73 charger modern radio install diy

[euroZ06]

Ok guys, after searching all over the net about how to do this, i didnt find any directions... I pieced together some info, and was able to figure out how to install moder radio instead of the original one.

This is mainly about the wiring, im not going to go into the little things. The radio i installed is usa-630.

U may need voltage test light, additional wires, electrical tape, knife, and whatever tools to get ur radio in the panel.

Ok, so disconnect the battery. Disconnect and dismount the old radio. It should have two plugs, one for speakers (some green ones) and one for power and lighting. The two wires that went to the power plug/lighting are orange and red. On the other side of the plug (coming from the car), there were 4 wires connected. Two orange, red with white stripe and a black one. When u connected the plug the two orange ones would have matched with the orange on the radio and the red and black with red on the radio.

The new radio will come with 3 wires for power. Red is ur main power (acc), black is ground, and in mine case yellow was for always on "hot line" (for radio memory and clock).

Ok, back to original plug that is coming from the car. What i did is pull the red and black wires out of the plug and left two orange ones inside the plug (we wont need them, they were used for original radio lighting). Hopefully u pulled the red and black wire out with the female terminal (we will reuse it later). Go ahead and cut the wires out of the terminal, or try to pull them out. Ok, so at the end of this u should have: two orange wires still in the plug, tucked away (they are not needed), red wire with white stripe, and a black wire.

Connect the new radios red wire with the red wire with white stripe. That is ur main power. Now the yellow wire is hot wire, so u need to find a source that is always going to have electricity coming. A lot of ppl said use the cigar lighter, but i decided not to. Its just too far up the panel, its really hard to work in that space, i dodnt want to splice things there, etc... So what i did is get a test light ($3), and poked around the fuse box (its right there above the pedals). I had two free ports at the very bottom of the fuse box, the left port was the hot port (with ignition off, put the test light into it, the light should come on). The port on the right is accessory port, and its on when ignition is on.

Now, using the female end, that u saved from the red/white and black wire, connect it to ur yellow wire (i had to buy extension wire, cause mine was too short). Now that female end should perfectly fit inside that extra slot in the fuse box). Remember its the left one.

Now go ahead and get that same female end of ur old radio (i took one out of the speaker connection). Connect the black wire (once again, my black wire was too short, so i had to extend it, but i only had yellow wire, so in the pic both are yellow lol). The black wire comming out of the car is not ground! That wire has something to do with turn signals, and some other lights in the dash board. Initially i tried connecting it with the red wire (a la original design), but every time id use my right turn blinker the radio would cut out. So now that u connected the female end to that black wire, insert that into the second extra slot in the fuse box (the one on the right. Box even says "acc").



Connect the radio black wire (ground) to the body, pretty much half the things under the dash lol. I connected it below steering column.

Connect the speakers and reinstal the radio.

[percydaman]

Thanks for this.  I have a 73 charger and looking to do the same install with same radio.  I have to replace all speakers and speaker wire but will certainly be getting to the deck here soon enough.

[MrSnicks]

I'm doing this as well on my 71. Yanked the old crappy 4X6 speakers in the rear deck lid. Had to trim the Pyle 4X10 to get it to fit up front. Luckily with the Pyle speakers they provide fairly long leads. Should reach from the rear to the radio without having to add wire.

I ordered some of these to assist with the connections.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_669PP500/Posi-Products-Car-Stereo-Connectors.html

The USA-230 harness on the radio side has male and female bullet plugs. I'll be snipping those off.  I only want to pull my cluster 1 time so I'm waiting for all the parts to arrive.  Speakers, connectors, solid state voltage limiter and led bulbs.

[percydaman]

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of those bullet plugs.  Not looking forward to pulling that front speaker.

[percydaman]

So, I'm trying to use your info you posted, and am running into some complications.  The original radio wasn't really wired to anything, but it wasn't too hard to find that connector with the 2 orange, 1 red/white and 1 black.  Here's my issues:

The two orange wires are constant to the battery.  Always hot. A continuity check shows this.  Is this intended?  The red/white gets no continuity regardless of whether the ignition is on or not.

The two ports at the bottom of the fuse box appear to be dead as well.  No continuity on either regardless of ignition being on.

It appears I can find a hot wire, but I can't seem to find an ignition location for the yellow (stereo) and black (from car).

[percydaman]

Just to try and make sure the deck would turn on, I temp attached the acc and battery wires from the deck into 2 hot wires from the car.  Couldn't get the deck to turn on, even with turning on the ignition.  I guess I need to somehow check that the deck is working.

[MrSnicks]

Just to try and make sure the deck would turn on, I temp attached the acc and battery wires from the deck into 2 hot wires from the car.  Couldn't get the deck to turn on, even with turning on the ignition.  I guess I need to somehow check that the deck is working.

I don't see where you mentioned you had the ground wire hooked up.  I'm not saying it will or won't make a difference but try grounding it as well.

[percydaman]

Just to try and make sure the deck would turn on, I temp attached the acc and battery wires from the deck into 2 hot wires from the car.  Couldn't get the deck to turn on, even with turning on the ignition.  I guess I need to somehow check that the deck is working.

I don't see where you mentioned you had the ground wire hooked up.  I'm not saying it will or won't make a difference but try grounding it as well.

I did have everything grounded.

[percydaman]

I confirmed with a bench test that the radio deck works.  I just can't for the life of me find an ignition wire anywhere in my car.  I'm really stumped.  I feel like it shouldn't be that hard to find one of these.  Anybody got any ideas?

[MrSnicks]

I believe there are multiple yellow triple plug connectors that take a bullet plug and are ign powered behind the cluster.

Patrick

[percydaman]

I actually think I saw one of those last night, but I couldn't get the continuity tester to light up with the ignition engaged.  Stupid question, but is it possible the engine needs to be running?  I wouldn't think so.