Okay........I just thought about your problem some more and I think I understand what's going on.I just hope I'm not too late!Let's see if I can articulate my thoughts:

You said in the last post that your info says that the black wire is illum and the orange wire is ignition 12v.Well,black almost always denotes ground.So I think what you did is this:

(1)Connected black from the fac harness to the decks illum wire.

(2)I don't know the wire colors of the fac harness,but you connected fac ignition to the decks continous 12v.Fac continous 12v to the decks ignition 12v.

This is how you initially had it connected.This would cause the deck lighting to remain on with the key removed.

Then I had you reverse the cont and ignitio 12v,and at that point the deck lighting shut off with the key removed.

But,you still have the problem of the deck power shutting off when the head lights are turned on or the deck vol is raised above 10.

This is what I beleive the problem is:You have the black wire which is GROUND not connected to the decks ground,but to the decks illum wire.You ask,how can the deck even power up,if there's no ground.Well,it is VERY POSSIBLE that the deck is finding ground through the antennae's ground shield.While this particular ground is adequate to allow the deck to turn on,it is not good enough to allow proper current flow.That would explain why the deck shuts off when the HL are on or the vol goes above 10.

Now,if I'm correct,you are about to make a BIG MISTAKE!! You were thinking that the info you obtained is incorrect,and the black wire is actually ignition.If you connect the black wire to the decks red ignition lead,you will damage the deck! There are no fuses to protect the deck from a short on the ignition.

As you can see,there's alot of things you can screw up if you don't know what you are doing.My advice is to use a harness adapter.If you are that dead set against this,you need to have a volt meter so you can verify which power wires are what.Don't assume.

 

My fault!!!! I made a slight mistake.

By connecting the fac ground wire to the decks ignition,it will not cause a short,because there's no power on the decks ignition lead.

What will happen is the deck will not power up at all.

 

I used the volt meter and weird stuff seems to be going on.

I'll give a general layout of the factory wires and their voltages when the motor is running:

Red: 12V (0V w/ headlights on) - standby
Orange: 12V (0V w/ headlights on) - ignition
Black: 0V (12V w/ headlights on) - labelled illumination +
Green: 0V (12V w/ headlights on) - labeled illumination -

There is also a yellow ground wire, a power antenna wire (I don't have a power antenna, so it's unused) and eight speaker wires. I don't have the antenna connected to the back of the new deck.

The deck is a Rockford Fosgate RFX9000, which doesn't use the illumination wires, the remote-on for the amplifier (I don't have one) or the power antenna (I don't have one), so I'm only using 11 of the 14 factory wires. Do I need to do something with the illumination wires for a deck that doesn't use them? And why would the power be switched to a different pair of wires when the headlights are turned on? I'd like to be able to get it working just by cutting and soldering, and hopefully get a better understanding of car audio electronics, so I'd rather not use a harness.

 

No,the factory ill doesn't have to be connected to anything.

This is what you should have on the factory harness,as for power:

(1)Continous 12v------always on,reguardless of whether the key is turned,or headlights are on.

(2)Ignition 12v-------0v when the key is out.12v when the key is in and turned to the acc position.

(3)Ground------------- 0v no matter what.

Now,when you are checking for these voltages,you have to have the neg meter probe connected to the ground wire.make sure you are on the ground wire,very well,other wise the voltage readings will not be accurate or no there at all.If you are not sure which wire is ground,you can set the meter to continuity and check that wire to an un painted piece of metal that is connected to the chassis of the car.Make sure the deck is turned off before you do this.

Now,you could also try a little experiment.Disconnect the ignition wire on the deck from the ignition wire on the fac harness.Connect the decks red ignition wire to the decks yellow continous 12v wire.This will allow the deck to turn on with out the key in the ignition.This will work provided that the deck has an on/off button.

This will bypass the ignition switch.If everything works correctly at this point then I think you know what the problem is. wink

 

The readings you took,don't make sense.Either those wires are not actually the ignition and continous,or you have a big problem with the electrical system.

Are you the original owner? If not,did the harness look like some one had hacked it up??

 

2nd owner, only 18000mi on it. Some woman had it before me, so everything was stock. Except for the snow tires she left on it all year round, which I subsequently wore down to nothing over the summer. Until I cut the harness off, it was in perfect shape. Can it do damage to have the deck miswired? If anything it would just not get enough power or complete the circuit right? I want to try a couple things, but if it doesn't work, can it cause damage? It shouldn't so long as the deck is grounded right?

 

The only thing I can think of that would damage the deck,is if you connected power from the car to the decks ground terminal.And the chassis ground to the decks cont or ign input.

Did the factory deck work correctly??

I really think you should at least get an adapter,so you can see which wires are what on the factory harness.That way you know for sure what you are doing.

 

I slid off the road the otherday, since here in the Hudson Valley (NY in case you don't know where the Hudson river is) we have icy roads. I rolled backwards down an embankment and into a ditch at around 35mph. The only damage sustained was a pushed in front left fender and a cracked and partially detached front bumper cover (it got pulled out from the back by the bushes and undergrowth I rolled over. So, I haven't gotten to try anything yet in regards to wiring my stereo. But I do have one question. My "illumination" (or so they're marked on the HMA service diagram) wires turn on with 12V when I turn on the headlights. My "standby" and "ignition" turn off when I turn on the headlights. What wires should do this? Should any wires do this? Why should anything turn off when the headlights go on? Also, can I solder the "illumination" wires on to the "standby" and "ignition" so I still have power when the headlights go on, or will that short it or drop the voltage or something? Kinda have two wires from the car both soldered to the same wire going to the deck. That way, when one wire turns off, the other comes on and power isn't lost. Would that work?

[ December 15, 2002, 06:59 PM: Message edited by: Alacritan ]

 

Sorry to hear about your wreck.That sucks! sad.gif

12v should definetely not go away from the ignition and continous(stand-by) when your headlights are on.You either have something big time wrong with the electrical system,as far as the headlights,or you are not understanding the wires correctly.

You say you want to learn about automotive electrical,so here's a big challange.Figure out why 12v dissapears when the lights are on.Either that or ignore it and run a 12ga power wire from the battery,thru the firewall,directly to the deck.

As for the factory illum wire,I don't remember exactly how that works,as far as the voltage.I know in Volkswagons that wire barely has any voltage applied to it,because it comes from the dash dimmer switch.

Good luck in your mission!! If you lived any where near me,I'd fix it for you.Your particular problem is too complex(seamingly,anyway) for me to help whithout physically being there.