Rewiring power and ground to head unit

(tparider) · (tparider) **Join Date: Aug 2003** 07-31-2006, 10:35 PM

Before I move forward with purchasing a new head unit (thanks for all the tips), I figure I'll give mine one more shot to perform worth a crap.

I did some searching on here and saw that some people have had the same issues I've had with the stereo clipping out and then coming back on a second later, and most of the issues seem to be related to a bad power and/or ground to/from the head unit.

So the question is, how do you re-run the power and ground wires from the head unit directly to the battery?

I know there is a wire harness in the back of the head unit, but how do you pick out the right ones? And do you just splice into them and run a dedicated line directly to the battery terminals or what?

thanks once again.

(chas) · (chas) **Join Date: Feb 2002** 07-31-2006, 10:41 PM

Yellow should be constant power and black should be ground. Run both wires to your batt and make sure to fuse your + wire.

(tparider) · (tparider) **Join Date: Aug 2003** 07-31-2006, 11:04 PM

so do I just splice into them close to the head unit and run a deicated line for each direct to the battery like you said? Are the black and yellow wires on the wire harness grouping of wires?

thanks

d_fresh 08-01-2006, 3:54 AM

What you want to do is clip the yellow and black wire from your factory harness to your HU. Disconnect the battery before doing this. Then route a new pair of wires directly from the battery to the radio. Connect these wires into your HU.

(chopper515) · (chopper515) **Join Date: Mar 2005** 08-01-2006, 6:21 AM

I did this to my Pioneer and it took care of all my HU noise problems.

TeamHeptunes, What size fuse do you recomend? Doesn't the HU have a fuse in it? Won't this protect the stereo?

(biz) · (biz) **Join Date: Mar 2004** 08-01-2006, 8:45 AM

This is what i did to seperate my system from the other boat electronics. I have two relay setups that are fused (in a "project box")... one for the HU power and the other for the remote turnon. In addition i have a 200 amp PAC relay for seperate battery that is disengaged from the starting battery/charging system when the iginition is off. When the ignition switch is on and the engine is running both batteries receive a charge. I can run the aux/stereo battery down and not worry about being able to start the motor. The next step is upgrading batteries and/or alternator... or just upgrading to a new boat

(Message edited by BIZ on August 01, 2006)

(chas) · (chas) **Join Date: Feb 2002** 08-01-2006, 9:16 AM

Most head units have a fuse in the back of them but a fuse a the batt will protect the boat more if there is ever a short between the head unit and the batt.. Look at the back of the deck and see what size fuse it has.

(tparider) · (tparider) **Join Date: Aug 2003** 08-01-2006, 11:07 AM

So if I cut the yellow and black wires from the wiring harness to the head unit and run 2 wires directly from the battery for power and ground, where do I put those 2 wires? I know they go to the head unit, but where exactly?

I don't think there are spots that wires can just plug into back there, right?

(tparider) · (tparider) **Join Date: Aug 2003** 08-01-2006, 3:43 PM

anyone out there? lol

(biz) · (biz) **Join Date: Mar 2004** 08-01-2006, 4:19 PM

Sounds like you need some professional help or a friend that is good with 12+ audio. There are way too many variables...

(tparider) · (tparider) **Join Date: Aug 2003** 08-01-2006, 9:27 PM

It really shouldn't be that hard I don't think, I just don't know where to run the dedicated power and ground wires to. I know I can put them on the battery on the + and -, and I know from TeamNeptunes and Doug's posts above to cut the yellow and black wires at the wiring harness, but what do I do with the new power and ground wires? Where do they go? Back into the freshly cut black and yellow? Or somewhere else?

thanks

(chas) · (chas) **Join Date: Feb 2002** 08-01-2006, 9:52 PM

Yes, back to the harness where you cut it. Make sure it is the wires coming from the head unit. Also make sure you tape off the old wires from the boat.

(byrd) · (byrd) **Join Date: Dec 2005** 08-02-2006, 6:59 AM

One thing that was clipping mine out was that my amps were pulling too much current on the "turn-on" wire from the head unit. After I wired them to an aux on the dash and bypassed the head completely, I have not had any issues...

(tparider) · (tparider) **Join Date: Aug 2003** 08-02-2006, 9:28 AM

Thanks TeamNeptunes. So I'm cutting the 2 wires a few inches from the harness, and then running those directly from the harness to the battery + and -. Then, the wires that I've just cut that are just hanging there, I just tape them off. Got it.

good info Byrd - I'll keep that in mind if my problem doesn't go away.