Stereo install

[Brandon5778]

Alright guys, so my buddy picked up a new stereo for his boat and asked me to help him with the install. His boat is a 94 four winns 190 Horizon, and it used to have a radio in it, he told me the PO took it out though. We figured the old wiring would be right under the dash, so I told him the install should be pretty quick and easy. Well I got there and got to looking under the dash, and it appears that there wasn't an aftermarket radio in the dash before, it looks like there was just a factory radio with its own wiring harness as there were a few empty plugs. I located all the speakers in the boat and noted the color of the wires, but I cannot find any such 8 wires together under the dash. Anywhere. I also tried downloading the boat's manual but the diagrams didn't show what I needed..

I'm totally stumped on what wires are the speaker wires and how I should do this. But anyway, I was thinking it would probably just be best to run all new wires anyway, and ditch the 23 year old factory wiring. What do you guys think? Run all new or keep trying to locate the factory wires? And I'm going to need to run a wire from the battery anyway for the red and yellow wires, which I plan on installing a switch for him so his battery won't die from the memory wire. What gauge of wire is needed to go like 15ft from the battery to power just a little pioneer radio?

 

[Silverbullet555]

Running new speaker wire is cheap and a good call.

As far as running new power wires, make sure they are fused properly at the battery and wherever the wire splits off.

 

[bruceb58]

look at the back of the speakers and the wire color should be the same as what's under there. No need to run anything new.

You can take a 9 volt battery and connect to pairs of wires to determine which speaker is connected to a pair of wires. You will hear a little pop when connecting it for a short time to the battery

 

[tpenfield]

Do any of the connectors match up to the new stereo? That may provide a starting point, but you still may have to do a lot of wire tracing with a multimeter.

If you have decent access, and the connectors don't match, you could just run new wiring and connectors. 23 year old wiring, how good could it be? See if it is marine rated, or not . That may be a deciding factor.

 

[Brandon5778]

look at the back of the speakers and the wire color should be the same as what's under there. No need to run anything new.

That's exactly what I did and was thinking. The wires from the speakers are red, green, blue, and orange (with a black strip down the respective negatives). I cannot find these color wires ANYWHERE under the dash. Neither can my buddy. The existing wiring at the speakers appears to not be marine, that's why I figured run new anyway. I know to fuse off the power and memory wires but still wondering how big of a power wire I would need to go about 15 foot. I have 16 gauge marine wire right now but I'm not sure if that is big enough for a radio. Thanks for the replies, happy boating.

 

[Jarcher3]

Have you checked the other side? sometimes the stereo is installed on the port side. is there a hole already and thats why you are looking?

 

[gm280]

That's exactly what I did and was thinking. The wires from the speakers are red, green, blue, and orange (with a black strip down the respective negatives). I cannot find these color wires ANYWHERE under the dash. Neither can my buddy. The existing wiring at the speakers appears to not be marine, that's why I figured run new anyway. I know to fuse off the power and memory wires but still wondering how big of a power wire I would need to go about 15 foot. I have 16 gauge marine wire right now but I'm not sure if that is big enough for a radio. Thanks for the replies, happy boating.

You can determine that proper gauge wire for the power AND ground by looking to see what current the new radio system requires. Then check a wire gauge chart to make that determination. As for the speakers, sounds like the wires at the speakers were not long enough to make the long runs, so the person spliced into them to run to the helm area.

Use the idea that bruseb58 suggested above, to figure out the wires at the helm to the speakers. Once you have them all figured out and marked, then use them with your new system. You will probably have to either buy the correct plug connector to fit the old system, or cut the old connectors off and install new connector to fit the new radio system.

I would only replace all the wires if you are not satisfied with the performance of your new radio system. Otherwise, happy boating. JMHO