wiring - finding fused power for a stereo

[Mat Grant]

Hi all,

I’ve got a blue 1985 (manufactured 1984) Beta coupe, which I have slowly been fixing up as a rolling restoration. It came with some dents and rusty bits, although not too bad as it has been restored before. I have repaired the bodywork and done a quick respray. It was originally a 2000ie, but under the last restoration the owner decided to change it to a carb. It is mechanically good, and has gone through the last two MOTs without issue.

But - it had an aftermarket CD player, with a separate power amp behind the dash driving the front speakers, and a massive power amp on the floor in the footwell behind the driver’s seat driving the rear speakers. The speakers are “normal” 6.5 inch(?) size, one in each kick panel in front of the doors below the dash, and one in each rear ¾ panel. so in my opinion the massive amount of watts was total overkill!

Someone had gone to a lot of trouble and expense to install all this, but then for the power supply just ran two thick gauge red wires direct off the battery (and unfused!) one to the stereo and front amp, and one to the power amp in the back. I have removed the stereo, amplifiers and cabling, and run ordinary speaker wire, I want to use an Alpine head unit I’ve got which can drive 4 speakers.

But I’d like to do better than the previous installation and use fused power sources for both the permanent feed and the switched feed to the stereo. Can anyone on here provide any guidance as to how to go about finding the fused sources for permanent and ign switched power, and routing them to the area behind the dash where the stereo is?

I’ve got the Haynes manual with a copied wiring diagram, this seems to indicate that there are some unused outputs on the existing fuses, but if anyone has some real world experience of how to do this I’d be really grateful. ie how to access the fusebox and identify the fuses and where to pick up the feeds from.

Thanks, Mat.

[rossocorsa]

I might be wrong but I thought there was a feed in the radio area for this? Wiring diagrams in Haynes are no good for later cars I'll try to give you a link to the right diagrams

[rossocorsa]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pvb2rl6e6b4twrd/Beta%20coupe%20hpe%20series%202%20fl2%20electrics.pdf?dl=0

[Mat Grant]

Hi Rosso Corsa,

Thanks for the quick reply and the link... I'll print that and have a look. There are two unterminated wires in the area where the radio should be, a pale blue and a dark blue. Neither has any volts present with ignition key on or off though!

Cheers, Mat.

[WestonE]

Hi Matt

I have an Alpine Head Unit and 4 x 50 Watt RMS speakers in my Montecarlo and suggest you might want to re-use some of the kit the car came with. If you connect the head unit to an amplifier capable of at least 4 x50 wats RMS with good quality Phono leads and then wire to the speakers from the AMP with decent quality speaker wire you will have a much better sound. You can easily buy Maxi Fuse blocks from either Pole Volt or Vehicle Wiring Products to create the in line fuse for the amplifier power. The Beta Loom on S2FL cars has very basic wiring for front speakers, power aerial, power for the head unit and earth. This was intended for 10 Watt RMS front speakers.

I am not suggesting you install vast wattage speakers and a subwoofer that takes over the boot, but simply get the best out of the Alpine head unit.

Eric