OK, finally my tuner arrived :-) After being shipped all around europe, even to the wrong country, and finally been stopped in customs upon entering EU after having left EU by mistake etc... (I even had to pay customs and VAT) but I don't care! now, it's here, and is's MINE!

But... my problem: I have a Ford Escort 1988 with a powered antenna. The antenna has one "signal" cable which I find under the dashboard, and it fits the antenna adaptor provided by Empeg (SonicBlue). The antenna also has
a black wire, which is grounded nearby, and one white and one red wire disappearing forwards. These are connected to a relay by the antenna, and are nowhere to be found under the dashboard. I have never had the
factory stereo in the car for as long as I have owned it, and I have never had a radio there... So... What should I do?
I'm tempted to re-run cables from the rear to the front, but it will not be a somple task, so I would rather not...

Anybody know anything about this car? There are plenty of striped-coloured wires in all colours just "dangling" behind the dashboard, from where the factory stereo was...


Marius (Escort Cab + Mark II)

I *suspect* that red is permanent power (connect to a 12v feed somewhere, with a fuse near the source) and white is antenna control, which should go to the tuner's blue antenna wire.

Have you got a meter to check if the red wire has power on it? It should be permanent power, as if you pull the key very quickly the antenna still needs to retract.

Are there any standard (ford) car audio connectors behind the dash?

Hugo

Yes, That seems to be correct!
The white wire turns into a black with a white stripe when it
appears behind the dashboard. it has an unusual connector, but for the time being, it works by just stuffing the blue wire into the connector (I¨'ll do this properly when everything works).
I have a fieeling the powered antenna may be bad. It goes most of the way up when it is supposed to, but not all the way, and it does not go down unless I give it a "push" before I turn off the tuner. There is only some rattle of gears/cogwheels.
The antenna is not stuck, but by guess is that something has moved or some "teeth" are broken or something...

The local car-accessory-shop has a powered antenna for 20GBP, but it does not look as good as the original.
I'll try to decide wether to attempt to repair the original or buy a new one.

In addition, I discovered that the problem with the empeg-player booting or stopping when I use electricity was caused by the unit being powered by the ignition-sense wire.

Mairus (Escort Cab + Mark II)