New stereo, no guages. HELP please.

[spike thomas]

Ok, so last night I connected my new kenwood stereo to my 1974 260z. I clipped the connector from the back of the radio. wired the black wire to the ground, blue wire to the on/off power, and the light switch to the red/blue wire. Then, for my constant power, I ran a wire up to the clock which had been clipped from the car power and ran to a AA battery. I didn't think much of it considering there was still power coming from the wire. so, I just hooked it up there, and finished by wiring up my speakers. cranked it up last night, car ran fine, stereo sounded good, everthing thumbs up. Well, this morning, leaving for school, I noticed that I had NO guages. only speedo works. so, first, I checked fuses. yep, a few blown, so, I grabbed a fuse, cut off the car, slipped it in, and started her up. as soon as it fired up, the fuse was blown. So, then I unplugged the stereo, put in a new fuse, and tried it again. Once again, it blew immediately. So, at this point, I have a working stereo, and no guages. I kinda need the guages more than the stereo, but even with it out, the problem persists. Anybody out there have any idea what this 18 yr old did to his 35 yr old car? all connections are sound by the way. Crimps on all connections except speaker wires, which got wire nuts. Any help would be great.

[Zs-ondabrain]

Most modern day stereo's use the yellow battery wire to power the internal amplifier. It's most likely sucking way too much power from that clock fuse. Either run a fused wire from the battery or find an empty spot on the fuseblock. I personally ran a new power wire from the battery to the yellow wire.

Disconnect that wire from the clocks power and leave it that way, start the car and see if the fuse blows again. Or better yet, COMPLETELY disconnect the stereo, start the car, get the gauges to work, then reconnect the stereo, one wire at a time. When the gauges stop working, the wire you just hooked up is the culprit.

Dave.

[spike thomas]

I will try that. The only thing throwing me off is the fact that right now, the stereo is sitting in the back hatch, unplugged. It blew the fuse anyway. I just have the plug itself wired to the car. I'm actually in school right now so, in a half an hour or so I'll be trying to find the problem. Just wanted to get a better idea of what I'm dealing with. she's my daily driver, and she still has to get me to work later tonight.

[spike thomas]

Ok, so I went back through all the plugs I disconnected and reconnected. seems a couple of them fit in the wrong places. so, a quick swap, and we are keeping fuses intact.

good stereo, good gauges. Thumbs up once again. =D

[Zs-ondabrain]

Glad to help, That's one of the reasons we're here.

Dave.

[TomoHawk]

You're using a AA battery to run your clock?

There must be a better way; the oem wiring should have a constant power feed from the battery to the clock, the hazard switch, cigarette lighter (on a 78) and probably several other places. On my '78, I was able to use the oem radio plug for amp power, ground, and lights.You have speaker connections there too, but I connected directly to the radio with new wires for those.

Edited January 8, 2009 by TomoHawk

[Zs-ondabrain]

Somebody hasn't been paying attention. We've done plenty of articles, posts and writeups about replacing the clock with a quarts clock that runs on a "AA" battery.

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7817

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29123

There's many more write up's on the subject, just use the search and type ( AA Clock )

Some think it's a bad (not a true replacement) idea but many have done the swap (me included) and have been happy with the results.

Dave

[spike thomas]

I bought it like that. The wiring had been clipped just behind the clock and new wiring was added to the clock. The original wire was still LIVE, so I was just gonna run my Constant power off of it. There may be some kind of problem in that particular circuit. My cigarette lighter doesn't work either, but my hazards work fine. I don't need the lighter, and the clock works fine with a AA battery so, I've been just playing it safe. When dealing with a 35 yr old car, I stick closely to the DONT FIX IF NOT BROKEN rule. Even a simple door adjustment turned into a major drill and tap session which left me car-less for about a week. The stereo was just TOO good to turn down. Every 18 yr old wants some audio. I'm assuming that the AA battery change over may have been to keep the original wiring from blowing the clock? I know its not the original clock. It was put in shortly before I bought the car. I'll give it another look when i get some more free time on my hands.

[lex1786]

okay so i'm working on a 1976 280z

its been giving me some problems and the hazard switch might be the problem when i turn of the car the floor temp and the brake light blick and noise comes from the relay and inside,when i desconect the hazard switch it stop and my battery dosent drain now if the blinking stays on nex morning on few hours the battery drains so what exacly can i do if u have an answer please i woulnd glandly appriciatte it my guages go off when i remove the hazard switch.