Hi, I just installed a JVC KD-R200 into a 1987 Ford Thunderbird (not turbo coupe, not premium sound). The stereo is working fine but now the cars digital clock and digital instrument cluster doesn't work. I replaced the fuse, turned on the car and the lights on the dash flashed and went out again. The fuse had blown, again.
I can't figure out why this is happening. The only thing that I can think of is. . . During intall the T-birds wiring harness had an extra wire that the new stereo didn't have. The wire coming from the car is labled "dimmer". The JVC harness didn't have a dimmer wire. So since the harness didn't match up I cut the harness and directly wired the rest of those wires together. I did use the harness that had the speaker wiring, that one wasn't an issue. Since the Ford had a dimmer wire that was now not being wired to anything, I just capped the end of it.
Should I have done that? Should it been wired in with some other wire? Could this be causing the problem with the dash lights etc.
It's weird that the only things that aren't working now are the dash lights, digital clock and the trunk release button. Everything else still works including the stereo. Although I did notice that twice now the stereo appears to have reset itself, as if the battery was diconnected. I had to redo the channel presets etc., but that didn't have anything to do with the fuse. I know because right now there is no fuse in the car and the stereo is working fine.
I think I did something wrong when I installed the stereo because everything was working before I put it in. Now, the things listed above aren't working and the #6 fuse that would make those things work, keeps blowing.
Anyone that could help me, I would appreciate it. It's my mother-in-laws car and we got her the stereo for her birthday. Now I feel like crap because now she won't even drive her car because she can't tell how fast she is driving or even if she has enough gas in the car. It's all digital on the instrument cluster.
HELP PLEASE
Thanks Linette (my2monkeys)
I'm not sure what you did wrong here, but obviously something in the dash lighting circuit seems to be shorting to ground.
The KD-R200 does not have a "Dimmer" - (more properly called an "Illumination" lead).
The Thunderbird wiring is here.
One thing that comes to mind: Pin 4 is Illumination and Pin 5 is Dimmer. NEITHER should be used, and they should be capped off INDIVIDUALLY. If you connected them together and/or connected them to ground, you could well have the behavior you mentioned.
The problem with the presets being lost is an intermittent fault in the yellow wire that should go to Pin 8.
If this all seems to be correct, your next step would be to make sure that the harness adapter you have matches CF's pin assignments for the car (i.e. Pin 1 should be RED on your harness and on the JVC, Pin 8 Should be Yellow on the harness and the JVC. The black wire on the JVC should be connected to ground behind the dash.
If that checks out, you need a multimeter to verify the wires are doing what they should - i.e. Pin 1 should have 12V with the key on regardless of light switch settings and Pin 8 should have constant 12V regardless of light switch position.
If all that checks out, you have some other wiring fault - possibly unrelated to the radio - but that will be hard to t-shoot here.
If you bought from CF, their tech support can help also.
On newer cars, the clock and sometimes some of the dash functions are run through the radio on data bus wiring, but typically not on Ford's and definitely not on a 1987.
Hope This Helps!!!
Anyone else have suggestions?
2002 Ford Focus Sony CDX-GT410u Sony XT-100HD HD Tuner Stock speakers, no amp, no subs
We got it working. There was an issue with the ground wire. Thanks for your quick reply it helped.
Glad you got it sorted out!!!