Best Ignition Wire To Tap For Radio (1970)

[Bigcalhoun]

Gents,
I need to run a new switched power wire to the radio. If I tap into the ignition what color should I be looking for in a 1970 F-100?

Thx!

[jimmy828]

i tapped into the heater switch that is just below the radio. It is a brown wire.

[pcmdub]

Save some future issues and run a simple bosch relay from the ignition as a trigger, and fused hot from the battery. Then you can rely on it in the future and not worry about overloading old existing wires or circuits.

[jimmy828]

Save some future issues and run a simple bosch relay from the ignition as a trigger, and fused hot from the battery. Then you can rely on it in the future and not worry about overloading old existing wires or circuits.

Since i tapped into the heater switch can i use a relay in between the radio and the brown wire (heater switch) . I'm sure the ignition feeds the heater switch. I did run a fused radio memory wire from radio to battery.

[pcmdub]

Car Stereos use two power wires. 12v+ and 12v Ignition switched. The switched wire does not draw too much current itself. So in all honesty you are probably fine. However, if you are like most of us, and won't remember what circuit you pulled that red wire from in 3 years, then like many, you will add to that for another accessory down the road. Ultimately it becomes a central draw for switched power. (Most people add a power adapter to charge their phone that draws 3amps).
So for the 12v red wire to a stereo...no big deal. The 12v+ battery wire (yellow) is where it draws more amps for the actual stereo power.

[jimmy828]

Car Stereos use two power wires. 12v+ and 12v Ignition switched. The switched wire does not draw too much current itself. So in all honesty you are probably fine. However, if you are like most of us, and won't remember what circuit you pulled that red wire from in 3 years, then like many, you will add to that for another accessory down the road. Ultimately it becomes a central draw for switched power. (Most people add a power adapter to charge their phone that draws 3amps).
So for the 12v red wire to a stereo...no big deal. The 12v+ battery wire (yellow) is where it draws more amps for the actual stereo power.

I did hook up a charging port to the fused wire along with the radio that goes straight to battery. Everything seems to work fine. Thanks for the feedback. Pic below of console/charging ports before i installed.

[pcmdub]

Car Stereos use two power wires. 12v+ and 12v Ignition switched. The switched wire does not draw too much current itself. So in all honesty you are probably fine. However, if you are like most of us, and won't remember what circuit you pulled that red wire from in 3 years, then like many, you will add to that for another accessory down the road. Ultimately it becomes a central draw for switched power. (Most people add a power adapter to charge their phone that draws 3amps).
So for the 12v red wire to a stereo...no big deal. The 12v+ battery wire (yellow) is where it draws more amps for the actual stereo power.

I did hook up a charging port to the fused wire along with the radio that goes straight to battery. Everything seems to work fine. Thanks for the feedback. Pic below of console/charging ports before i installed.

Cool Console. I had one like that until my son wanted the middle leg room back and we built a custom dash to hold all the gauges and data.

Just for .02... anything you run on the same 12v circuit may/can add noise to your stereo, try to keep things off that 12v and ground if you can.

[jimmy828]

Car Stereos use two power wires. 12v+ and 12v Ignition switched. The switched wire does not draw too much current itself. So in all honesty you are probably fine. However, if you are like most of us, and won't remember what circuit you pulled that red wire from in 3 years, then like many, you will add to that for another accessory down the road. Ultimately it becomes a central draw for switched power. (Most people add a power adapter to charge their phone that draws 3amps).
So for the 12v red wire to a stereo...no big deal. The 12v+ battery wire (yellow) is where it draws more amps for the actual stereo power.

I did hook up a charging port to the fused wire along with the radio that goes straight to battery. Everything seems to work fine. Thanks for the feedback. Pic below of console/charging ports before i installed.

Cool Console. I had one like that until my son wanted the middle leg room back and we built a custom dash to hold all the gauges and data.

Just for .02... anything you run on the same 12v circuit may/can add noise to your stereo, try to keep things off that 12v and ground if you can.

good advice. I'll remember that if i start hearing things thru radio. As of now it's doing ok. PS: i built the console Going to mount a phone holder to face of it.