Hey guys i just bought a 1985 Trans am. I of course took the old stereo out and someone before me hacked up the wiring and i had no idea what was what, Well we got everything working except when you preset radio stations and turn off the car they dont stay in the stereo. It worked in my old car but with this it doesn't seem to keep any settings i put in and its getting annoying. Any help would be great thank you guys

the yellow wire on the radio needs to be hooked up to 12volt constant

well on the car side of the harness there will be an Orange wire that will have a constant 12 volt as long as the fuse isn't blown. That will be your memory wire. Make sure you test with the lights on and off because of the illumination wires

ok well thats what its hooked up to now is an orange wire but other than that there is a gray soild wire and a soild yelloe wire not hooked up i will take pics because its pontless to explain unless you can see what i mean but thatnks for the replies

I agree with Broc...there are 2 power wires. The constant 12v wire and the ignition wire which only has 12v when the car is on....I'm pretty sure those 2 are crossed or atleast the ignition wire is hooked up and not the constant...

be glad you have the factory connectors mine where cut off before i bought the car and now im having to try to figuere what wire is what

I can't take credit for the original posting of this, but it came in handy so often I saved a copy of it just for issues like this.

ok guys to bring back this old thread nothing is working i have no memory and my sub kicks in and out no idead why all cables are good. I looked this morning again because its started to **** me off but i dont even have that many cables coming off of my deck. I have the right front left front right rear left rear. I also have the remote, ground power and this big fat yellow cable that has been spliced either by GM or the previous owner.I tried switching the power cable from the deck to the orange cable and the nut on my battery got extremely hot so i know that not the answer. also with everything hooked up i have from the original wiring harness on the car i have an orange gray and brown wire. Funny huh i love stupid people that dont leave me the harness. anyway any help would be great. If you need pics i can take some and send them to you.

send the pics to me, I have installed for over 12 years, I'll have a look.

What kind of radio is it? If you tells us what brand radio we can probably tell you exactly what color wires to hook to what though the diagram below should tell you unless it's really hacked up.

For the subs, do you have the amp hooked up properly with its own power cable ran to the battery with a fuse inline? Does it have it's own ground cable of sufficient gauge wire? If the subs (amp) keeps cutting in and out it's probably either a bad ground or a loose/faulty connection at the remote turn on lead, usually blue or blue/white stripe on aftermarket radios.