stereo help!

[jpbrown3]

Could someone point me in the right direction about how to replace a stereo unit in a boat? I took out the old stereo with no problem. And before I go any further I just want to clear some questions up. I have installed car stereos before, is it just like installing a car stereo? If so where do I get a wiring harness that will attach to the exisiting wires? Or is there no such thing? Do I have to find my own leads?

Thanks for you help!

 

[Drowned Rat]

Re: stereo help!

It's pretty much the same as a car stereo installation. You need to be sure to install the brace that holds the rear of the radio in place otherwise the pounding of the boat will jar it loose. You may also want to install a cover over the radio depending if it will be exposed to weather or not. Not sure about the harness. Your best bet is to use the RCA jacks so you're not using wire nuts or crimp connectors on the wires.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: stereo help!

D R got it right, if boating in salt water, buy cheap and replace each year. the salt atmosphere kills them, expensive or cheap. also get back covers for speakers, to protect them.

 

[Coors]

Re: stereo help!

Buy a battery operated boom box; less money, and no maintainence

 

[jpbrown3]

Re: stereo help!

Ok, so I have the old stereo out and getting ready to put new one in.

I have a total of 6 wires that are coming from the boat. Obviously the stereo that I am going to put in has more than 6 wires.

So what I wanted to do was just to test it to make sure i have power running to the new stereo. Of those six wires I have a positive to the battery and a negative to the battery. The other 4 are for the speakers....

In order to test to see if I got power to the stereo, I connected the red wire to red and black wire to black. No power, did not turn on or anything. Am I missing something? I also tried connected the yellow(constant) to the red wire from the boat. Still nothing. Am I missing something? On the stereo wires it is telling me that the red wire is the ignition switch, yellow is the constant, and black is the negative to battery. I would assume that since the radio turns on with out having any type of switch turned on, I could connect the constant to the red wire from the boat????

Hopefully my mumbo jumbo makes sense to some people....

Thanks for the quick responses!

 

[wvit1001]

Re: stereo help!

Are you sure there is power on the boat side? Have you put a meter on the wires and checked?

 

[jpbrown3]

Re: stereo help!

I asked myself the same question. There is power, I hooked up the old stereo again and it works like a charm.

 

[jpbrown3]

Re: stereo help!

Ok, first off I am an idiot. I finally got power. I only get the new stereo going if i hook it up directly to the terminals on the battery. If i hook it up to the wires on the boat side i get nothing. Like I said before though, the old stereo works if i hook it up on the wires, but not the new stereo. Could it possibly be that there is not enough juice in the battery?

 

[stevieray]

Re: stereo help!

jpb - did the old stereo have a yellow (constant) wire too? Problem is, car stereos usually have that wire to keep the stations & audio settings in memory - it is a constant draw on the battery. Not a problem with a car that is run a lot - but on a boat that may sit for a couple of weeks at a time - may kill the battery regularly. Check the wiring diagram & instructions that came with the new one - it should tell you if power needs to be on both red & yellow for it to operate at all.

 

[jpbrown3]

Re: stereo help!

I need to connect the red and yellow together for it to operate. So what is the alternate route for the battery not to lose its juice?

 

[jpbrown3]

Re: stereo help!

I only get the new stereo going if i hook it up directly to the terminals on the battery. If i hook it up to the wires on the boat side i get nothing. Like I said before though, the old stereo works if i hook it up on the wires, but not the new stereo. Could it possibly be that there is not enough juice in the battery?

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: stereo help!

the alternative is that the radio has no memory. connect the red and yellow to the positive boat power thru a fuse., the black to the negative boat power. this way the radio will work when the engine is not running. your speakers will not work if the don't have the postive and negative (ground) some radios tie the ground to gether, some have to be grounded to the matched pair thru the radio, especially radios the have side to side, and front to back balance/ fade systems. like a purple wire and a purple with white tracer, are a pair. one + one -. did i confuse you enough.

 

[jpbrown3]

Re: stereo help!

Thanks for the input....
So my old stereo was probably not connected to a fuse?
But what i dont get is that I connect the new radio directly on the boat battery (yellow and red to positive. black to negative) and the stereo turns on. Now if i do this same exact setup through the boat wires where the old stereo use to be, it will not turn on. Now what the hell does that mean?

 

[stevieray]

Re: stereo help!

jpb - sounds like an intermittent connection somewhere. Chances are the positive to old stereo is hooked up thru the boat's fuse panel. When you hook up the old one, you may just tug on the wire the right way & it connects for you at that time. Check continuity of both positive & ground wires all the way back to the battery.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: stereo help!

if your boat doesn't have a fuse panel install on. there cheap,

 

[jpbrown3]

Re: stereo help!

Welp I got everything to work. Turns out that a fuse was bad. thanks for the help everyone. One more quick question....since my radio has a constant that needs to be hooked up, if i let my boat sit for two weeks will i really not be able to start the boat because of the constant wire?

 

[Silvertip]

Re: stereo help!

Depends on how large (AH capacity) the battery is, how old it is, and what condition it's in. 100 ma amounts to one amp every 10 hours. So roughly 2.5 amps per day. 14 days = 35 amps. If memory draws less than that you can do the math. The manual for the radio should tell you what the standby drain is.

 

[T0PWATER]

Re: stereo help!

I would suggest wiring the radio to an accessory switch. That way when you're not using your boat you can easily kill the power to the radio to prevent a battery drain.

Another option you may consider is wiring directly to the battery with an inline fuse that's easily accessible near the battery. Just pull out the fuse to kill the power when you're not going use it for a couple of days. I know, it sounds cheesy but it may be easier than wiring it to an accessory switch, assuming you have a spare.

If you do decide do go this route make sure you pick up a fuse holder with a cover cap to help keep out the moisture. Cover the crimps also with electrical tape for the same reason. It may not be pretty but at least it's an option to think about.

I have a dual battery setup. Whenever I don't plan on using my boat the next day I just switch the selector to the off position. If you have a battery switch you may just do the same.

 

[QC]

Re: stereo help!

If you have a battery switch you may just do the same.

In the words of a great iboater, "Ayuh" . . . your stereo is not the only accesory that you could accidentally leave on

 

[Boatin Bob]

Re: stereo help!

Does the new stereo have a removable face plate? If so I have found that just removing the faceplate will significantly reduce the "Constant" power drain on the battery, then all it does is keep the memory alive. We put a new stereo in our ski boat a couple of years ago and normally the kids remove the faceplate, never had a battery problem. One weekend they left it in and in just one week there wasn't enough juice left to crank it over (115hp Merc).