Clare

Forgive me if I come across a bit blonde, but electrics of any kind scare the crap out of me.

If I disconnect the battery in the Fiesta am I safe to cut the wiring to the Stereo/CD player thats in there?

The stereo has been wired into one of those white blokes that looks like lego so should be fairly straight forward.

Oh and once ive got all the old wiring out, is it pretty easy to re-wire back into a standard Ford block plug?

DaveEscos

yes

Daveyboy

you got a free white bloke with ya car too? bargain lol

KEVFRST

Make sure u solder all the joints or if u must, use the RED size bullet connectors.
Stritctly no Scotch locks

Oranoco

Solder and heat shrink is the best way of doing this. I would offer to sort it for you but I'm nowhere near you down here.

Clare

Daveyboy - trust you to pick up on that! lol

Solder......... hmmmm that sounds a bit dangerous for me to be doing (I am the person who sliced my finger open on a stanley knife ).

Cant I just cut the wires before the existing plug, strip the plastic back and re-thread it into a Ford block?

Daveyboy

yes you can

Clare

Coolio, that's what I need to do then

Project ST

Go to Maplins and buy yourself a cheap crimping set if you really don't want to learn soldering

Clare

Ive got a set of wire crimpers, but I dont see why I would need to crimp or solder if im wiring into a Ford block?

Jim Galbally

clare, does the car still have the std connectors?

i'm assuming yes?

im also assuming that the stereo has an iso connector on it but the 2 plugs that connect to the std loom have been cut?

the BEST way to do it imho is to get yourself a new ISO connector (easily available from anywhere that sells stereos) and get a Ford-> ISO convertor loom (Ł10 from halfrauds)

that way theres zero cutting and you can always put the std stuff back in if necessary.

If the std connectors are cut anyway, you may aswell just solder the iso connector straight onto the original loom.

This is fairly straightforward, youll have 2-8 speaker wires, 2 power, an earth and a blue that will be piss easy to work out which is which...

make sure you get the yellow/red (power) wires round the right way tho, you want +12v going to yellow and ignition live going to red... get em the wrong way round and youll lose your presets all the time.

Clare

Ok Jim, you have successfully confused me now. I thought this was going to be a really simple 30 minute job that I can do myself.

The standard Ford plugs have been cut out of the car and in their place are two white blocks that have wires screwed into them (I forget what these blocks are called). There is already a dodgy connection somewhere in there as I can hear the stereo interfering with a relay in the passenger footwell everytime it decides to have a hissy fit. Hence the reason I want to take it all out.

I want to put my own Sony stereo in there which is still on its original plugs and has a Sony - Ford connector........... hence the reason I want Ford connector blocks in the car instead of cack DIY ones.

Does that make sense?

Jim Galbally

yes that makes sense

unfortunately you're in the "worse case scenario" there

your best bet is to chop the plugs off the end of the sony stereo and solder them straight on to the car loom.

Clare

Hmmmmm but that means I gotta get someone to help me and I had hoped to try and do it myself, plus I quite like my Sony having its own plugs, makes putting it in different cars really easy and makes me look clever

Daveyboy

Clare, if you want to leave it till the weekend, and you're still coming over, then im sure either Waps or myself can hook it up for you if you want?

Clare

That is a very kind offer, thanks Dave............ just got to get the car started now tho cos its killed the battery

The Rapid 1

Clare bye the sounds of it, recon your best bet is to chop the plug off the sony to ford connector (Ford plug to be removed) and connect these wires direct to the wiring comming from the car.

Agreed soldering is better but nothing wrong with through crimping IF using a decent set of crimpers, ie ratchet ones not the thin flimsy Ł2.50 set from Woolworths

Tis a ten minute job.

Do you know Steve Scotts place, how far from u is that cause im about 2-5 mins from there if want to pop down

Steve

Jim Galbally

clare, the other option is to buy a Ł10 convertor and solder this into the existing loom, which imho is pointless or get yourself some std plugs AND a convertor and solder this in... again, more pointless

you'd be ok as long if the std loom hadn't been cut :P

The Rapid 1

Actually Jim its not totally pointless cause if Clare was to by the a something to Ford converter she could chop one end off and wire this to her loom leaving a standard Ford plug on the loom as it should be, then whenever in future she changes her radio she knows she has just got to buy a ford to whatever make radio adaptor

Steve

Clare

Jim - I see your point

Steve - A kind offer again, but as I said to Dave above, the car is dead at the mo and im about 40 mins away from Scottys. I'll go out and take the battery off it tonight and put it on charge so if necessary I can drive it somewhere near the end of the week.

Really hoped I could try and do it myself, hate coming across as a dumb blonde who hasn't got a clue

Clare

This was the idea behind it all in the first place - im confused

Jim Galbally

agree with steve, nout wrong with crimping if done properly... however soldering is just as easy

The Rapid 1

Not at all

But depending what route u go down do you know what all the wires do, as jim said u will probably have 8 for the speakers 2x lives (and these dont just loose memories of radio if connected wrongly, the radio draws a different current load through each one so can at best blow fuses at worst read my adit at bottom ) an earth and if amps a remote switch lead and an aerial lead (not the same) also maybe light dimming wires etc so is a few wires to know

Many blokes (blonde or not ) would be happy to pay to have it done for them


Steve

Edited to say a small cost or drive is well worth it compared to the price of a fire

The Rapid 1

when u can mate or make even worse probs with dry joints

Steve

Jim Galbally

actually, it'll leave her with the wrong gender connector on the end which won't plug into anything

to be fair, any aftermarket stereo you buy will have an ISO connector on it anyway, so might aswell just solder that straight on... lol

The Rapid 1

Your best bet is that option if u dont mind spending the Ł20-30 for the adaptor, because as you say your radio is already fitted with a Sony to ford adaptor, so why not get the car back to how it should be with a Ford plug at the end of your Ford wiring, makes things far easier in the future

Steve

Jim Galbally

i can't beleive how complicated we're making a simple thing like stereo wiring sound even i'm confused

The Rapid 1

True

But sure u can buy a standard Ford connector surely if not as she passed Steves sure hed have one on a loom that he would let her have

Steve

Jim Galbally

agreed... but i think it'd be a pointless excescise which would waste time and money. the ONLY advantage of doing that would be that you could put a standard old 1980s for radio in the car with no hassle... but what are the chances of anyone ever wanting to put a POS like that back in the car, when you can get a half decent stereo from argos for Ł15quid (similar price to the adapter loom!)

The Rapid 1

Fair point mate

Its gone on so far now ive forhotten what coneectors and wires Clare actually got now

But somewhere it just a case of connecting via crimp/solder (not being nasty Clare but prob not your best option if u want to do it yourself ) the wires that are in the TERMINAL BLOCK

That way Clare could quite easily do it herself one wire at a time, only prob with that is means you are rellying on who ever wired it originally wiring to be correct and dont forget they used a terminal block (only jesting if the radio been working ok u should be alright, just have better connections )

If u do do it Clare u only need to remove the negative (-) from the battery, but also bear in mind that u must know any codes for the radio b4 doing this, or u will get more probs with trying to find out the code.

Steve

DaveEscos

christ its only a stereo

Perm live 1 cable (yellow)
ign live 1 cable (red)
Earth 1 cable (black)
speakers 2 cables for each speaker (+ve and -ve)

The Rapid 1

+ remote amp
+ aerial
+ lights dim
+ phone mute etc

But doubt somehow Clare is using these

Like said above is pretty simple wire for wire swap hopefully

Just a bit curious to the quality of Clares crimpers (not the vidal Sasson type that u plug in are they soz couldnt resist)

Steve

Clare

Rahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I only wanna play music in my car without killing the battery

I have just about followed what Steve and Jim have written above (and thank you guys that is much appreciated). But I think what is now very apparent to me is that by doing this myself, I am relying on how the previous person has wired it up to re-wire my own, and I KNOW that it is currently wired up wrong.

Soooooo looks like im gonna have to hand it over to someone who knows a bit more about electrics than me and do the whole damsel in distress thing

I'll get the battery charged up so I can move the damn thing then sort it at the weekend.

Cheers guys for all the help

Spiky

iTrader: (1)

if YOU are a dumb blonde click here, if not, dismiss

Clare

Ha bloody ha, very amusing

The 3rd one listed @ Willowbridge is Graham, who is the only auto-elecy I trust in MK anyway

The Rapid 1

Your welcome

Not necesarily wrong just NOT WELL

Like I said if all appears to be fine just occasionaly cutting out crackling etc probably just a bad connection which u will sort out by using a better joining method, just do one wire at a time and should be ok, if u really not happy about doing it yourself and wanna pop over at weekend let me know

Steve