Cant find hot wire

I have a 87 nissan pickup and i cant seem to find the hot wire for the radio...can anyone help?

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Chris

+12 v constant = red / black stripe

+12v ignition = blue

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

There isn't a blue wire though, All the diagrams i have found are different from what is in there.

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Chris

---OK, first of all, I appologize that when I went to copy wiring diagrams for the `87 Nissan 4x4 Picjup I was working on that I didn't copy everything. I looked in my copies and thet was one thing I didn't scan.

---Now, what you have to do, since there were at least two engines I can think of in the year model you inquired about, is find the wiring diagrams for that year/make/model/engine. If your VIN says that it is an 87 made after June, then it would actually be an 88 in the manuals. If you head to the library and look in the reference section, you might find some better diagrams that I have found, some of the best. Look for service manuals called Mitchell. The Mitchell Service Manuals for "Engine and Chassis Electrical" and then you should find just what you need. They have the most extensive diagrams and at the end of each section they include notes on whatever has been changed in the following year.

---The only other advice I would have is to Join a MSN Community for 720s, the Nissan of those years would fall under the 720 models that include Datsun. What you find in Datsun Service manuals might also help you with your Nissan considering they are both 720s.

---Wish I could offer you more than that. Good luck.

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Here's the URL for Nissan/Datsun 720 Pickup Owners Group on MSN (lots of info just on the opening page)

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Why don't you do the easy thing and get a DMM in there? Take any connector (for the harzards, for instance) to start. Ground the one end of the meter, and start with one wire to the red end of the meter. If it has a voltage of .2VDC, it's a good start. Now turn your key to the ACC setting (assuming you have one). Does the meter read 12VDC? If yes, bingo, you have found your ignition line. If no, move to the next wire, and try try again.

Should be pretty easy.

Good Luck!
DXAV

dxav]W wrote:

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y don't you do the easy thing and get a DMM in there? Take any connector (for the harzards, for instance) to start. Ground the one end of the meter, and start with one wire to the red end of the meter. If it has a voltage of .2VDC, it's a good start. Now turn your key to the ACC setting (assuming you have one). Does the meter read 12VDC? If yes, bingo, you have found your ignition line. If no, move to the next wire, and try try again.

Should be pretty easy.

Good Luck!
DXAV

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---Good idea, but there is only one problem. On the Nissan engines, if he finds the wrong wire and taps it, he could end up robbing his ignition... if it is the z24 engine. He is on the right track when trying to find a wiring diagram. Unless... he disconnects the battery, dismounts the fuse panel and follows the radio fuse to the appropraite wires. Then once he finds the correct color(s), he can use the ohm meter on one end at the fuse panel and by stripping the insulation back on the wire behind the radio... as long as he seals the insulation he has stripped. That* would be slightly less of a "shot in the dark" so to speak.

---The wiring on those models was not something as simple as you might thing. That is all I am saying in this post. When I copied the wiring for the job I was doing, there was a reason why I sat for an hour at the library and sorted through what I needed and didn't need before I scanned.

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Good call, though my solution was an easy troubleshoot.

Why would he be robbing his ignition? Due to current draw? A simple relay could fix that in a snap.

DXAV

Ok i found the ignition wire but cant find the constant 12v wire, I ended up wiring both the switch wire to both the power and acc wire on the stereo just to get power, the stereo does turn on and off when i turn the truck on and off so i dont have to worry about the battery dying. On the other hand the memory wont stay programmed in the stereo, have to reset the clock every time i turn the truck on....oh and the engine is a z24

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Chris

Can't you check that Batt wire with a DMM, too?

Should be able to find 12VDC near your steering or heater functions.

DXAV