Chrysler Repair: Radio for 1987 Chrysler LeBaron GTS, chrysler lebaron, 1987 chrysler lebaron

Question
Hi Roland,

I have a 1987 LeBaron with a radio that just gave up the ghost.  Chrysler doesn't stock this one anymore, so I got a new radio from Walmart (it's a crummy radio but still worth more than my car).  The problem is that I don't have a wiring diagram for the car and therefore don't know which wires to connect the new wiring harness to.  The new harness only has 5 wires: red - power, black - ground, blue - antenna, grey - right speaker, and white - left speaker.  Do you know which wires on the car's harness would correspond to the new harness?  I appreciate any help you can give me.

Patrick

Answer
Hi Patrick,
I have the '85 and '89 GTS wiring diagrams, but I'll use the '85 for this answer. If the wire colors don't check out with your set up, let me know. The Chrysler Radio system is much more sophisticated than that of the replacement radio. Let me identify the power supply possibilities first.
I assume that you have a  gray and a black 7-pin plug.
The red wire on pin 1 of the gray plug has 12V always because it is used to maintain the preset and time memory,
The red trace wire on pin 2 of the gray plug has 12V whenever you have the ignition switch on or in the accessory position. This is probably the one you will want to connect to your new radio's red wire.
The orange on pin 3 of the gray plug is a variable voltagesupply for the panel lighting.
The black yellow on pin 4 is 12V when the parking lamps are on for what I reason I not why?
The ground for the radio is a separate black wire held in place on the back side of the radio by a nut and that is the one you want to attach to your new radio black wire.
Now I suspect that you don't have a power radio antenna so the blue wire on your new radio doesn't have to be used, just cover it over to prevent a short circuit. I trust that there is a separate socket for the antenna signal wire on the new set?
As to speakers, Chrysler uses 4 different pairs of wire for the stereo systems. If you have such a set of speakers, then you will want to try and power two speakers on each side of the car with the remaining two wires. I believe that the new radio puts a signal feed out on the gray and the white wires, and then the return wires from the speakers are to be grounded (attached to the black wire post) in order to establish a circuit. The left side feed wires are dark green trace (pin 4 of black plug) and brown/yellow (pin 6 of black). The right side speaker feed wires are dark blue trace (pin 5 of the black plug) and violet (pin 3 of the black). So you will want to tie those as pairs to the new white and gray wires. The remaining wires (brown/red on pin 2 of the gray; dark blue/orange on pin5 of the gray, brown/light blue on pin 2 of the black, and dark blue/orange on pin 1 of the black) should be grounded. It does seem a shame to give up the multi speaker set up that you may have. Have you thought of going to a wrecking yard to find a replacement, or of looking on eBay?
Let me know if this makes any sense!
Roland