Wire a radio in a 1976 Chevy 1500

hey there, its ringman again, Moved on to a 1976 Chevy 1500, helping a friend of mine wire up a expensive ass radio where the display shows race cars on a track, yeah that one. Well I know all you alls will want to say, well get yourself a wireing harness adapter, well already looked into that, fella, and there is none for this date, SO if anyone knows these damn old manual tuned radios and what wires to cut and splice into the new radio, it would really help me out, thankx!
Ringman69

with an old truck like that why not just run new wires???

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THE LOUDER THE BETTER !!!!!!
CAN YOU FEEL IT ?????

Thats a good very good idea.....just run new wire...

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If we learn from each success and
each failure, then we can improve ourselves

if your not for running new wire i think your going to have to test or trace the wires.

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Quad L Handyman services

I'd probably run wires as the others have said (at least power, accessory, and ground).  Does anyone know if this is a common ground system?  You may be able to use the speaker wires that are there.  If you do hardwire, you probably won't have a switched accessory wire in the harness.  In my '83 chevy caprice, I used a harness, but had to get accessory from the fuse block.

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My ex once told me I have a perfect face for radio.

well, if I do wire up this beast, What and where do I run all the wiores from and to. Well I know I will have to run a 12 constant from the positive terminal to the radio wire, and then where should I find the wire to tap into the 12 volt switched? I will run the ground to my chassis, and the guy is planning to put a 650 amp and 2 subs in there also, which I will wire up the remote lead to the amp and etc.. but you sayh that I will have to hard wire up the dash speakers?

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Ringman69

I would strongly recommend that you install new speaker wire between the radio or amp and the speakers. The original wiring is so old and brittle it will only cause you problems trying to use it. For switched ignition power you may be able to use the original radio power harness's wiring. There should be a black plug by or in the radio with a yellow wire (12 volt + switched); a black wire (ground); and a grey wire (illumination). If the wires aren't in too bad of shape use them. For memory you can use the orange lead to the cigarette lighter, unless the deck is a high power unit. You can also find contacts in the fuse box to supply ignition and battery power for the radio.

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sparky

For switched 12v, if it's not in the harness (pretty likely), you can use the ignition harness or the fuse box.  The same goes for the constant.  Actually, you should run new wires to all the speakers as well.  I didn't see this before, but it looks like you have common ground speakers.

https://www.streetdreams.com/wires/gm/general-0pre-1978.html

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My ex once told me I have a perfect face for radio.

A lot of the older gm's, when you look a the fuse panel, it was actually labelled as to what the fuses and extra contacts were for. Check to see if this truck is one of them.

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Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.

hey you guys, just checking in, thankx for sparkie's post, I used that info and got the baby all wired up and ran new wire to the battery, so it's all good, everything worked and thankx for you all again, for saving my ass in a jam,once again!

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Ringman69