After market Radio wiring questions, Wiring locations for after market digital media players Options

[pgollender]

I decided to update my fuse box with a J-West box. ( Much nicer) and at the same time install an after market SONY digital radio. I need help with where to locate or "splice"
the new wiring.

There is a yellow 12V power wire that supposedly stays on all the time as you dont lose your presets.
A red wire that is the 12V "Key On accessory wire"
and an Orange/white wire that is an "illumination wire" that dims your new radio lights when the headlights are activated.
Where is the best place to attach/splice/locate these wires ?
Last time I added an after market radio was pre-digital and just attached the one radio line to the cigarette lead.

[Dave_Darling]

Don't use those "vampire taps", please! They create more problems than they solve...

The piggyback connectors (shown in the second pic in Clark's post) are what you need. Find where the wires you need plug in, and plug them into one of those instead.

Wires you will need (gleaned from the 74 wiring diagram, as that's what I have and you didn't specify the year of your 914) :
- Red/white : Switched power, gets +12V when the key is on
- Solid red: Unswitched power
- Brown: Ground
- Black/blue: Instrument illumination, goes through the dimmer on the light switch
- Red/white and black/blue together on pin 56 of the headlight switch: Headlight power, gets +12V when the headlights are on

The stock fuse panel has extra lugs for the constant power and the switched power. I think the JWest panel likely does as well, so you should be able to plug into those. If not, then use the piggyback connector for those circuits.

For the illumination wire, I would put a piggyback connector on pin 56 of the headlight switch. You probably don't want a signal that's gone through a dimmer for that.

--DD