Wiring a new radio into a 123...
 

I had posted this as a question in another thread; however, the subject of the thread had changed somewhat from the original question, so I figured it'd be best to post it again.

What wire is what in the stock harness(es)? Which one is switched, which one's memory, and which one's ground? The antenna wire's a given (although I don't know which wire works the power antenna motor, through the stock switch), and I think I know which wires are for the speakers...although I don't know which wire is for left and right, and don't know which speaker wire is hot and which is ground. Also, which (front or rear on the "new" radio) speaker wires should be wired into the wires going to the fade control? Lastly, can the fader handle the bit of juice this radio'll put out without melting? I don't want a hole where the fader is, but I don't especially want the fader to stay there "just to fill the hole" either...if running 30x4 watts of juice through the fader's not at a critical level, I'd just as soon go that route. :)

ALso, this isn't quite Benz related...I was thinking about putting a Sanyo FXCD-500 CD/cassette radio in my F-250. Does anyone know if this is a decent unit or not? I like the layout and that it can do tapes and CD's; in spite of the green face, I'd put it in the Benz except the website says that it won't fit for some reason...maybe it's too long? It does say it'll fit in the pickup, though...which also has a DIN face.

Thoughts appreciated. Thanks!

According to my disc, there are 2 red wires, one is the switched power source, the other is the constant power source, you'll have to check with a VOM or a testlight to see which is which.
The ground is a brown wire, the power antenna wire is blue.
There is a black wire with a red stripe for illumination.
There are 2 pairs of wires for the speakers. The ground for both of these is black. The positive side, one is also a black with a red stripe, this is the left side, the right side is black with a green stripe.

Gilly

The reason everyone is always talking about wiring past the fader control is because they cannot handle the power of the new radios plus you limit the output power of your new radio by 50%. Wiring past it is necessary. I don't know any reason why the sanyo wouldn't fit in tour MBZ. I have never used this piece but then again sanyo has never been know for building quality equiptment.

Scott@lajollaaudio

Dan, thanks for the wiring codes!

How necessary is "necessary"? Could I wire the speakers into the fader as a temporary measure (i.e. for a month or two)? If I bypass the fader, I'll just re-wire the speaker wires...and I don't want to do that until I replace the speakers (that's a project for another time; I'm not ready to buy new speakers yet). Again, if I go that route, should I use the front or rear wires from the radio?

That's not good...when you're talking about quality, are you talking about sound or reliability? I don't need the auto equivelant of a home theatre system (keep in mind, the radio that I'm puttin in the 300D was built by Radio Shack, and I'm perfectly happy with that radio :)), but I don't want something that's gonna stop working 5 days out of warranty either...

Thanks!

What you can do is get the front speaker wires behind the radio disconnect them and wire them to the front outputs then wire the rear outputs to the fader control then your going to be getting full power without having to rewire the whole car.

So, basically, take the wires going from the fader to the front speakers, cut them, leave the fader side of those two wires free, and run the speaker side of those wires into the radio harness?

Thanks!

Take the two sets of fader input wires ( pluged into the stock radio) and hook these to the rear outputs of the new radio then you should see the four wires leading forward in the back of the radio opening and cut them and hook the wires leading to the speakers to the front outputs and tape off the remaining wires.

Scott