Club 80-90 Forums

Hi, completely new to the T25 scene having purchased my 1987 converted panel van last weekend.

The van didn't come with a cd player, so went out and bought one yesterday. Plugged it all in to find that the stereo was permanently on even with no key in the ignition (even turning off the CD player the lights stayed on).

Noticed the live and memory wires from the iso are joined together by a clip before connecting to one wire from the car loom. As the stereo is permanently on, this is going to drain my battery, probably even with the fascia removed, so I'm trying to understand how best to wire this up.

Tried doing some research today to find out how/why and got a bit on an information overload!

My intentions were to try and wire it up to the ignition (which I would need some advice on anyway!) but read that leaving the ignition on to run the radio would then kill the coils. At the moment the van doesn't have a camping battery (will have at some point) so after advice on how to solve the problem.

I've also purchased a cigarette lighter kit which I need to fit - again advice to be sought on this too!

Electrics isn't my forte unfortunately so any help much appreciated!!

Thanks

Hello and welcome
nice introduction......

If your van has a "leisure" or Auxiliary battery, it's more than likely attached to that.
If it hasn't, then you need to install one and wire the battery to it.

May I suggest you look through the wiki (tab at the top of the page) as all your questions have been asked and answered in there

I will do an introduction and pictures in time!
I did look at them but couldn't find what i was looking for as people had leisure batteries;

The van doesn't currently have a leisure battery, and wont for quite a while. This means there is no way to have a stereo in the car without a leisure battery!?

Hi I have a separate radio /cassette and cd player installed in our van both have rocker switches in line on live feed so when the rockers are off theres no power drain at all -just an idea (power comes from the radio live feed which has an in line fuse which was already in our van) Jack

hi,
you dont need a leisure battery,

just run a new feed wire from the fuse box (You should find a spare perm live on the rhs top)

there is no "AUX" setting on the ignition switch on these, so the only option is a straight perm feed ( which may need a kill switch if the stereo is a power hungry on standby type ) untill you fit a leisure battery.

fitting an aux batt is simple enough though
buy cheap starter batt UK code 096 or 067 that fit in the battery box
connect radio to battery with a fuse
charge up battery when radio stops working.
...also doubles as a handy jumper if you ever needed it

there are two black wires to the ignition switch that are switched live if you want to turn it off

I used to have an isolator switch on the feed to the radio/cassette, simple but effective. It doesn't bother me now because it and everything except the fridge and original van electrics are wired to the leisure battery.