Mystery Wires (stereo, maybe?), wiring Options

[avocadotom]

I am in the (hopefully) last stages of assembling my ‘72 914 and I’m hoping to install a stereo.

There are two mystery wires coming out of the hole where the stereo would be, although they do not appear to be the negative and positive wires (although I didn’t check if they independently have power to them). Any idea what they might be?

Backstory: I bought this 914 disassembled by a previous owner and I’m new to 914s, so it’s been a journey...

[bbrock]

That's right. For factory wiring, solid brown is a ground and brown with white tracer is a switched ground. You are right, door switches, brake lever contact, interior light, etc. all have brown with white tracer because those are switched grounds meaning that the ground circuit isn't completed until a switch makes contact. If you test the voltage on one of those wires upstream of the first switch in the circuit, it is going to read hot because you are completing the ground circuit with your meter or test light. If you test on the other side of an open switch, you will get nothing.

The interior light is a good demo because it has both a brown and brwn/white wire attached. One position on the light switch closes contact to the solid brown ground connector and the light comes on. The opposite position closes contact to the switched ground but the ground circuit isn't completed until you open a door and close a contact on a door switch.

This all may be interesting for understanding the theory behind the car wiring, but doesn't help with what that particular wire does. It also assumes a PO hasn't gotten creative with borrowing and splicing wire.