA vs the "analog" dash setup in the T/A, but as a rule of thumb, generally darker wires are the negative while positive are the lighter colours. I would use your multimeter's ohm setting and test the wires to properly trace them for the speaker wires.

The power wires are not too difficult to mess up as they are relatively the same in all the cars that i've worked on and seen.

I don't have ready access to my radio as I have to unbury the car from the stuff around it to get inside.

If this hasn't confused you enough, I'll dig out the car from inside the garage tomorrow night and pull the radio for a better look of the backside of it.

[alivenkickin29]

Hi -- great thanks for all of that -- My codes from the car for the stereo are as follows -- um6 - Radio, AM/FM Stereo, Seek/Scan Auto REv Cass,
UQ1 – Radio Provisions for stereo - what stereo is this? I mean i dont think i have the amp -- because i haven't found one anywhere -- what does the back of your stereo look like - ? Thanks

[merc3065]

The back of the stereo has a 12 pin space for the 3 clip ins. 1 plugin for the black/orange wire for power and an antenna hole.

It also has the little plastic peg that holds up the back end of it in the radio pod.

If you had the UQ7 you'd also have 6 speakers in the car in addition to the amp.

It's just the normal cassette am/fm radio, not the one with the equalizer.

[alivenkickin29]

okay so the orange wire with the black stripe is the power wire? and it plugs into the seperate plug coming out of the back of the stereo right? Then the other 3 plugs the 12 pin space go with the black, blue and white connectors -- maybe thats why i get no power - i didnt know that the orange/black stripe was the power -- i've always thought yellow or red was power -

[merc3065]

Orange is an always on power for the interior wiring like lights and your radio's clock/memory and so on.

[alivenkickin29]

okay -- this is weird -- i got out the volt meter and got the radio to work -- got power with the key on -- goes off when key is off -- i have the right side speakers hooked up -- they play -- left speakers will not -- no output from stereo -- so i guess left channel is fried - but i still have left over wires - the small plug on the back of the radio that has the orange and brown wires -- where do they go? I've tried all the wire combos and nothing -- radio still loses memory and when i hook those wires up to something - if i turn on the lights the radio goes off -- without those hooked up -- if i turn on the lights radio goes off -- can someone take a picture of their wiring harness with all the plugs hooked up -- blue, black and white so that I an see what wires are hooked up to what wires -- ? I'm assuming i have the aftermarket replacement plugs so the colors are a little different.....
Thanks

[alivenkickin29]

the only hot wire i had was a solid yellow wire -- so i had to find on the black plug the 12volt out wire and hook it to the yellow wire -- i have a dark brown that is ground -- so thats how i got the radio to come on - - i probably have all this shit hooked up wrong....damn people for cutting factory plugs!!!!