Here it goes! I installed an aftermarket radio in my 86 F150. The radio works! However, my parking lamps and dash illumination do not. Checked the fuses and the parking lamp fuse is fried. Dash illumination is not. Going to have to wait for some daylight and a parts store to open up and get some more fuses. There is a trailer brake setup in there, that I have never seen lit up until tonight, for about 5 seconds and went back off? I thought that was strange, and that was just during normal driving. Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

did it work correctly before the radio install?

 

Yes, everything worked just fine prior. The parking lamp fuse was blown. However, no matter what fuse I stick in the "illumination" slot I get nothing... Im thinking I tugged on a certain wire to cause the dash and heater lights to quit working? It had the AM only radio with the single dash speaker.

 

Well, I did some homework this morning. Pulled the cd player out. Put in a new fuse and everything worked. Disconnected the batt, put the radio back in. Pop goes the dash illumination fuse.. So the prob relies somehwere in the radio wiring. There was just 2 power wires that went "into" the old radio. However in the plug there was a 3rd, black wire I assumed was a ground. Guess not?! Im in the process of pulling the radio again and going to make a separate ground for that.

 

Don't guess... find the installation or user manual for the radio or look for wiring diagram on the radio itself.

Most radio's have 2 power wires. One switched by the ignition switch and one full time to keep the clock running and station presets saved in memory etc.
Some have a connection to the dash lights to dim the display when lights are on etc.

 

Old radios 2 power wires...1 is for ignition power, 1 is for illumination when lights are turned on. Old radios didn't have a constant power wire because there was none needed as radios didn't have memory back then. I don't remember the color scheme though and I'm sure it changed over the years. Also, I believe the old radios grounded through the mounting and didn't actually have a ground wire.

Best bet is going to be run new switched power (red cd player wire), constant power (yellow cd player wire), and ground wires (black cd player wire), obviously you're running new speaker wires. You SHOULD be able to use the illumination power wire from the old radio to hook up to your (orange) illumination wire on your cd player so that the radio dims when you lights come on.