Trying to install cd player

[Brylk1830]

I'm in the process of wiring a small 16 ft fishing boat and i'm hoping to install a cd player (pictured below). If I were installing this in my car it would be no problem but i'm a bit confused about how to go about doing it in the boat?

Since all the electrical connections coming from the player have plugs i'm assuming there is some specific wire harness that I can buy that will attach to the power source and plug into my cd players wire harness?

As far as an antenna would I use the black wire coming from the back and just plug an antenna into it or is there other ways to do this?

Anyone who has done a similar installation and can give me some advice I would appreciate it. Thanks !

[dragonjbynight]

Unless your boat is prewired for sound, there probably won't be any specific harness that will make it an easy install. Each wire should be labeled and that will make it easier. More than likely you will have to cut off the connecting jack and wire each one individually. Usually the orange is power and black ground(standard) then speakers will be different for front and rear. The front and rear speaker wires are usually the same color, however with left and right being differentiated with a stripe.

There are others that you may or may not have like a dimming wire that usually don't need to be hooked up to anything or can be hooked straight to power.

I hope this helps.

[tuantom]

There is a specific plug - It's the hidden $30 or so when you buy a radio. Check any of the big electronic stores; they probably have it. I tied about 3 feet of speaker wire into the antenna wire and hid it under the deck - no problems as long as I'm not looking for AM.

[PAR]

Contact your local Kenwood dealer and get a power plug for your model. The RCA jacks and antenna jack should be self explanatory. Even with the plug adapter, you'll still have to hard wire everything so I'd just skip it.

The other option is to cut off the plug and wire it up to your system, which isn't particularly difficult.

The speaker wires are the standard for this type of radio and all the speaker grounds have a black tracer (a black line on the wire); white (front left), gray (front right), green (rear left), purple (rear right). The black tracer wires go on the(-) side of each speaker.

The black wire is the ground (negative side of the battery).

The yellow wire is one of the "hot" feeds, which typically bypasses the ignition switch so the clock will work while the boat is turned off.

The red wire is the hot feed for the unit and generally is down stream of the ignition switch, so it'll get turned on when the boat is on.

There are four other wires too. The pink/black wire is for an amp. The orange/white is for the internal light, so when you turn on the instrument panel lights, the radio lights up too. The blue wire is for a retractable antenna (yep, a motorized antenna). The blue/white is another wire for an external amplifier.

It's all in your instruction booklet, but you'll find the wiring is the same as most radios built in the 15 years.

Just cut the plug off and start crimping on the stuff you'll need. You don't need much more then the ground, the red feed, antenna (if you want radio) and speakers. Tape off the remaining wires so they don't bang around and short something out, then you're go to go. Or your could use the RCA's and save the trouble of crimping up the speaker leads.