Hope I dont sound to much like a cherry but...I recently purchased a 1988 37.5 Hunter Legend with a working antiquated stereo system. I bought a car stereo and hooked up the three leads (red, black, yellow)as shown, the installation instruction call for the black(negative) wire to be hooked up to a metal portion of the car chassis which I obviously couldnt do so I hooked the black lead up to the boat's black lead...problem is that the stereo will not turn on at all. I hooked up a voltmeter and I am getting 12v thru the wires but I believe it has something to do with the grounding of the black wire. My question is...are marine specific stereos grounded diferently than car stereos? If not, how do I make a car stereo work on my sailboat? Note: the fuse is intact and I have tried a couple other car stereo thinking that something was wrong
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Is The back a ground?
Not sure if this helps or not , but it never hurts to check. Are you sure that the black wire on your boat is indeed a ground. To be sure use your meter to check that the black wire does indeed go to ground. If that does not work try running a wire direct to the ground post on your battery. It has been my experience to never trust somebody else's wiring. Good luck
Not sure if this helps or not , but it never hurts to check. Are you sure that the black wire on your boat is indeed a ground. To be sure use your meter to check that the black wire does indeed go to ground. If that does not work try running a wire direct to the ground post on your battery. It has been my experience to never trust somebody else's wiring. Good luck
Is The black a ground?
Not sure if this helps or not , but it never hurts to check. Are you sure that the black wire on your boat is indeed a ground. To be sure use your meter to check that the black wire does indeed go to ground. If that does not work try running a wire direct to the ground post on your battery. It has been my experience to never trust somebody else's wiring. Good luck
Not sure if this helps or not , but it never hurts to check. Are you sure that the black wire on your boat is indeed a ground. To be sure use your meter to check that the black wire does indeed go to ground. If that does not work try running a wire direct to the ground post on your battery. It has been my experience to never trust somebody else's wiring. Good luck
Yes you can
Absolutely can use a car stereo in your boat.The pevious post is right on the money as far as checking the negative.Your not clear where it is that your getting the 12 volts from.The yellow wire is for the memory(time and station preset).Keep in mind the drain is small but constant.On my boat I ran new wires and fuse boxes where possible.That way I know that the work was done correctly and how it was done.Need further help reach me offline
Absolutely can use a car stereo in your boat.The pevious post is right on the money as far as checking the negative.Your not clear where it is that your getting the 12 volts from.The yellow wire is for the memory(time and station preset).Keep in mind the drain is small but constant.On my boat I ran new wires and fuse boxes where possible.That way I know that the work was done correctly and how it was done.Need further help reach me offline
More ideas
Not to insult anyone, but the first two questions any good support technician will ask are: 1) Is it plugged in? 2) Is it turned on? As mentioned in the previous post, a car stereo has two +12 volt inputs. One is permanently connected to the battery to maintain memory and run the clock (yellow), and the other (red) is connected to an ignition related power source to bring the radio to life when the car is running. Both must be connected to +12v to use the radio. Is the black wire connected to ground of the boat's 12 volt system? Sure hope you don't mean the 110v black lead! Is there also a dimmer input that must be tied to +12v or ground? Are the speaker wires connected properly? Try disconnecting them to check for a short. Are all unused wires taped to avoid shorts? Does the radio have a security feature that requires a code to be keyed in? Here is a site that might help, although you probably have the original installation instructions in hand.
Not to insult anyone, but the first two questions any good support technician will ask are: 1) Is it plugged in? 2) Is it turned on? As mentioned in the previous post, a car stereo has two +12 volt inputs. One is permanently connected to the battery to maintain memory and run the clock (yellow), and the other (red) is connected to an ignition related power source to bring the radio to life when the car is running. Both must be connected to +12v to use the radio. Is the black wire connected to ground of the boat's 12 volt system? Sure hope you don't mean the 110v black lead! Is there also a dimmer input that must be tied to +12v or ground? Are the speaker wires connected properly? Try disconnecting them to check for a short. Are all unused wires taped to avoid shorts? Does the radio have a security feature that requires a code to be keyed in? Here is a site that might help, although you probably have the original installation instructions in hand.
antena mite need to be grounded
Car stereos have ground throw the antena that is mounted to the body of the car. On a boat you need a ground wire on the antena bace That is how It worked when I was A kid.Three years ago I put acar stereo in my C30.It was a soney with aAM FM CD with a10 disk changer lots of power and it was 300bucks worked great when I grounded the antena John
Car stereos have ground throw the antena that is mounted to the body of the car. On a boat you need a ground wire on the antena bace That is how It worked when I was A kid.Three years ago I put acar stereo in my C30.It was a soney with aAM FM CD with a10 disk changer lots of power and it was 300bucks worked great when I grounded the antena John
Be VERY careful with "ground" connections
There are several "ground" systems on a boat. There is a DC ground, AC ground, RF ground and a bonding system which is often confused with "ground". The stereo may have a connection between the DC power ground and the antenna (RF) ground. The case may be connected to both. You do not want to connect the antenna shield to the bonding system in the boat. Resulting electrolysis can cause some very expensive problems not only on your boat but also on your neighbors boat. Cars do not have the same kinds of problems found on boats. Better have a person who is experienced with boat electrical systems take a look if you have any doubts about what you are doing.
There are several "ground" systems on a boat. There is a DC ground, AC ground, RF ground and a bonding system which is often confused with "ground". The stereo may have a connection between the DC power ground and the antenna (RF) ground. The case may be connected to both. You do not want to connect the antenna shield to the bonding system in the boat. Resulting electrolysis can cause some very expensive problems not only on your boat but also on your neighbors boat. Cars do not have the same kinds of problems found on boats. Better have a person who is experienced with boat electrical systems take a look if you have any doubts about what you are doing.
The yellow wire...
I have always used car stereos on all my boats - no problem. Ground the black to same ground as your VHF - or for a temporary test ground it straight to your neg. battery terminal. The yellow - for memory - may have to have 12v to it as well. This turned out to be the problem with one of my hook ups - I did not think that wire needed to be connected for the stereo to work and I was wrong.
I have always used car stereos on all my boats - no problem. Ground the black to same ground as your VHF - or for a temporary test ground it straight to your neg. battery terminal. The yellow - for memory - may have to have 12v to it as well. This turned out to be the problem with one of my hook ups - I did not think that wire needed to be connected for the stereo to work and I was wrong.
Stereo Problem
Had a similar problem on the installation of my car stereo. Couldn't get the CD player to work right. Kept getting a lot of static when volume turned up or all static. Anyway, the way mine was wired was the red and yellow were both positive and the black was negative. What I did was buy some 12 gauge machine tool wire and cut into sections so that I could temporarily hook the thing up to see what worked. Try different places where it looks like a ground. Be careful when you do this cause it's real easy to get in trouble wiring to the wrong polarity. Still didn't find the answer to my problem. Now I'm Looking at the possibility of the speakers being under powered or some corrosion in the wires. Paul H S/V Linda Belle 95 H26 P
Had a similar problem on the installation of my car stereo. Couldn't get the CD player to work right. Kept getting a lot of static when volume turned up or all static. Anyway, the way mine was wired was the red and yellow were both positive and the black was negative. What I did was buy some 12 gauge machine tool wire and cut into sections so that I could temporarily hook the thing up to see what worked. Try different places where it looks like a ground. Be careful when you do this cause it's real easy to get in trouble wiring to the wrong polarity. Still didn't find the answer to my problem. Now I'm Looking at the possibility of the speakers being under powered or some corrosion in the wires. Paul H S/V Linda Belle 95 H26 P
Boat Stereo
A great investment is Don Casey's "Sailboat Electrics". He gives you lots of info in a well written manner. One of the things he emphasizes is that the new wiring standard calls for a DC yellow ground in boat electrical systems because of the potential confusion with the AC black positive wire.
A great investment is Don Casey's "Sailboat Electrics". He gives you lots of info in a well written manner. One of the things he emphasizes is that the new wiring standard calls for a DC yellow ground in boat electrical systems because of the potential confusion with the AC black positive wire.
The 'Down
All of the previous posts have contained useful info, but let's get to the heart of the problem. Give this a try: Get 2 pieces of wire, 14 or 12 guage, one red and one black, long enough to go from the stereo to your battery bank. Hook the red wire to the (probably) red and yellow wires on the stereo. (the main hot wire and the 'memory hold-up wire') Hook the black wire to the 'ground' wire on the stereo. (also probably black) Now, run these wires DIRECTLY to the battery and hook them up. Don't worry about routing them through the boat or anything, just run them acroos the floor of the cabin to the battery box. See what happens. If the stereo works, you know what you have to do. If it doesn't work, get another stereo! Of course, this assumes that you've wired the speakers properly, but that should have been fairly simple if you followed the directions and schematic that came with the stereo. Jeff
All of the previous posts have contained useful info, but let's get to the heart of the problem. Give this a try: Get 2 pieces of wire, 14 or 12 guage, one red and one black, long enough to go from the stereo to your battery bank. Hook the red wire to the (probably) red and yellow wires on the stereo. (the main hot wire and the 'memory hold-up wire') Hook the black wire to the 'ground' wire on the stereo. (also probably black) Now, run these wires DIRECTLY to the battery and hook them up. Don't worry about routing them through the boat or anything, just run them acroos the floor of the cabin to the battery box. See what happens. If the stereo works, you know what you have to do. If it doesn't work, get another stereo! Of course, this assumes that you've wired the speakers properly, but that should have been fairly simple if you followed the directions and schematic that came with the stereo. Jeff
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