Radio presets reset

[83kid]

Hi,
So i have an aftermarket sony radio in my 83 k10. It has 3 connections going into the back of it, 2 go off to somewhere else, i havent traced them, and the third connects to a little antenna in a boot which just comes out of the dash, works well for reception and such.
When i set a preset, itll work normal and fine while im driving the truck. Once i shut the truck off, the next time i go to start it the presets are reset, it resets everything.
Not sure if this would have anything to do with the wiring in the truck, or the radio itself, anyone know why this might be?

Thanks!

 

[silverscottsk10]

There should be a wire that is always hot
It let's the radio power off with ignition but the small draw remembers the presets
If you unhook and rebook up the battery quickly a radio shouldn't lose it's presets
Try finding the wires
One should be ground
One should be power
And one should be remote
The rest will go to your speakers and then the antenna should plug into your radio in a seperate spot from your wires

 

[chengny]

Modern head units require a constant power supply to maintain tuner memory presets, keep the clock running and preserve output preferences.

When these trucks were in production, car audio systems were primitive by today's standards. The head units supplied had no electronic presets (there were 5 manual buttons that could be set to your favorite stations - I forget how). The clocks were analog and were located in the dash board. Balance, treble/bass and fade were adjusted by turning a secondary knob that was just behind the volume and tuning knobs.


Anyway since these radios had no need for power when they were turned off, no constant power supply was included in the wiring harness.

Other than the speaker wires the radio was serviced by 3 wires:

1. A yellow power lead. It is energized only when the ignition switch is in either RUN or ACC position.

2. A black ground lead.

3. A gray illumination lead that is energized only when the headlight switch is in either parking lights or head lights position. It is fed off the instrument panel lighting circuit and tracks along with those lamps - controlled by the dimmer rheostat.


So, in order to properly wire in a modern head unit you must have a battery supply (unswitched power) to the Sony.

The yellow wire from the truck's harness will need to go to the red wire on the Sony.

Once you've lead out a constant battery source (the cigarette lighter wire is a good easy lead to splice into - it is always energized) - let's say you make it a red wire.

That new red wire needs to go to the yellow wire on the Sony harness.

Black goes to black

Truck side gray wire goes to orange/white on Sony

That's it with 12VDC always supplied to the yellow wire on the Sony harness, your presets and preferences will stick.



Modern head unit wiring color codes are standardized across all brands - or should be. Here is a standard wiring set up:

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[rich weyand]

SLike chengny said. It sounds to me like the constant voltage supply wire (yellow) is either not hooked up, or is hooked up to a voltage source that is interrupted by the starter position on the ignition switch.

 

[83kid]

Took me forever to get to looking into this.

Thanks for all the help!
I figured out the person who installed the radio put the yellow wire from the truck side to both the yellow and red wire on the radio. I cut the yellow one, and wired it into the cigarette lighter as chengy suggested, now it works wonderfully how it should, thanks guys for all the help!!