I'm hoping someone here can help me with my non Hummer question. I have a 69 Cougar that Im installing a radio in. I have the power wire when the ignition is on but can't find a constant on for the preset memory and clock. There is no lighter so that option is out. What I want to know is can I run a wire directly to the positive terminal on the battery? If so, what gauge wire should I use and should I put an inline fuse in to avoid frying the radio? Thanks in advance for any info!

 

I'm not trying to flex my muscle by saying this just letting you know so you know I'm not some dumb shmuck trying to give you bad info.

What I mean by telling you is that I am a master certified car audio installer and have ran shops for Circuit City and Best Buy and at one time I was ranked the 52nd best installer in the country out of 500 so what I'm going to tell you to do I want you to know I know what I'm talking about.

Anyway you can run a wire direct from the battery for that constant power, as a matter of fact I had to do this many times in older cars to supply the power needed.

Now when you do this there are a couple things you need to do than just run the wire. First you want to get some sort of terminal connector to go onto the battery terminal to make sure the wire doesn't fall of while driving cause if it does and gets sucked up into the fan look out, big issues.

Second about a foot away you need to put an inline fuse in place. This is more to protect the wire from burning out then to protect the radio incase of a power surge. Don't ever hook up a wire that is deliverying constant power without fusing it.

Third is to make sure that where ever you drill the whole to run the wire threw put in a plastic gromit into the hole and run the wire threw it. Without the gromit the wire will chave (the protective cover rubs off from movement and vibration) the wire causing the wire to become bare and short out the system, blow the fuse or at worst cause a fire.

Fourth you really don't need to go any bigger than 14-16 awg (gauge) wire to run the power to the radio. Your not transporting a large supply of power nor does a radio draw alot of power so that guage will be fine. If I confused you by saying guage or awg I'll put it in simpler terms, you really don't have to have the wire any thicker than speaker wire.

I hope I answered all the questions you had and if you have anymore please feel free to contact me. Good luck