2001 Tahoe + Alpine CDA-9847

Hey, I just picked up this Alpine head unit and I'm trying to install it myself. I got the stock head unit out, and cut the plug off the wires coming through into the inside of the stereo cavity. I plan to just hardwire all the wires together, from the head unit into this wire bundle, but I can't for the life of me find a audio wiring diagram for my 2001... Just every other year.... Anyway, if anyone could help me out here and pair these head unit color/descriptions up with the colors they should connect to... or even better, just point me to a proper wiring diagram/something similar, that'd be great. Also, will I run into any problems with this twist 'em together and tape 'em up" approach? Here are the head unit colors: Red - Switched Power Pink - Audio Interrupt in Lead Orange - Illumination Gray - Front Right Speaker + Gray/Black - Front Right Speaker - White - Front Left Speaker + WHITE/ Black - Front Right Speaker - Black - Ground Lead Blue - Power Antenna Lead Blue/White - Remote Turn On Lead Violet - Rear Right Speaker + Violet/Black - Rear Right Speaker - Green - Rear Left Speaker + GREEN/ Black - Rear Left Speaker - Yellow - Battery Lead Thanks :]

Unless you have a factory amp, I usually use a 9 volt battery (or a speaker sniffer that does phase) with wire leads from it and "pop" the speakers to find the appropriate leads from the vehicle.

Yeah, I do have a factory amp. I'm more worried about which wires are the Constant 12V and the Switched 12V... As the typical colors for these are RED / Orange, and my Tahoe has a Red, and 2 different colored Oranges in the wire bundle :] I went and bought a wire diagram though, going to test the wires later today, but if anyone with experience doing this already could post some advice in addition to this, that'd be great.

Hrm... So I got the 2001 Tahoe manual and looked up the wiring diagrams, and wired together the Ignition wire, Battery wire, and ground wire, and yet the head unit doesn't turn on. These are the only connections required to test whether it turns on or not, correct? I thought perhaps there was a short in the wire somewhere, so I busted out the voltmeter and checked that the hot wire was indeed showing ~12v. Even so, I hooked wires directly to the battery and connected my head unit's Main power wire and ground wire to the + and - respectively... The unit still will not power up. Do I need the illumination wire connected? I thought that connection was just for dimming the faceplate.

toad738 wrote: Even so, I hooked wires directly to the battery and connected my head unit's Main power wire and ground wire to the + and - respectively... The unit still will not power up. .

You need to connect the RED & YELLOW wire together to the battery (+) and the BLACK to the battery (-).

Jeff

Velocity Custom Home Theater

Mobile Audio/Video Specialist

Morden, Manitoba CANADA

Ha! Thank You! Wired the Red & Yellow from the head unit together, then to the ignition wire, and now everything works, even the RAP (Stereo stays on with keys removed, until I open the door) As a side note.... All 2001 Tahoe wiring diagrams I've come across are wrong, the colors were completely different. I'll map them out tomorrow just incase someone else needs them.

I lied. I killed the gauges :] And, the speakers cut out when i turn the stereo volume up too high, which is odd, because it's not as loud as i've had it before with the factory HU... So I figure I got some wires crossed somewhere...

Haha, Got it all set up and running perfectly :] No third party harness, no rap adapter. Just played around with the wiring until I got it. All gauges, indicators and lights work. Door Chime works. Factory amp works. All Speakers (and factory sub) work. Everything works great :] Took me about 8 hours total work, and 22 bucks worth of parts (wire, fuse, wire crimps, fuse holder, dash kit) (I had to run a wire from the battery to the stereo. Put a fuse on the wire, and ran it through the large rubber plug on the firewall that all the other gauge wires run through. Snug fit.)

thats ridiculous that radio should not have taken any more than 20-30min TOPS to do. Best Buy Installer