1980 Land Rover Series 3 Stereo/wiring problems

Hiya everyone, so my boss has a 1980 Land Rover Series 3 imported from SA and he wanted a stereo fitted into it, it didnt come with any wiring so he hired someone to fit some, they connected it up to the battery but it was constantly live so it drained the battery over some time, also they didnt earth/ground it properly. In the end he was using the stereo one time and all of a sudden it started smoking so he unplugged it. I had a little look at it yesterday and the entire ground cable has melted. I was wondering if there was a way to connect a wiring loom without having to connect it to the battery so he could then connect a stereo harness to it to use on a daily basis, would like some opinions before I go ahead and try anything. Im capable to installing everything I just wanted some advice from people who know alot more about Land Rovers than me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

P.S I would be looking to hook the stereo up via a fuse in the fuse box located just under the steering wheel via a fuse that is ignition rather than live so it isnt constantly powered. Can upload photos at a later stage if needed.

The wiring isn’t complicated at the car end. Some of the fuse box contacts are permanent live and some are ignition live. It will only take a simple tester to find out which. An inline fuse rated for the radio is a must which would have saved the fault in the radio that had caused the closed circuit that melted the wiring. I doubt very much the radio is salvageable.

Bobsticle said:

The wiring isn’t complicated at the car end. Some of the fuse box contacts are permanent live and some are ignition live. It will only take a simple tester to find out which. An inline fuse rated for the radio is a must which would have saved the fault in the radio that had caused the closed circuit that melted the wiring. I doubt very much the radio is salvageable.

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Thankyou for the reply I appreciate it. How would I go about wiring it, was thinking having a separate battery and connect up some form of switch that can be turned off to stop power going to the wires when not in use then wire it up to that and then connect it to the fuse box aswell I have a multimeter to test the fuses etc, I normally deal with cars with the wiring for the stereo already pre installed so this is a new one for me. Is there a way to power the whole stereo without having to connect it to the battery via just a fuse for example then grounding it properly just wanted to know of that was an option as I can't seem to find anything online to help me on the situation

If the fuse box is the same as mine just piggyback a live from the fused side spade connector. Fit a 10amp in line fuse. The earth from the radio can be screwed/self tapped or bolted to the bodywork.
You can buy piggyback spade connectors with a double out but most series owners seem to prefer twists and sellotape.
One of the fuses in mine seems to have had a piggyback spade connector factory fitted for one circuit but I can’t remember which one.

Oh and if standard, one of the four fuses in the box is a spare. It has nothing going in or out.

Bobsticle said:

Oh and if standard, one of the four fuses in the box is a spare. It has nothing going in or out.

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Ok great thankyou soo much I'll have a look in the manual and see what I can find