I recently bought an '88 Fiesta Mk2, the people who I bought it from had an after-market stereo system put in, which is fair enough. However, I just bought a new one and from the looks of the wiring behind the old one, the last time someone tried to install an after-market stereo system, they botched it*. Does anyone know where I can get hold of a wiring diagram or something so I can see if I can undo some of the damage they've caused?


* Not only does it look rubbish (loose bare metal wires everywhere) but the stereo-system has issues getting power, and I'm blaming the wiring.

 

Ford use the same colour wires acroos their cars for feed, earth, perm live etc, even speaker postions, so any manual will be ok.
You should have three basic wires(apart from speakers), red, yellow, black(or brown).
Just put test light on one is permanent live(memory), one is switched live from ignition, one earth.
If you do not have a manual at all for any ford just set the volume low and try one set of speaker wires first to see which one it is, and wire accordingly to your stereo's respective output, (most likely be the same colour anyway).
The only thing you have to remember is to connect the stripes(speaker wires) all the same way does not matter which way(neg or pos) so long as they all push and pull together, DO NOT GROUND ANY, if your car has a JOYSTICK balancer/fader split wires as this will not work with most aftermarket stereos, due to grounding issues.
tabetha

 

Thanks for the info. I've got it all sorted now

 

Good man glad to hear that, no bassy boom boom I hope!!
tabetha

 

Hell no, still have stock speakers. I just wanted a CD player that wouldn't skip over the smallest bump