Hi, I joined thirdgen mainly to find out some information since forums are the way to go. I do not have a 3rd gen, but my brother does. He has an 84 trans am. The aftermarket stereo was a cheap pos that didn't work for crap, so I bought him a new one and planned on installing for him. The issue comes in because of the wiring. There are 2 connectors where different wires are attached to each on the car end. I bought a harness that supposedly fit, and it was waaayy off fitting, so I was wondering if I can just splice the wires that came with the stereo, or do I need to find a harness that actually fits? The old radio had multiple harness taped together, and to be honest I am surprised it worked in the first place. I can post pictures if need be if it helps. Thanks guys

 

Pics would be nice but all you need for the radio to work is constant, ignition/power, ground, then speaker wires. You can easily test for all of them. All you need is a volt meter and 9 volt battery. If you are willing to wire it together your self.

1st Find you a good ground and with the key off test each wire till you get a reading in power thats your constant.

2nd Turn the key back or start the car and repeat the last step of testing each wire till you get a reading thats your ignition

3rd Turn your meter to the ohm, then take the red end and ground it out and test each wire with the black end till getting a reading thats your ground

4th You will need a 9 volt battery. With the remaining wires should be speaker wires. take and touch the + and - end of battery to the + and - to each wire. This should cause the speaker to move and make a sound. Using masking tape label each wire for each speaker.

Lastly the stereo should list on radio or in manual which wires to connect for power, constant, ground and so on. Also youtube probably has a great many video of how to this.

 

never never never hook up a battery to speaker wires. good way to blow speakers. as far as the connectors go, i would suggest finding the proper adapter. but if you need to wire the radio directly here is a linkhttp://www.the12volt.com/installbay/...tail/1858.html

 

a 9 volt battery doesn't have enough power to blow a speaker and a pretty common method for testing polarity of a speaker. very low amperage, very low voltage. a 50w amp would be more destructive.

now, for future ease of use and troubleshooting, get yourself a factory harness end from the junkyard (or new from metra) and get that wired up. you don't want to have to hack the harness every time your radio dies or you want to upgrade.

factory harness pics, colors, and layouts:

for your 84:


however, i tend to like going up to the newer gm style in a position like this; allows you to grab a wider range of newer gm decks (with stuff like cd players, changer controls, and aux inputs):