I bought a Metra PW22 power antenna to replace my toasted OEM one. To connect it I have to cut off the OEM plug/connector thing and join the wires. The 3 original wires in the trunk are 1-orange, 2-green, and 3-black. I'm guessing the black is a ground wire, right? I need to know which is the "constant-on" wire and which is the "switched" wire. Anyone have any ideas? I know a couple people on the old board had installed the same antenna but I'm unsure with all the change over who's here and who isn't.

The directions for the new antenna suggest that the "switched" wire will often be blue on most cars and the "constant-on" will be red, but since GM (mine at least) has a green wire and no blue I felt I should ask first before I did any cutting.

Thanks

Do you have a multi meter? I used one to find the hot,ground and remote wire when I had to put mine in. red, black, and blue where my colors. wish I could help more

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2007 Grand Prix GT L32
Poly endlinks, swaybar bushings and dogbone bushings. Drop in high flow air filter. Its a start!

2009 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS (project BlackSheep) Bone stock for now, 5 spd and fun as hell! (Gf's Ride)
1996 Pontiac Bonneville SE Gone but not forgotten
1997 Dodge Ram Sport 4x4 5.9L The Beast!

No meter...

Hi 88,
I was able to find something that I hope will help. This is the color coding for my 93 from the harness to the antenna:
Orange = 12v Always (so this is the main power wire.)
Pink = 12v with radio ON (so this would be like the blue wire on after market stereos.. that would feed signal to amp and antennas.. telling them to energize)
Black = Ground. An easy one.

Are those the wires that You have? If not, and you don't have a meter, you might try rigging up a test light with a simple 12v bulb and a couple pieces of wire. Of course test the wires with the radio off to see which is the always hot wire, etc. Enjoy the tunes!

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1993 Red SSE - Bone-Stock except for High Perf. (LOL) Power Antenna-Original Owner. Pushing 140K - It's the love of my wife.
'05 Magnum Hemi R/T "Great White" - Classic VW Beetles

This is what I have. Orange, Green, and Black. Sorry it's a little blurry. I guess black is alwasy ground, and chances are orange is the hot wire and green is the switch...???

That is probably right. The diagram also says the pinout is Orange on A, Pink on B, and Black on C; so that would agree with the picture and your assumption on the green wire (must have run out of pink .. )

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1993 Red SSE - Bone-Stock except for High Perf. (LOL) Power Antenna-Original Owner. Pushing 140K - It's the love of my wife.
'05 Magnum Hemi R/T "Great White" - Classic VW Beetles

It worked! Installed it this afternoon. It looks great and was pretty easy to hook up, I used the original mounting base that was on the car and only had to do a little fooling around to get it fitting really snug. It's very quiet too. Special thanks to 93RedSled-SSE. Here's the finished product...



BUT...I still don't have good reception. It fades out and then back again. That was the main reason I tried a new antenna. My old one had a good bend in it and I thought it wasn't making a good connection. So, I guess it wasn't the antenna at all. If anyone has any info please see my new post here...

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1129

You have the ground strap on the antenna remounted, right?
If so..
Just getting creative here, knowing you do not have a volt/ohm meter;
I think I would check the coax from one end to the other. This is simpler than I make it sound.
You will need a 12v bulb with leads hooked to each side (or a plain old test light) and a pair of test leads with alligator clips on both ends or something similar.
If your radio is not too hard to get out to access the antenna input,

1. Go ahead and unplug the coax in the trunk at the antenna, leaving it plugged into the radio
2. If you can hook one side of a 12v bulb to the ORANGE wire and the other side to the center lead on the coax, making sure not to touch the ground side of the coax.
3. The test bulb should NOT lite. What you have just done is verify that the coax is not super smashed some where and shorted together. If it DOES light, rather brightly, you may have a short in it. (see note below)
If it fails the above test, STOP and skip the following steps.
4. If it passed and did NOT light, we will check for continuity from end to end. This may take a helper.
Unplug the coax from the radio.
5. Go to the antenna end in the trunk, still unhooked, and apply power to the coax by using that orange wire and black. If you have any of those little cheapy test leads with the alligator clips on the end, those work good for this. Hook the orange to the center lead and black to the outer shield. Don't let them touch each other and blow a fuse.
6. At the radio end, connect the lamp you used in step 2, across the center lead and shield.
It SHOULD light this time, if you have continuity.

If it fails either of the 2 tests, well.. may be time for some new coax.
NOTE: If the light comes on in step 3, being connected to the radio might be interfering with the test, even though the radio should have a high resistance input and not allow enough current to light the test light. I would unhook the radio and test it again to see if it still fails.

This is a shade tree test and only tests for VERY damaged coax. It doesn't check for slightly smashed. Also, PASSING these 2 little tests is more believable than if it fails. . Maybe that will help get you to the next step. Let us know what you find before you yank out your coax, though. Which reminds me, if you had a long piece of coax with end connectors, you could hook it to the antenna and just run it outside the car to the radio to see if you have an improvement. Trying not to make this difficult. DOH! I didn't see the new post link. I will copy and past over to that one.
Everybody go to this post >http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1129

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1993 Red SSE - Bone-Stock except for High Perf. (LOL) Power Antenna-Original Owner. Pushing 140K - It's the love of my wife.
'05 Magnum Hemi R/T "Great White" - Classic VW Beetles