I have a bad wiring problem and its a lot of things out of place. Need help identifying some things. The radio was wired with two yellows and one orange wire. There were exposed wires under the car. Two were from what it looked like the transmission. And the other looks like regular speaker wire under the car.

 

Most of that, except for the first one, is not factory.

That is, SOMEBODY ELSE added it. For example the 2 wires hanging down next to the transmission look like clear-insulation speaker wire. They are TRASH.

The fact that there happens to be a 85 Z28 wrapped around all of that ... shhhhh... stuff ... doesn't somehow provide anybody out here with the ability to figure out what the obviously electrically-challenged person thought they were "improving" on or what else they damaged.

As always, the smart thing to do is to FORGET about "what is this wire and what's it for", and instead, YANK IT OUT if it's not factory; identify the remaining damaged factory wiring and repair it the best it can still be repaired; and THEN AND ONLY THEN try to "troubleshoot" what doesn't work etc.

The yellow wires twisted up with the orange wire don't look factory. YANK THEM OUT. Put the orange wire back where it came from.

The speaker wires by the transmission DEFINITELY aren't factory. YANK THEM OUT. Fix whatever was damaged in their installation by putting it back like it came.

The wire dangling under the car isn't factory. YANK IT OUT. Restore whatever is at the ends of it to the factory configuration, if indeed the stuff at the ends is factory. If it's not, YANK THAT OUT too.

When you trace each of them to its end, you MIGHT (no guarantees...) find a clue as to what the hack job was all about. In most cases you will want to YANK IT OUT as well and put it all back like it came from the factory. Hopefully that won't involve too terribly many trips to the junkyard to find connectors & pigtails and such as that. But until you do that, there is NO WAY IN HELL anybody out here is going to be able to guess what all that crap is. It's just HACK-JOB GARBAGE.

 

As a further mental discipline to keep in the front of your mind while working on "wiring" hack jobs in your car, always remember "Sofakingdom's 4-Part Rule of Wire".

1. If you can see an end and it's not hooked up, it's not doing anything.
2. If one end isn't doing anything, then the other end isn't doing anything either.
3. If the ends aren't doing anything, then all that stuff in the middle isn't doing anything either.
4. If none of it is doing anything, YANK IT OUT.

That of course, is in addition to the most basic rule of de-hack-jobbing a car:

If it's not original, YANK IT OUT and restore it to the most original possible condition. The factory DID NOT strip wires bare and twist them together into a ball of copper wool; they DID NOT splice a whole bunch of wires of random colors all together; they DID NOT string random wires just hanging underneath the car unprotected; they DID NOT use clear speaker wire, THHN house wire, or any number of other WRONG wire types that if you see, you automatically know it DOESN'T BELONG, so you should YANK IT OUT.

(Yes I'm an electrical and electronic engineer by trade. Yes I used to even play one on TV besides.)

Obviously you don't EVER want to yank factory stuff out unless it's just so badly sodomized that there's no bringing it back to life. Unfortunately the hack-job rapists often leave it in that state. Sad I know, but true. Fortunately GM used virtually identical electrical parts in all their cars and trucks in any given year, and usually a pretty wide range on either side; you don't usually need a "85 Z28" to get parts from, not even a "Z28", or a "Camaro", or a "85". You're just as likely to find, say, the radio connector that is almost surely butchered beyond recognition in that car and likely already mising, in a 86 Cavalier or 83 truck.

 

Lol definitely a hack job. Im sure this weekend ill have more time to de-hack. I appreciate your help and i will let you know how it goes. Thank you

 

Good luck!!