working on this 83 nissan 280zx all wires cut out (installing new stereo) ran all new wires, power speakers, etc but cannot find power anttena wire how can i test old wires to find which one it is?thanks mike
If you would have asked before you ran the new wires, this would have helped.
https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp~TID~74637~PN~1
You will need to go through the first few steps of the above to find Constant Power, Switched power, and Illumination. I know you do not need these wires but we do have to eliminate them, since we know these wires are not the ones we are looking for.
Maybe some one here remembers what color the wire is. This vehicle may have had a switch to half mast or all the way up. I do not remember. If it did not have the switch, the following should help.
Now you will need an OHM meter set to the 2000 ohm scale (if it is not an auto ranging meter) Touch the black lead to the chassis of the car, and begin touching the red lead to the existing wires. Since the speaker wires are not connected to anything, they will give you no reading at all. There will be one wire that does give you a reading. If there is one and only one that does give you a reading chances are this is your wire. Now you will need a fuse holder and a 1 amp fuse. Connect one side of the fuse holder to a 12volt source and touch the other side of fuse holder to the wire you just found, this should make your antenna go up.
Go to the power antenna. There should be switched ground and the trigger from the radio.
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There is one faster way if its an older car ( you said 1983 right)use a tester put the clip on a power source and probe the wires in the original harness, the tester passes just enough current that when you hit the right wire the power antenna moves a bit and thats your wire.
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THE DUCE
Did it in my friends 1988 trans am, someone stole the other stereo everything was ripped out wires damaged everything was ugly, was just a big hole. I forgot my meter when installing his new stereo so i used my tester and when i was looking for the ground wire i touched the antenna wire and the antenna moved, voila antenna wire found.
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THE DUCE