| Author | Message | ||
     Mark Anson Frequent User Username: bentleybloke Post Number: 25 Registered: 11-2004 |
Hi All, My friend has a Shadow Mk2 and has fitted a modern CD player were the original tape deck was. He has found the power, earth and speakers OK but still there is no sound. The CD is lit up and playing disc's. He did say there was a blue wire that came from the tape into the Bakelite plug but he does not know what this is for. Can anyone help? He has the original in dash radio fitted too. This I think works OK. Is there something he needs to connect or bypass? Does the car have a stand alone amplifier? He has the speaker fader knob on the dash and wondered if this had anything to do with it. Many thanks Mark | ||
| jim wyatt Yet to post message Username: jimroyce Post Number: 1 Registered: 12-2004 |
Hello from sunny England Im having problems doing what should be a very easy job in the world of Rolls Royce ownership!Having removed the cassete player from my Shadow Great idea to fit a brand new CD in its place.....Connect the simple wires and hope for the best nothing is ever this simple with an old british motor Can any body shed any light on this The original radio above works like a dream There seems to be a spare blue wire in the original plug Please help I now have a hole in my beautiful dashboard and that just wont do will it? Great website interesting chat sounds like you guys love these old motor cars as much as me Cheers Jim Wyatt | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 412 Registered: 4-2003 |
My "two cents" [tuppence!!] worth of deduction having no experience whatsoever of Shadow II electrics - when electronic tuning/anti-theft coding became commonplace for car audio units; these would lose their memory presets whenever the ignition was turned off. To get around this problem, provision was made for a permanent "live" power feed to the unit from the battery usually through the circuit for the cigarette lighter as this is usually permanently on regardless of whether the ignition is on or off and the lighter fuse protected the circuit. You could check the wire to see if it is permanently live; if so then this is probably the "memory-loss" protection feed. If not; see if it becomes live when the ignition is "on" or "acc"; if so then remove/replace each fuse on the fuseboard to see what circuit it is on. If it is not live; it may be the feed for an automatic power aerial and you will need to access the power aerial wiring loom to do a continuity check back to the blue wire. On DRH14434, there was a relay that connected either the standard radio or the 8-track tape player to the speaker circuit however a previous owner "bodged" the setup to install an electronic tuned radio/cassette player instead of the 8-track and disconnected the relay setup so I have no idea how the relay was activated from the original units. Other than this; you might have to take the car to a car audio specialist for them to track it down. | ||
| Mark Anson Prolific User Username: bentleybloke Post Number: 34 Registered: 11-2004 |
Hi David, Thanks for your reply. I spoke to Jim today and he says if he puts live or negative feed to this blue wire the radio stops! I have suggested he joins his speaker wires to the back of the radio or speaker fader control. The only problem is the car may have an amplifier. This question has not been answered yet. Does anybody know if the Shadow 2 has an amplifier or do the speakers go straight to the radio/cassette? Thanks Mark | ||
| Jon Rothwell Frequent User Username: jon_rothwell Post Number: 23 Registered: 4-2004 |
Hi Mark. I fitted a CD to my 65 T1 and My 75 Shadow. You need an "always on" power feed for the memory backup, I took this from the clock in both cases as it always has power with the key off. You also need a power feed that comes on when the key is in the accessories (if you want to listen to the radio/CD without switching on the ignition), and ignition on position. Use a 12 volt probe to look around for a decent scource. I took mine from the fuse panel as it was quick and easy to do and did not involve cutting into any wires. These should go to the red and yellow wires on the CD unit (check the fitting instructions on the unit), I always fuse the always on connection, and hook the ignition on connection to a fused circuit in the car. Most modern CD units will have a connection to an automatic antenna, usually this wire is blue (but again check the wiring instructions on the unit). Earthing is no problem on the Shadow, but I always fit an earth strap as well as connecting the earth wire. With my Shadow having a balance control that was knackered and not needed anyway, I found it much easier to run all new speaker wiring (using high quality wire) to the 4 new speakers I fitted to the doors (3 of mine were missing anyway) rather than hooking into the existing speaker wiring. Getting the wiring into the doors is a bit tricky but was accomplished with a very thin bit of stainless strip to which I taped the wires before passing them through the wiring channels to the doors. It was a fairly easy job overall as all the trim panels etc are pretty easy to get off, and all the new wiring can be nicely taped up out of the way. Put aside a morning or afternoon and take the time to do a good job, and you'll have a CD that looks like part of the car and sounds like a millon dollars. I don't know if the Shadow 2 has an amp I'm afraid, my Shadow only has the fader. | ||
| Mark Tomlinson Frequent User Username: mark_tomlinson Post Number: 25 Registered: 9-2003 |
This thread is now old and I have not been on for a while but here is the answer to the original question. The blue wire is the "auto activation" for any after market amplifier you fit, the thin red wire is the "always live" for the radio memory and the thick red is the main power. All the rest are speakers, and DO NOT under any circumstances earth your speaker wires to the body of the car as modern day stereo's do not last very long if wired this way. It is highly unlikely shadows ever came with amplifiers as their owners probably were not into loud music. | ||
| Martin Taylor Prolific User Username: martin_taylor Post Number: 46 Registered: 11-2003 |
The extra wire was the output from the eight track to activate the relay to change the speakers from the radio to the tape deck, if you liven it up the speakers will work although will not work on a bridged amp configuration as mentioned above. | ||
| Jeffrey McCarthy Experienced User Username: jefmac2003 Post Number: 14 Registered: 5-2007 |
I am currently researching the possibility of putting back the original radio and 8-track into a '74 Shadow and connecting a slimline CD slot-type CD player by bluetooth to the speakers. This would also allow for iPods etc. (You could store this in the ashtray if you don't indulge in cuban cigars) Before I do anything of course I'll check that it's no going to screw up anything on the cars electrics but the idea is to have the system isolated by switch from everything but the speakers and the cigar lighter power source. I'm talking on-line to various vintage radio and electronics geeks and also the radio techs I know from work (Snowy Scheme/National Park/Police radio comms in the mountains - these are seriously informed people) I'll keep the forum posted over the next few months if I make any progress; I have come across this problem on various car forums so there is interest (and presumably research) out there. Has anyone any ideas ? Also has anyone ever seen a car (or any portable) slot-type CD player without a radio attached? Have fun, Jeff SRH20280 (Message edited by jefmac2003 on 14 July 2007) | ||
| Paul Yorke Frequent User Username: paul_yorke Post Number: 57 Registered: 6-2006 |
Jeffery, It will be easier if you don't want the original units to work. I would hard wire a CD / radio player in though, Make it an MP3 disc compatible player to avoid all the cd's in the car. Maybe fit it in the cubby hole in front of the passangers knees. They usually come with remote controls these days so there is no need to lean over. You can also get them with iPod connectors, memory card readers, bluetooth phone connetions, and USB ports. You will need to run new wires to the speakers because the existing system uses a common earth system - New stereos do not work with common earths and will damage the unit. If you want the originals to work , you will still need to rewire the speakers plus fit a changeover relay to swap the speaker feeds from the original to the new system. I'm not sure which slimline slot CD Player you are talking about but or where you are thinking of fitting it, but they are not usually happy being vertically mounted - double check. | ||
| Jeffrey McCarthy Experienced User Username: jefmac2003 Post Number: 15 Registered: 5-2007 |
Thanks for the (speedy) feedback Paul, Possibly instead of wiring the CD/bluetooth into the original system it might be easier to just install a complete bluetooth system as well with new wiring to (powerful) bose-style miniature speakers which could quite easily be mounted into a couple of nicely turned pieces of timber on the back parcel shelf. Save trouble with the common earth problem. This would mean just a 12v wire behind the cigar lighter to power it, no? It would be really weird if it didn't - can't be all that much different to plugging in the mobile phone or the laptop for a re-charge, surely. As for restoring the old system: I know it's a pain, but the opportunity has been offered and It'd be nice to know that there is at least one of the old girls out there still dancin' on to the good ol' songs. The car has a new, very high quality CD/Radio that Peter has already very neatly hard-wired into the original system so I'm not about to undo that in a hurry, believe me ! Fools rush in...etc Cheers - and I went for my first real drive in her today. YAHOOOOOO !!!! Jeff (Message edited by jefmac2003 on 14 July 2007) | ||
| Jeffrey McCarthy Prolific User Username: jefmac2003 Post Number: 290 Registered: 5-2007 |
Curiousity on the vintage radio set-up for any audio/wiring gurus out there.. My 1974 Shadow, as were many in the 70s, was wired up with the 8-track player and the Blaupunkt Frankfurt (Stereo US) Radio between the front seats. There was some highly interesting wiring in place to get these to work together and to connect to the Radio Balance knob on the dash. I have installed, and nearly wired up, a new Pioneer headunit CD, USB, iPod and bluetooth and very beautiful it is too. It is completely separately wired, fused etc. However, the unit also allows me to have an auxilliary input through a little black box and some rca connectors. I have a line-in converter to convert the signal from the Blaupunkt Radio to an appropriate level and the wiring is straightforward - 2 speaker outlets on the rear of the radio each with a +ve & a -ve pin. BUT - for some reason Crewe have wired one of these with a single negative wire and the other as a normal +ve plus -ve wire: i.e 3 wires in all. Can anyone confirm if Crewe wired the Radio to begin with as a line-out to the 8-track which acted as the amplifier? There were various circuit boards inside the centre console which could have had something to do with this. Also the 8-track is labelled with a warning that it has been modified in the factory. Naturally I'll run this past a professional before I risk frying the system (and the car) but it would be interesting to know why it is as it is. Any clues? |
