1990 Range Rover classic radio and speaker wiring

h_mose · Feb 16, 2019

Hi, I’ve been reading and searching many forums for a while on Range Rover classic radios and their wiring and although I’ve read miles of forums I can’t actually find the answer I’m looking for, I own a 1990 Range Rover classic which has has the radio head unit removed prior to me owning it, Ive got an aftermarket unit to replace it with however I’m having some issues with the wiring, the plug which is present in the radio slot is something I’ve not seen before (should be pictured).
I’be looked at numerous wiring diagrams but can’t seem to find anything that correlates to my wiring.
Does this plug head to an Amp or sub ? Or do they go straight to the speakers ?! I only have 4 speakers through out the whole vehicle and I can’t seem to find an amp or sub ? With only 4 speakers do I have an amp etc ?,

From what I’ve read:
the black will be earth,
Red/black is ignition power feed,
Purple/white is permanent power feed

I then have an assortment of other colours which I guess will be amp power switch (which I don’t know If I have one ?) and the rest will be speakers, does anyone know what colour the speaker wires are or will I have to trial and error these ?!

Obviously there’s an aerial wire sepparately too.

Any help would be much appreciated, all I really want to know is if I can use the existing wiring loom that’s present or would it be easier to run new wires to the speakers and try bodge the job?
Thanks very much

ukadamwest · Feb 16, 2019

Speaker wires direct. you'll have the door speakers and the two in thecrear roof lining. no built in amp in the 1990.

discool · Feb 16, 2019

The colours of those wires look the same as my D1, it not the same they are very similar.
So u already have the two 12v supplies plus earth to the head unit, so you need to find the vehicles lighting feed to illuminate the head unit, then it’s just the loudspeaker feeds which u can identify simply by removing the loudspeaker and noting the colour of the wires to them.
All the other wiring from your replacement head unit are surplus so just wrap up tightly to keep safe u may require them one day, u never know.

My pic shows the birds nest of wire my head unit had to connect to the vehicles wiring

kds · Feb 17, 2019

Halfords ( yes I shop there when needed) did a adapter lead when I changed the radio in my 1989 but that was some years ago now.

h_mose · Feb 17, 2019

Thanks guys that was pretty helpful advice, does anyone know what colour the speaker wires are and which corner they correspond to ? I’ve taken both front speakers out to have a look and the have small gauge wires, one black/ white wire and the other solid black, however that doesn’t really correspond to the coloured wires on the connector at the dash ?! Thanks

Ratae · Feb 17, 2019

Just had a quick look at the factory fit Clarion radio/cassette player I took out of my 1986 & that had two connectors one of which was only for the speakers. All the speaker wires (four pairs) were black & black/white from the radio itself & on both sides of their connector but each had a small label at the radio end showing which speaker it supplied.
I chopped the lot & fitted modern connectors to suit the radio/cd player (not Land Rover branded) using a multimeter as necessary.

I'd suggest your best bet is to use a multimeter on continuity to determine which wire goes to which speaker although it does mean you'll need to take them out.

frog hopper · Feb 17, 2019

IIRC when I fitted the radio into my classic (1988) I found which speaker wires went where by touching the bared wire ends to a 1.5v AA battery, and just listened for the scratchy sounds coming from each speaker in turn.

kds · Feb 18, 2019

frog hopper said:
IIRC when I fitted the radio into my classic (1988) I found which speaker wires went where by touching the bared wire ends to a 1.5v AA battery, and just listened for the scratchy sounds coming from each speaker in turn.

Now were is the thumbs up smiley thing when you need it !

h_mose · Feb 18, 2019

Thanks to everyone who’s helped; I know what all the wires now do, all that’s left is to determine positive and negative of each speaker and wire the new head unit in
Thanks

Kev12 · Feb 18, 2019

It doesnt really matter which way round you connect the speakers. Technically they wont be in phase with each other but in reality you'll never know the difference

ukadamwest · Feb 18, 2019

Kev12 said:
It doesnt really matter which way round you connect the speakers. Technically they wont be in phase with each other but in reality you'll never know the difference

there is a method that I've used in the past to check phasing and pos/neg on speakers wires....

what I have done, is unscrew the speaker, slip it out and look at the connections on the back and which is neg and which is pos.

h_mose · Feb 18, 2019

ukadamwest said:
there is a method that I've used in the past to check phasing and pos/neg on speakers wires....

what I have done, is unscrew the speaker, slip it out and look at the connections on the back and which is neg and which is pos.

That method is ok if you know what coloured wires you have at the radio connector end, I had coloured wires that didn’t correspond with the speakers so looking at the back of the speakers didn’t help because I still wouldn’t have known which wires they were at the other end so to speak, I ended up using an AA battery and just watched which way the speaker moved, sucking in was the wrong way round, the speaker blowing out was correct.
I’m all sorted now thanks guys

sjr202 · Jun 21, 2022

h_mose said:
Thanks to everyone who’s helped; I know what all the wires now do, all that’s left is to determine positive and negative of each speaker and wire the new head unit in
Thanks View attachment 170283

@h_mose I probably owe you a beer for above notes - after 'dicking' about with trying to figure out wires from various sources and trial and error, 2 cut fingers and almost giving up, I found your post last night, woke up this morning and got the radio working in about 5 mins! Thank you!

Only random thing is the front speakers have only black/black white wires (left and right) and the only wires left over at the headunit are 1xblack, 1x black/white, 1x red/black... connecting the left/right radio output into the black, black/white the front speakers work, the red/black is not used for anything but everything works! Love Land Rover!

sjr202 · Jun 21, 2022

Found this wiring diagram from a US forum - seems to tally to my 1992 RRC hard dash wiring

1990 Range Rover classic radio and speaker wiring

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