Ken Smith Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 I have a 1978 Datsun 280Z radio but no wiring diagram. Can anyone decode the wiring colors for me please? I mainly need to know left or right speaker wires. I have white and white/black wireed together and then black and black/red wired together. Pretty sure they are the speakers but are they left and right or front and back? The radio is a Hitachi KMS-2411Z and has the stereo button. So I am guessing provision for left and right? Any help is appreciated. It's not installed so just getting it figured out. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pamato Posted March 15, 2018 Share Posted March 15, 2018 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Smith Posted March 16, 2018 Author Share Posted March 16, 2018 Thanks but I don't see any speakers in the posted diagram. Or maybe my eyes are bad and can't see them....LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHoob2004 Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 Better diagrams here http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/electrical.htm 1977 diagram (single large page - full color) http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/wiringdiagrams/F77ZCAR-WIRING1.pdf On the 77 diagram, I only see one speaker (upper right area), so I'm curious if the factory system is mono. I'll try and take a look at my stereo Saturday, but it's a 77, has a period aftermarket stereo, and is completely apart, so I don't know how much help I'll be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Smith Posted March 16, 2018 Author Share Posted March 16, 2018 (edited) 4 hours ago, ZHoob2004 said: Better diagrams here http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/electrical.htm 1977 diagram (single large page - full color) http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/wiringdiagrams/F77ZCAR-WIRING1.pdf On the 77 diagram, I only see one speaker (upper right area), so I'm curious if the factory system is mono. I'll try and take a look at my stereo Saturday, but it's a 77, has a period aftermarket stereo, and is completely apart, so I don't know how much help I'll be. The radio has the stereo button and the extra speaker wires VS the prior Hitachi which is mono with the single white and white/black speaker wire. I believe the 77-78 had the stereo button with two sets of speaker wires and the early stereo just the one. I wonder if the stereo was an upgrade or ??? since it isn't shown in the diagrams. I had a 75 radio which only had the white and white/black wires. Very interesting...... Edited March 16, 2018 by Ken Smith update Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bawfuls Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 (edited) I just got through replacing the head unit and speakers on my '77 last week and the wiring was tricky. The stock wiring has a single ground coming out of the head unit, which is wired to BOTH speakers' negative terminals and then a common ground somewhere. Modern head units do not do this, instead carrying a separate ground for each speaker output plus another for the unit itself. So I had to run new wires for each speaker, but it was really easy honestly. Although my car did have an aftermarket head unit (with 8-track player!) from back in the day so perhaps some differences. New two-way 4" speakers that mounted right into the factory holes were only $40 for the pair, and new head units can be had for $100 or less depending on what you want. I spent $60 more than that for this RetroSound because I wanted it to look a bit more period-correct. The whole process took me a couple hours (though I already had the dash and center console out for other reasons) and the sound quality upgrade is night and day. Absolutely worth upgrading IMO. Here's a test fit of the new head unit in the console (faceplate is rough cut here, I sanded it down later): Edited May 4, 2018 by bawfuls Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joedchambs Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 I also have the retrosound headunit, I’m wondering how do you mount it I’ve been confused and I can’t seem to figure out how to mount the headunit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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