Relay installation

[Dern Humpus]

Any suggestions as to which wire I should splice to power a relay? I am installing a relay so that my radar detector turns on with the ignition. I was going to use the power wire from the cd player (since that is the only one which I can locate). The problem with it is that it will be a pain to get to. Do I need the Ford tools to take the CD player/Radio out?

 

[1wykdmk8]

Any suggestions as to which wire I should splice to power a relay? I am installing a relay so that my radar detector turns on with the ignition. I was going to use the power wire from the cd player (since that is the only one which I can locate). The problem with it is that it will be a pain to get to. Do I need the Ford tools to take the CD player/Radio out?

The pic at the bottom is what you need, it is a Ford Din Removal tool. You can get them at any place that sells radio parts, or you can just use a coat hanger and bend it in the same manner.

All you have to do is use the radio's power and use some 3M t-taps to splice into the power (pic at bottom too). The wire you want to tap into is the white with purple strip wire on the back of the radio (that is the one that turns off when you turn the car off), you can use the light green with purple wire for the constant 12v source, and you can use the black wire for the ground.

Here is how it should pin out on the back of the relay:

Pin 30 - Light Green with purple wire on back of radio (constant 12 volts)
Pin 85 - Ground
Pin 86 - White with purple wire on back of radio (switched 12 volts...off when car is off)
Pin 87 - Wire to radar detector

Hope this helps a bit.

 

[Dern Humpus]

thanks for the help.

 

[Dern Humpus]

The white with purple wire did not give the relay enough power to close the switch. The relay is a 30 amp relay. Is that too much? Is there another wire I can try?

 

[1wykdmk8]

The white with purple wire did not give the relay enough power to close the switch. The relay is a 30 amp relay. Is that too much? Is there another wire I can try?

You can try the pink with orange wire that goes to the HVAC.