basic wiring question

ninjajim4 · Post by **ninjajim4** » July 15th, 2005, 3:03 pm

outside of soldering circuit boards and such, my experience with wiring is literally non-existant.

i had my antenna shaved along with the paint n fill, and now my ebay amped antenna has arrived in the mail. apparently i am supposed to wire this into a 12 v connection.

from what i've read, that'd be the blue and white wire in the stereo harness, which, if i'm correct in my interpretation, will only have current flowing when the stereo is on. is that right?

and as far as splicing in, what exactly am i doing here? just snipping that wire and then putting em all together with a wire nut?

thanks for helpin out an electrical noob

Grants · Post by **Grants** » July 15th, 2005, 6:24 pm

From what I gather its an electric antenna that will go up when the radio is on and down when switched off. Is this right and what you want it to do?

If it is, I'm pretty sure the wire you want is usually the BLUE one - where did you get blue and white from? You need to just double check this.

If thats ok, all you need to do is install the antenna, run the wires to the radio unit, plug the coax (big) wire into the socket in the back of the radio, join the power wire from the antenna to the blue (?) wire using a connector or crimp link or solder and tape. (If there is a ground wire coming from the antenna you need to ground this but the ground may be picked up with the antenna mount.)

Hope this helps.

Gro Harlem · Post by **Gro Harlem** » July 15th, 2005, 6:29 pm

you have a fuba antenaa like me right?

if so...wire that amplified wire to the 12v remote turn on wire on your head unit. Its blue with a white stripe usually. I don't know what it is on the factory harness b/c I have an aftermarket head unit with harness kit. Universal color for harness kit is blue though

ninjajim4 · Post by **ninjajim4** » July 15th, 2005, 7:25 pm

oh no, sorry guys.. i should specified that its an internal one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... :EOTB:US:6

it has a lil red led on it, for when its getting currently and amplifying. my intention was to have that only turn on when the radio was on... but i don't have any particular preference, i just had an idea that thats how it ought to be.

i'm inclined to believe both of you that it must be the blue wire... i'll try to find that thread about the blue/white wire

PoisonDrop · Post by **PoisonDrop** » July 15th, 2005, 7:32 pm

I think I wired mine to the power wire for the radio itself (red I think?). I don't have the car to look right now, but the blue wire sounds like a good idea. I think I'd like mine to be on JUST when the radio is on rather than ALL the time...so I may change it...either red or blue-white (blue on the radio harness) will work. Now that I think about it, I think I prefer blue and will change mine when the car gets back from paint...

Grants · Post by **Grants** » July 15th, 2005, 7:38 pm

You can still just do what I said in the previous post. From the photo it looks like the ground wire is connected to the coax plug, so just plug that in and connect the other wire to the blue (?) one.

ninjajim4 · Post by **ninjajim4** » July 24th, 2005, 4:32 pm

well, just a quick update. finally got around to installing that internal antenna. i guess that old thread i saw was correct -- there weren't any solid blue wires on my harness, and the blue/white one is confirmed to go on and off with the radio power.

and hooking it in was really easy! on the white socket part that attaches to the radio, there was room for the new wire to plug right along side the blue white one; lil bit of electric tape to hold the two together and the job was done!

as for quality, for those curious, it's much better than my stock one, even with it mounted under the dash on the passenger side. my stock one tended to get reception fade when going under bridges. i paid thirty bucks for it, but just saw the exact same one for half the price at the local auto store. grrrrr.

all in all an easy mod, and you cant beat the look

thnx for the help, guys

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » July 24th, 2005, 10:01 pm

ninjajim4 wrote:as for quality, for those curious, it's much better than my stock one, even with it mounted under the dash on the passenger side. my stock one tended to get reception fade when going under bridges.

How much better reception would you say? Have you not thought about "hiding" it up behind the rear view mirror. Reason being is that FM works on line of sight. Under dash in passenger side kinda defeats the purpose, don't you think?

ninjajim4 · Post by **ninjajim4** » July 24th, 2005, 11:29 pm

i did consider sticking it up in the headliner, but the main reason i just went with under the dash is simply because of the wires -- i'd need both an antenna cable extension and extra wiring for the amplifier power.

i think i'd have to renege my previous statement tho; the signal does get fuzzy if i'm under a long tunnel or surrounded by big buildings. definitely far from flawless. but still... the clean looks of a shaved antenna along with somewhat better performance. not a bad deal in all...

i'll let the board kno if relocating to higher ground further improves signal quality