How to wire an ignition wire to my deck?

How to install car stereo in 1984 volvo - with only constant power... no ignition power wire?

• I'm trying to install a pioneer tape deck into my 1984 volvo 240 wagon. I have only 1 green wire that seems to have power. This is regardless of whether the ignition is on or not. There is no other wire with power... the others, I assume, are speaker wires. How can I connect the stereo - which has an orange ignition wire and a red constant-power wire? Can I just wire them together? I don't think this deck will drain much power from the battery if it's always on. Also, if my ground wire isn't working, can I just run a wire to somewhere on the chassis? Lastly, the pioneer deck which i just pulled out of a Ford Ranger, has some weird in-line fuses and resistors on the orange and red wires... do I need those? Can I cut them off? Thanks

• Answer:

  Wow-that Pioneer deck must be at least ten years old. They haven't used those wire colors in a while. By the way, the orange wire is for constant power; the red wire is accessory. I'd leave the resistor and fuse holder in place. You can wire the constant and accessory wires together, but if you forget to turn off the deck when you shut the car off, there's a good chance it will drain your battery overnight. If your car's cigarette lighter is accessible, it's possible that it works with accessory power; you can test it and find out. If it's suitable, just tap your head unit's accessory wire there. Alternately, you can get to the key switch wiring and find the accessory output. Another option is to tap into a key-switched fuse at the vehicle fuse box. Some cars, especially older cars, have taps available in the fuse box for adding accessories.