1985 Winnebago Chieftain OEM Radio Wire Information

[Joeyolo]

I have a 1985 Winn. Chieftain I want to replace the OEM stock radio/cassette player with a Kenwood Excelon DMX706S. Where can I find the OEM radio wire color information at online? I have search everywhere and no one seems to know or have the information I require. Hopefully someone here will be able to help me.

[Oz]

You definitely won't find it on-line.  However, Winnebago has been able to supply wiring diagrams to members.  Not sure if they'll have one for the radio but, it's worth a try.

 

[Joeyolo]

OMG I figured it out  I pulled out the OEM radio and BEHOLD.... On the back of the radio is all the wire color information

[Oz]

Well, it doesn't get any more convenient than that!
 

[Mlw]

Even with the wire infomation on the radio, I always test with a multimeter to be absolutely sure. You wouldn't want your new radio to go up in smoke because two colors were switched for one or the other reason, would you?



Now the radio you've got has also a fader function so can feed 4 speakers and the wiring will be divided in

Speaker left front+
Speaker left front-
Speaker right front+
Speaker right front-
Speaker left Rear+
Speaker left Rear-
Speaker right Rear+
Speaker right Rear-

It can be with radio's from that era that the negative wiring is binded together in 1 minus wire for the front speakers and 1 for the rear speakers. In this case you have 6 wires, not 8 for the speakers.

Then there are the feeds:
12 volt (+) constant (for memory fuctions) mostly yellow
12 volt (+) Switched (so your radio goes off when the contact is switched off)Mostly red
12 volt (-) minus/negative. mostly Black/white

extra possible feeds from this era:
Antenna
(dash)Lights. (in your case the lightbulbs seen in picture 8567B51F-29DF-445C-BC25-E5DA24F96F0C.jpg

Now if we keep this in mind and look at picture 77B95798-7D6C-4855-8E41-69726D2CFD1F.jpg
im 99% positive the left wiring are the power feeds and the right wiring are the speaker wiring because of the number of wires.

Now if you have a multimeter set it at 20V direct current, and measure the wires at the left. If the color-codes are correct the yellow wire should be 12 volt constant and the red/brown? wire should have power with your contact switch at ACC or at contact. I guess the blue one would be negative but if not you can also use the outer ring contact of the antenna in case of a female connector (inner ring is antenna, outer ring is negative)  or the back/ thick part of the antenna male connector (pin/tip = antenna, ring/back is negative.

Now to identify your speaker wires you need to disconnect the wires at the speaker set your multimeter at 20K ohms or the search function and measure the wires at the speaker and the radio. as soon as the multimeter display goes to 000 or the multimeter gives a audible signal, you will know you have one and the same wire, Write down the color (or colors at each side if they are different).

If you have identified all your wires you can use the wiring diagram of your new radio to reconnect everything.

Oh and in case you want to identify the polarity of your speakers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbJmXZjLLgA

[Eyez Open]

Bottom of the page there is a link to the owner's manual..it works well.

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-I1uQCqbrkJv/p_613DMX706S/Kenwood-Excelon-DMX706S.html?XVINQ=D74&XVVer=9FM&awcr=632764068866&awdv=m&awnw=g&awug=9032828&awkw=dsa-847847619356&awmt=&awat=&gclid=CjwKCAiAp7GcBhA0EiwA9U0mtqgYctZAAKUUeETb12WRByi92790J8ozanvIakeJUVgPO8Hj9OzX-RoCEzgQAvD_BwE