The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay The Radio Bench Help me wire my radio!

i have a '51 Chevy, 3600. for Christmas i got a new radio (Concours USA-2) and i need to find out where i can plug in the different power wires (ignition, constant battery power, etc). I have yet to find a "fuse box." please help!

Not sure when they went to a fuse box. Originally everything was individually fused which may be the case with your 51. It that's the case you'll need to put an in-line fuse on the main power wire. The low amp memory wire probably doesn't need one. As for where to connect your main power wire, it depends on how you want it to work. If you want it to play without the ignition on you'll need to hook to the battery side of the switch. If you want it to play only with the switch on you'll need to hook to the switched side. The memory wire would connect to the battery side of the switch to be hot all the time.

Peteskey,

Is the truck 12 volt...or is the radio 6 volt...are they the same operating voltage.

Stuart

My thoughts exactally. If the voltages are the same, I would wire it on it's own fused circut. years ago I wired a small fuse block into a older truck just to run accesories, these older trucks wiring harnesses/ignition switches were not desinged to run todays accesories. I powered the block off a switch/relay so I could shut it off when not in use, ( no draw on the battery) also if the radio has memory you will need a separate fused constant power ( usually the yellow wire on the radio) If you only plan on running the radio a simple circut should be fine. ANY feed wire shoule be fused as close to the feed source as posible IE battery, ignition switch, etc, un fused wires are how fires start! some people and manufactures use fusable links ( a sm pice of sacrifical wire usually 2 gauges smaller than the circut that acts like a fuse) Hope this helps