02 Montana fuse box/ aftermarket radio question

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trix13440

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How's it going, got an 02 Montana (base model), stock radio's screen was dead when I got got vehicle. Radio itself still worked, just couldn't see stations, etc.
Decided I might as well put my "good" radio in. Got the harness, dash kit and put it all together.
Went to power up radio, and it had no power. After a look at the factory harness, I found no 12v + accessory line coming out of the dash.
Did some reading online, and saw a couple ways to go about accessing or making a new line.
Safest by far, from what I saw was to use a fuse tap. Now, I have the tap, but I need to know which slot in my interior fuse box is a 12v + accessory, (preferably a vacant slot).
Alternatively, if you guys know of a better method, I'm all ears.
I'm not a noob when it comes to cars, just a lack of experience with electrical in particular lol.

Thank you for any help :)
 
use a voltmeter or test light to find the circuit you want. It is puzzling why you are going this route since with the correct harness adapter you shouldn't have to do this.
 
It sounds like you have a blown fuse, which was causing the factory radio to malfunction and your aftermarket radio to not power up using the supplied harness adapter.

The aftermarket radio will require battery positive all the time and one with the key on.
If you do not find a blown fuse that corrects the problem, you will need to determine which voltage your missing the keep alive or the 12 volt constant power.

Like melsg5 mentioned with a computer safe test light or DVOM probe the fuse panel for the fuse slot that has the attributes you are looking for. but do not use any fuse locations that are for the air bags or other sensitive electronics.
 
The factory radio did work, it just didn't light up the screen. And I got the harness from Advanced, for this van. It plugged right into the factory harness just fine.
I've checked, and re-checked the fuses for the interior box and none so far are blown
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it didn't light up because the LED bulb was burnt out.
The "good" radio was tested in another vehicle and it worked?
The Advance Auto harness plugged into the radio or you had to cut and splice?
 
I don't have another car to test the factory radio in, but when it was still installed I could listen to stations, change stations. I just couldn't see what station I was on, and trying to hunt for one station in particular when I couldn't even see if I was on AM or FM, I gave up after a week.
No splicing, no cutting. What I bought at advanced plugged right into the harness connection coming out of my dash.
When it did not power up I looked at the back of that connection, seeing where the wires from my harness were lining up with the ones from the factory harness, and the only one that doesn't have a factory connection was the 12v+ accessory wire.
 
Wait did you mean my aftermarket radio as the "good" one? Yes it was just installed in a Cherokee, and functioned perfectly fine in it. And the other 3 cars I've had it in, since I bought it.
 
so it sounds like you got the wrong harness from Advanced Auto since it is missing a wire. Did you try to find the correct harness from a site such as www.crutchfield.com ?
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From what I've read about these van's, they just plain don't have the line I need. Like I said, it plugged in fine to the factory harness, and every single other wire matches to what it should be coming from the factory harness.
 
That's a great find, actually. But I'm on a fixed income, and barely afforded the $15 harness I have now, no way I can do $46.
If I disable the right hand 12v power socket, can I hook up to that line instead?
 
what do you mean "disable the right hand 12v power socket"?
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I have 2 cigarette lighter ports on my dash. One is always on, the other only when the car is on
 
so how does the word disable come into this process? dont you mean tap into the power wire for the lighter?
 
I meant disable the port itself, so that if I did tap in, I wouldn't blow a fuse if i forgot and tried using that port at some later date. How can I tap in safely?
 
I can't buy anything, I need to do this the old fashioned way. Which of the 2 wires feeding the lighter is the 12v +?
 
the center wire going into the lighter is the 12 volt positive the other wire is for the ground
if you look at the other wire it should connect directly to the metal housing
 
if you splice into that line ,, the battery draw for the memory on the radio is minimal and you should be fine using that power outlet,, I personally would save it for cell phone charging or other light draw charging
 
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