87RXsexy7

I'm getting my *** kicked by this stereo. There was already an aftermarket cd player in my car when I bought it, but I wanted to upgrade the whole system so I got a better one. It's an Alpine CDA-117. Right now I have the yellow wire hooked up to the blue/red, and the ground wire grounded. I'm running out of crimpable links so I have those soldered. I have been at this for about 10 hours and cannot get the damn thing to start. Does anyone know what the truly correct hook up for the illumination and the accessory power is?
The unit works - I tested it on the car battery; I may have a short some where, can't be sure; please don't tell me to check the faq cause I already did and I don't think I believe it - I'm driving an 87 and maybe it's different. PLEASE HELP!!!

Akagis_white_comet

iTrader: (4)

Wiring info is readily available through installdr.com. Most stereos these days are picky about how they are wired up and won't work unless the ground is connected first. Even if you follow the wiring guide to the letter, giving it positive power before ground will make it refuse to work. My old VR3 Labs VR500CS-BT was that way, and the new JVC KW-XR810 is too.

Also, the power antenna wire needs to be connected to the factory amp wire or you'll get no sound from the speakers. Can't remember offhand what color it is, but it's in the S4 FSM.

If you're running out of butt connectors, time to visit Lowes or Home Depot's electrical department. It's the exact same stuff that Autozone has, just cheaper. I personally go to Menards because their selection of terminals is better than Lowes and Autozone combined. Our cars have a lot of Tyco Faston connectors, which use the 0.250" Quick Disconnect terminals that I mentioned.

One last tidbit of advice: Go to Harbor Freight and get these two items:
Digital multimeter for $5: http://www.harborfreight.com/7-funct...ter-90899.html
Electrical terminals for $5: http://www.harborfreight.com/150-pie...set-67683.html

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

blue red is the Power for the antenna..wait.I'll get you the info.

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

Here : read this thread
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...+stereo+wiring
I think it is Post #5,that has the wires Respectively.
Good Luck,and don't zap your Nuts!

87RXsexy7

Thanks guys for the advice. Nothing is working though. Misterstyx I am poor and drive an FC, if I drove an FD my stereo would probably work... AWC, installdr.com doesn't cover rx's. I haven't gotten to the speakers yet cause I haven't gotten the thing to power up yet. Anyone? anyone? I'm close to quiting and damn that's just not good.

87RXsexy7

Maybe this helps, I have a multi tester and when I hook up the red to the blue and white (what is probably the accessory, I get a 1 reading. When I test the connection between the blue and red and the yellow I get a mixed reading that goes down to 0.

Akagis_white_comet

iTrader: (4)

When looking at the stereo harness, the white and blue 4-pin connectors are for the speakers, front and rear respectively. That leaves the following wires to worry about for now, and should read under the following conditions:

Batt Power (LtBlue/Red): Always 12v
Ign Power (LtBlue/White): 12-14v with Key On
Illumination (Red/Black): 12v when Gauge Lights are On
Antenna (LtBlue/Yellow): Apply ground here to make antenna raise, remove ground to lower
Amp (White): Apply 12v to turn on factory amps, remove to turn off. You'll hear a click as they turn on and off
Ground: Straight line to chassis. Test by using the cigarette lighter ground.

A lot of stereo issues can be attributed to a bad ground. When I first did the install in my car, I was using one of the bracket's mounting screws as the ground. It worked okay, but was a bit flaky. Switching to the FAQ recommended location (bolt under driver's side center stack access panel, directly beside your right knee) corrected the flakiness.

Might be pointless to ask, but when you said you had soldered several connections, did you mean that you cut off the stock connectors and hardwired the Alpine-specific pigtail to the car? Don't take it the wrong way, but there's a good reason why all of us spend the extra $9 or so on a Scosche connector. Also, leaving the wiring a bit long is usually a good thing for testing everything before mounting the stereo.

Do you have the FSM? If you do have to tear apart the harness, having a wiring diagram is a must, period. And while you're getting the S4 one, get the S5 one as well for the A/C info.

87RXsexy7

Damn. I just read this now, but I got it figured out. All that wiring stuff is right, my battery 12v constant (red/blue) had a short somewhere so I just ran some 12 gauge speaker wire directly from my battery for the power. All is hooked up now and lookin spiffy. Thanks for sticking with me tho man. And yes I ripped out all of the harnessing stuff and soldered everything direct. It was probably not the best choice, but I didn't know what was wrong at the time. It all works now anyway.

Akagis_white_comet

iTrader: (4)

Fortunately, Scosche makes a pigtail just for such occasions, with I believe the proper wire colors too. It is MA01RB and has both 4-pin and the 3-pin connectors. Oddly enough, it doesn't have the single-pin one, but you can use a spade tab for that. If you want to get the proper connector, Tyco Electronics has them in their Faston connectors. Best of all, they'll send you one for free if you request a sample

When I get less lazy, I may redo all the stereo wiring in my car, to eliminate the factory amps and toss in some nice sony xplod speakers