Stereo fitting (starlet)

Toyotafanboi

picked up a second hand double din for my 98 glanza recently. it was previously wired into a 95 starlet. Im fairly sure it was a toyota accessory because the wiring loom from the back of the radio has the toyota loom plugs on the end of it (no need for an ISO or anything).

Anyhow the two plugs go in perfectly but there is one wire loose, a black one with a spade terminal on the end of it, when i plugged in the stereo this wire touched accidentally off of the stereo casing and i got sparks, so i called the whole thing off and put my old one back in.

is something wrong or what should i do with the black wire? im handy enough with servicing and the likes but admittedly know **** all about electronics. thanks for any help

If it works as it should, switches off and memory etc works I'd remove the spade and insulate the end of the cable

colm_mcm

I would have thought the spade connection is an earth wire and the stereo shouldn't work without it.

cletus

Looks like the ground wire to me. It should be screwed to bare metal on the car body

Edit: colm_mcm got there first

Toyotafanboi

ok, i see i done actually know if the stereo did work without it, i never got that far. surely it would spark if connected to any bare metal though would it, or was it just because it touched off of the stereo casing itself?

admittedly RJ's idea was what came to mind with me initially.

colm_mcm

Connect the spade connection before the plug



If the headunit is jdm, you will also need one of those band expanders if there isn't one already on the car.

Toyotafanboi

i'l try it out on my lunch break tomorrow, sounds embarrasingly simple thanks all!

edit : it already has a band expander

Toyotafanboi

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

ok, i see i done actually know if the stereo did work without it, i never got that far................

Try again excerpt insulate that spade yoke (or just make sure it touches nothing), plug in the two loom plugs, turn on radio, if it doesn't come on that black wire is the earth

You'd imagine one of the loom plugs would contain the earth though.

On the car side is there a single black wire going into one of the looms ? Any wires on the car side not connected to a loom plug aside from the antenna ?

colm_mcm

colm_mcm wrote: »

Connect the spade connection before the plug



.............

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

i'l try it out on my lunch break tomorrow, sounds embarrasingly simple thanks all!...........

Don't say there's a cable waiting to be connected to that spade terminal :pac:

Toyotafanboi

RoverJames wrote: »

Try again excerpt insulate that spade yoke (or just make sure it touches nothing), plug in the two loom plugs, turn on radio, if it doesn't come on that black wire is the earth

You'd imagine one of the loom plugs would contain the earth though.

On the car side is there a single black wire going into one of the looms ? Any wires on the car side not connected to a loom plug aside from the antenna ?

again, thats what i was expecting.

i was doing this is the dark at around 8.30 this evening in tescos car park on my break so i wasn't really inspecting the job tbh. but i can say that there are no extra loose wires on the cars side of the loom. there was just the two plugs, power and speakers, which connected with the stereo perfectly, only thing astray is this black wire

i'l try it out again tomorrow, i dont fancy doing a bodge on it, dont want to risk a fire for a second hand head unit :P

colm_mcm

RoverJames wrote: »

Try again excerpt insulate that spade yoke (or just make sure it touches nothing), plug in the two loom plugs, turn on radio, if it doesn't come on that black wire is the earth

You'd imagine one of the loom plugs would contain the earth though.

On the car side is there a single black wire going into one of the looms ? Any wires on the car side not connected to a loom plug aside from the antenna ?

My sisters starlet and my missuss micra have a seperate earth wire. So did my fto.

colm_mcm

colm_mcm wrote: »

My sisters starlet and my missuss micra have a seperate earth wire. So did my fto.

No doubt, my reading of the OPs issue is that there isn't anywhere on the car side to connect this cable to though.

colm_mcm

There are 4(?) screws that hold the cage to the dash. Any of these will do.

Toyotafanboi

Just said i'd post back, only got to try again at this this evening.

bolted that cable (and another the same) to the stereo fitting cage, then plugged it in and its working a treat

thanks!