Location: Taylors SC
Posts: 5,326
My VIN: (former)05429
Club(s): (DMWC) (DCUK)
The best way to install a new radio? Cut the plug off the car harness. Leave 2 inches or so of wire on the plug in the very off-chance you ever want to hook it back up. You won't. The new radio will have it's own plug with a bunch of wires hanging out. Typically 4 dual speaker wires, a hot power wire, a switched power wire, an antenna trigger wire, and a couple of grounds.
Connect the new wiring plug to the car harness per the instructions that come with the radio. When you are done you'll have a plug inline so you can easily pull the radio out. If you mess around with trying to keep the old plug in use, you end up with two plugs in series about 3 inches apart. More places to fail.
One other thing - on the original DMC radios, the switched power is the high power lead that actually powers the radio. The constant on lead only keeps the radio memory (and clock if you have one) alive. Modern radios are the opposite - the hot lead is the high power lead and the switched lead just tells the radio whether or not to be on. If you connect the new radio to the old DMC fuses that are still in the wiring, you'll probably blow the constant hot fuse the first time you turn up the radio.
The new radio will have its own fuses, just bypass the DMC fuses and use them.
In the case of high power radios, you may need to route a new hot lead to the back of the car as the original wiring for that is kind of light. A new ground to the main chassis ground isn't a bad idea either, as the DMC ground in that area is a stack of connections on the right side of the console plate and tends to be a poor ground point.
Dave S
DMC Midwest - retired but helping
Greenville SC
Location: Northern Virginia, near Washington DC.
Posts: 214
My VIN: 5470
You should see a refund soon. I ordered some of the DMC stickers for my shift knob and after a while I got a refund and a reply saying they were no longer in business. I didn't need to cancel.
Not sure why things like that don't cause him to just take the site down??
Location: Northern NJ
Posts: 8,570
My VIN: 10757 1st place Concourse 1998
A couple of more points in connecting up a new radio. You definitely do need to cut the old plug off. You must separate the speaker grounds, many modern radios do not like common speaker grounds and you may blow the output transistors. The power and speaker wiring is rather "light" and you should replace it all with heavier gauge. Can't do that if you leave the original plug in place.
David Teitelbaum
On my car the antenna will only go up when FM or AM is selected. It stays in the down position if I'm using the iPod input. I wonder how the antenna trigger is wired up. In most installs, I see the antenna goes up whenever the radio is on. You really don't need the antenna if you're using a music player.
Chris Miles
For Better or Worse I own a DeLorean!
1983 Grey Manual, VIN #16409, Fresno, California
Many - if not most - aftermarket car stereos have separate Antenna and Remote (amp) triggers. The last 3 stereos I've had in my DMC have been that way.
Luke S :: 10270 :: 82 Grey 5-Speed :: Single Watercooled T3 .60/.48 :: Borla Exhaust :: MSD Ignition :: MS3X Fully SFI Odd-fire EFI :: DevilsOwn Methanol Injection