Installing A Stereo In A '73 Super Beetle

[vdubzen]

ok, i have the stereo installed in the car but no power.

I have the red lead (accessory) plugged onto #7 in the fuse box, which is accessory for the car according to the owners manual.

Where should the yellow wire (battery) plug into on the fuse block?

I have searched the Bentley and the owners manual with no luck.

[Sluggo]

Any constant live terminal will be fine. That's just for memory and takes almost no power. I think #9 or #10 is always live with an extra terminal.

[vdubzen]

Thanks, I will look into that tomorrow.

[Amskeptic]

Thanks, I will look into that tomorrow.

. . . and you will let us know how it worked out.
Colin

[vdubzen]

O.k., I started with the battery wire hooked up to fuse #9, and the accessory wire hooked up to #7 on the fuse block. No radio but the CD ejected (bonus CD left in the radio). I then moved the accessory wire from #7 to an empty slot on #8. The radio is now working fine.

I do have one question, should there be a hot wire going to fuse #7 at the bottom from somewhere?

All the tabs at #7 were empty.

[Sluggo]

O.k., I started with the battery wire hooked up to fuse #9, and the accessory wire hooked up to #7 on the fuse block. No radio but the CD ejected (bonus CD left in the radio). I then moved the accessory wire from #7 to an empty slot on #8. The radio is now working fine.

I do have one question, should there be a hot wire going to fuse #7 at the bottom from somewhere?

All the tabs at #7 were empty.

The red (power/accessory) wire should be live with ignition only and the yellow (battery/memory) wire should be a constant live. If the yellow wire is on a switched circuit you will lose all of your stereo settings whenever you shut off the ignition. If the red wire is always live you'll kill your battery.

As long as #8 (yellow/battery) is constant live and #9 (red/accessory) is switched by the ignition, you should be fine.

You can run a wire directly from your battery to the #7 terminal on the fuse box, then install a switch so you can turn the radio on & off while parked. This is what I did on my '74 Super Beetle. Otherwise you can jump to terminal # 7 from an ignition only circuit on the fuse box.