firstoldsmobile

Bought an 80 442 in descent condition. Of course somebody took the original radio out. Bought one at a local junk yard out of a 84 Buick Regal. Looks exact. Bought a wiring harness off Ebay which will be exact to that radio.
The wiring harness of course not in the car, just wires but all seem to be there with looks like a few extra.
I'm certainly not a mechanic or a electrical person.
I know the yellow is constant - red is power - black is ground - all other wires are speakers.
There is a couple of questions
I know the blue is for the power antenna - my antenna is on the back rear quarter not front fender which I've never seen before.
If I hook the blue wire up correctly - in theory the power antenna should work when radio is turned on????
Secondly - there is a smaller plug in under the dash as well that has two wires, basically looks like a smaller wiring harness plug. What is that exactly for?????
thank

cjsdad

Been a while since this was posted so I'll take a stab at it. On the factory radio, the yellow wire is the acc power. Orange is constant on GM. Well, anything between '70 and '90, anyway. It may have changed on the newer vehicles, but yours is orange. The little two-wire plug you are asking about, does it have a grey and a black wire? That would be the dimmer feed for the display lighting. You should have a matching plug attached to the chassis of the radio somewhere if you have the correct year unit. Many of the GM radios from those years will interchange and fit properly in the dash. Yes the blue wire is for the power antenna but if you have the antenna on the rear fender, it is aftermarket. The aftermarket antenna will have a constant 12v input (usually red), a ground wire (usually black), and the switched lead (green maybe) that connects to the radio.

Let us know how it works out.

joe_padavano

The speaker pairs are
LT BLUE/DK BLUE (RH rear)
LT GRN/DK GRN (RH front)
BROWN/YELLOW (LH rear)
GREY/TAN (LH front)

Front speakers are in connector C2, rear speakers in connector C3.

Connector C1 will have
BLACK (ground)
GREY (illumination lights)
YELLOW (ign on power from RADIO fuse)
PINK (power antenna control)

There should also be two wires on a pigtail
RED (connects to ORANGE always-hot CLK/CIG fuse)
BLACK (connects to BROWN wire from headlight switch to control panel dimming with lights on)

If your antenna is aftermarket, it may not work with the stock PINK antenna wire from the radio unless you install additional relays. The stock antenna uses limit switches built into the antenna to turn off the radio when the mast reaches full up and full down positions. Aftermarket antennas may not incorporate this.

deadeyejedi

This is the factory radio in my 80 cutlass .Thought a pic might help.

firstoldsmobile

Thanks a ton for your reply, Yeah that's it. WHAT IS WEIRD is there is no red wire at all. Only yellow. The wiring harness was cut at one point and bought a replacement.
The rear antenna doesn't look aftermarket but have never seen one on the rear for any Cutlass.
The Radio I bought from a Junkyard was out of a 84 Buick Regal which fit the bezel perfectly and bought a wiring harness that fit correctly which is one big plug. I'll assume the yellow is for red power.

firstoldsmobile

This is the rear power antenna. I've not seen one on the back. Is this factory or aftermarket??????????

cjsdad

The factory radio will not have a red wire, yellow is for ign power. The digital units require a constant power source to maintain presets and clock and that is an orange wire. The aftermarket stereos usually use red for ign and yellow for constant. That is an aftermarket antenna but it looks decent. If it works, keep it. You already have the hole in the fender.

firstoldsmobile

I've fiddled with installing a factory radio which came out of a 84 Buick Regal which fit the bezel perfectly.
Obviously the wiring harness for that year of Buick plugs into the radio perfectly as well.
I've trial and error the speaker wires.
On the Buick Regal Radio ***** - the left **** turns it on and the inner **** seems to be just bass and treble.
The right **** seems to be just either left and right or front and back.
On the 1980 Cutass Factory Radio - Are the **** adjustments Front and Back or Left and Right or Both?
I got the back speakers to work but not the factory front speakers on the dash.
Thanks, Cory

matt69olds

It’s been so long since I had a car with that style Delco radio. I think you could adjust the fader get/rear, and left to right. Do you have the factory owners manual with the car?

cjsdad

Depends on the stereo. Not all GM stereos are the same. Even though they may look the same, some have front/rear fader control, some don't. Some have balance control, some don't. Almost every GM vehicle from that era used the exact same escutcheon (face), shaft dimensions, and wiring plugs so you could have a stereo from just about any vehicle now, even though it came out of a Buick last. The GM stereos use a high power speaker output and it can be damaged if connected incorrectly. If your front speakers will not make sound when connected to the stereo, they may be bad. Remember, 1980 speakers are 40 years old now. The factory Delco speakers were 10 ohm but you can replace them with aftermarket 4 ohm units. 8 ohm would be better, but they are almost impossible to find in a car stereo speaker. As long as you keep the volume level reasonable and don't try to crank the tunes, the stereo will live with the lower impedance speakers. High listening levels with a 4 ohm speaker will generate a lot more heat in the internal amp and heat is what causes failures(damaged output transistors). A good quality replacement speaker will give you much better sound than the Delco speakers ever could anyway.