# Illumination Hookup without stock wire



## beany (Aug 20, 2004)

I recently upgraded the headunit in my 91 hard body and i noticed a wire marked illumination on the wiring harness from the radio. there original radio did not have this so there was nothing to wire this to. is there a way to wire the illumination wire to a switch or to the headlights to dim the radio at night?


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## wickedsr20 (Aug 8, 2002)

If your new radio has this illumination wire, then you should be able to tap into your parking light wires and run a wire from there (easiest place is under the dash in the steering column wiring harness) to the back of the radio. Should be as easy as that.


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## beany (Aug 20, 2004)

so the illumination wire just needs a 12+ volt supply?


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## wickedsr20 (Aug 8, 2002)

beany said:


> so the illumination wire just needs a 12+ volt supply?


Basically. The stock illumination wire is basically run that way to just supply a 12v signal when the lights are turned on.


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## Jasper (Apr 2, 2004)

wickedsr20 said:


> Basically. The stock illumination wire is basically run that way to just supply a 12v signal when the lights are turned on.


it can be spliced into the 12v ignition (NOT 12v MEMORY!!!) as well


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## beany (Aug 20, 2004)

ahh okay thanks for the help i thought thats what it was but i just wanted to be sure it was that way before i blew something up


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## BlendNo27 (May 4, 2004)

I think hes talking about the dimmer. Is this the same as the illumination? If it is, the only line that needs constant power is the yellow line from aftermarket hu's. I don't think supplying 12v to the illumination will conect it to the dimmer.


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## beany (Aug 20, 2004)

im not sure if it is illumination or dimmer but what i was lookin to do was to make the display go dimmer when the head lights are on. so im guessing it would be dimmer not illumination


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## wickedsr20 (Aug 8, 2002)

BlendNo27 said:


> I think hes talking about the dimmer. Is this the same as the illumination? If it is, the only line that needs constant power is the yellow line from aftermarket hu's. I don't think supplying 12v to the illumination will conect it to the dimmer.


Some radios have a dimmer feature where you can control the face brightness with the dimmer if so wired, but a lot of them just dim the brightness 30-50% (illumination) when the lights are turned on. I was also going off the assumption that there was no factory light/illumination wire to make a connection to, so he was trying to improvise.


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## xbrandonx (Mar 27, 2004)

wickedsr20 said:


> Some radios have a dimmer feature where you can control the face brightness with the dimmer if so wired, but a lot of them just dim the brightness 30-50% (illumination) when the lights are turned on. I was also going off the assumption that there was no factory light/illumination wire to make a connection to, so he was trying to improvise.


my guages have the same feature, they diagram and instuructions said if you do not want this feature then to just hook it up to the ground.


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