1992 Ford Tempo Stereo Wire Configuration

[Tydye]

So after a painful process, I have 2 new front speakers installed, and only 4 freaking wires away from haveing the new stereo itself installed in my ex-girlfriends car. I need to know which wire's are positive, remote, negitive, ect... Please help. She's worried I wount finish it, and I'm trying to win her back. So any help is GREATLY appriciated. Cheers!

[PepsiBlueFloat]

You want to know the wires on the stereo or on the car? Usually on the stereo they are labeled on it itself. On the car there should be 4 wires to the stereo from the car (not including speakers). a red, yellow, black. Black is obviouly the ground; red and yellow sometimes are different. One of them is battery, the other is to you ignition. A voltmeter is an easy way to figure out which is whihc. One will have no charge when ignition is off, the other will. I dont know if i mis-understood your question...but this is a reply to what i thought it was. heh. hope it helps.


oh and the 4th wire im talking about is the antenna...the big giant one...it unmistakeable---and it only can plug in one place.

[Tydye]

Unfortunetly fords arnt that simple. I have a big green wire with a grey strip, and other odd ball colours. Its not color coded like a normal stereo. I already have the speakers hooked up. I guess Ican just use new wires instead of trying to splice them witht he ones that were origonaly hooked into the stock stereo,

[dxrflyboy]

Make it easy on yourself. Grab an adapter plug from Wally World or a stereo store, splice it into the aftermarket radio harness, and plug it in. Hopefully you didn't throw the original connectors away already! If you did, at least the adapter kit should clue you in as to where the wires go.

[PepsiBlueFloat]

Is this a stock stereo you're installing new speakers to, or a new stereo w/ new speakers...sry im still a little confused. Ive installed stereos in my ranger, my friends ranger, and my f150 w/o any problem. I dont think im understanding your question fully

[Tydye]

I took out the stock speakers in the front doors and replaced them, I figured out the speaker wire configuration (Note both positive and negitive wires had a white stripe) I took out the stock stereo and I'm replacing it with a pioneer. Now as far as the power, neg, ect... wires are concerned there are 5 of them plus the attenna plug. and the 5 wires I'm left to work with are like a green wire (all wires have white stripes) which is slightly bigger than the other 4 wires wich are coloured like violet, cyan, off the wall colors. Not your normal color codes... So with there being 5 wires, what would they be for? A Remote, a Power, a Negitive, but what about the other two?

[PepsiBlueFloat]

these 5 wires are coming from the pioneer stereo or from inside the dash? If they are coming from the stereo it should say right on top of the cd deck on a sticker, or on the instruction booklet what each wire is for EXACTLY. Now, if you're talking about whats coming from inside the dash; unless you've got something like steering wheel volume control or whatnot you should only need 3 of the5 wires. Here is what should be.

2 speaker wires for each speaker (positive and neg dont usually matter) they will be labeled on the wires with LF+ and LF- (left front) and RF+ and RF- (right front) -- just make sure both "L" wires go to the left speaker and both "R" wires go to the right speaker.

Then look at the wires coming out of the dash. If what im understanding there are 5 of them not including the antenna. To get the CD unit to turn on there needs to be 3 different powers going to it. The ground wire (negative). Its a black wire. The other two wires out of the 4 remainging are going to be tuffer to find out which is which if they are wierd colors. Coming out of the back of the stereo there is a yellow wire and a red wire. They yellow wire is always connected to the battery -- its used to store presets, keep the clock right, and settings and stuff. The red wire connects to the ignition switch. When the car is turned on it get power and turns the actuall unit on. Stereo wont work w/o this one. Now; when i say red and yellow wires coming out of the stereo -- they may be different for yours, justlook on that sticker on the stereo. They should be labled with IGN/PWR (red) and BTRY/BTR (yellow) or something along those lines.
you may just have to try all 4 of those remaining wires to see which is which if you dont ahve a voltmeter. The two wires you have left coming out of the dash at the end i have no idea what they might be for since the car ispretty old. But they are not needed for the stereo to run, so if the stereo is working right just cap/tape them off.