VT wiring harness??

[dbun]

Just bought an Aerpro wiring harness to do my headunit in my VT berlina and noticed that it does not have a black ground lead on it. It's got all the other relavent colours but no grounding lead.

Is it supposed to or does the grounding wire not run through the harness??

[garfa]

run a new ground. stock grounds can (and are) not as good as the ones you make yourself.

[StoneX]

I have a VT Berlina and used a wiring harness... I can't remember what colours each wire was but I didn't have to run a new ground or anything.

[dbun]

yeh.....was thinking i should just run my own ground.

What about the power antenna wire though?? The Aerpro harness i bought doesn't have a power antenna lead on it??

I'm unsure what to do with the power antenna wire from my headseat loom as it doesn't join up to the Aerpro harness

[StoneX]

Is this the loom you got? It is the model 711784H which suits VT Commodores. It has a black earth wire. I can't remember about the electric antenna wire because my head unit (Pioneer) doesn't have electric antenna wire, just remote wire so it was connected to the blue wire, as far as I remember.

[dbun]

I bought the AP1784H (below) because it said "connects to OEM harness to enable connection to aftermarket head unit."

Did I by the right one??

[StoneX]

Yeah, sorry, my mistake... I don't know what the point of the one I listed is.

Do you still have the packaging? Mine said what each wire was and there was an earth. I tried looking under my dash but I couldn't see the wires unfortunately

[dbun]

yeh still got the packaging.....but not all the colours listed on the back or on the loom eg

pink=mute....not there
black=ground.....not there
blue=power antenna.....not there
orange=illumination....not there
orange/white=dimmer.....not there

i'm thinking maybe the antenna wire from my h/u goes to the blue/white remote on the wiring harness as there is no blue power antenna on the harness

i wouldn've expected a grounding wire though

thanks alot for the help so far mate.....really appreciate it

[Muttley]

Hi dbun,

Went through some pain getting the antenna working on my VT, but is actually quite simple. Here is the guts of it.

1. If you use the wiring harness as most people suggest, then it will connect the blue wire from the HU to the Yellow/Red in the wiring harness. This tells the antenna control unit that the radio is on. It doesn't supply power to the motor, this comes directly from the battery.

2. If you had the antenna up when you took out the old HU then it should go back up to that spot when you hook up the new HU.

3. If you had the antenna down when you replaced the unit (like I did) then the antenna stays down. Read on to find out how to fix it.

There are 2 wires in the harness to control antenna UP (Light Blue) and DOWN (White). To control the antenna height, connect EARTH to either the UP or DOWN wire. Not 12V. Once you have it in the spot you like, simply leave them unconnected in the plug and the antenna will return to that spot when the HU is on and go down when the HU is off.

If you want to control it, you will need to put a 3 way rocker switch somewhere to switch EARTH to either wire.

You should be able to find wire colours and a schematic here on the forum. Both helped me heaps but feel free to email if you have any questions.

BTW I ran a separate earth for the unit.

Muttley

[dbun]

Thanks for the reply Muttley

just with the antenna.....i thought the commodores automatically retract the antenna when you turned of the car?? So do you mean you have the antenna physically up when you remove the H/U??

[StoneX]

Yep, before changing head unit. You set it to full height, then when you put the new head unit in, it will automatically go to full height.

Here for instructions on the rocker switch.

[dbun]

Do you still have the packaging? Mine said what each wire was and there was an earth

I'm beginning to think i may have gotten a dodgey loom........mine is definitely missing the black ground lead and i can't find a wire to connect the antenna cable from the H/U to the wiring harness........the only free cable on the harness is a blue/white lead which is labelled as 'remote' but this is supposed to be run to the amps is it not or am I mistaken??

[Joe Peeps]

if im not mistaken isnt the blue and white lead for the auto antenna generally... it is also used as the remote turn on for any amps you may have.

[dbun]

^^ yeh i was thinking that.......cause they have a blue/white lead on the harness labelled as 'remote'....i think it is the remote for the arial to let it know it's on.

Will still go back to autobarn tomorrow and see if the other harnesses have a grounding lead on it though........just to know if i got a dodgey one or not even though i can't return cause i've soldered the connections already lol

[antiskeptic]

hey man, yeah its simple you do have a dodgey loom, i brought one for my vt berlina and i had the earth wire, power antena, dimmer etc... hooked it all up worked first time no probs....
take it back get a swap over