Went to a yard and was able to pick a USDM oem radio/tape player from a 1984 sr5 corolla. Trying to figure out how to wire this sucker up, but from what i can tell the wiring diagram I am using does not seem to be for the right model/year(1986 electrical diagram). The wire colors don't match the diagrams, plus there are more wires/ pin connections than the diagram shows.

Has anyone came across something similar before? Is it better to go with wire colors or pin connections?

Thanks

Grab a volt meter and start testing the pinouts. Basically most important is ground and power, then you can trial and error for the speaker positions. Or, you can do what I did and get one of these...
https://www.carid.com/metra/factory-rep ... 8.html?sin

This makes the whole process 10x easier.

Thanks for the tip. I was able to power it up successfully.

No sound output yet though. When using the tuner, will I hear static even without an antenna connected?

Yeah you should be hearing static of some sort. Turn the volume all the way up and see if you can hear some static. If not, something is wrong with the speaker wiring.

I found a pinout, which I believe is for memory. You wouldn't happen to know if that needs a separate 12v supply do you?

ahhh. Do I just check for continuity for the speaker outputs?

It's funny, I've been looking for some cassettes all over in my house for the past few days but no luck. I don't think I've ever been so eager to find one.

If you have any thrift stores or goodwill nearby you can always try there.

You can buy reverse harnesses for them as far back as 82 I think.
http://www.metraonline.com/part/Toyota_ ... ss_71-1398
You can use this to just plug into the radio or if you have the harness, it will tell which wires do what. Not sure if this is what you are looking for. If you can power the radio up (meaning you have the memory and accessory 12v wires), you can measure the output voltage of the unit and see which if any have 12 volts out. This would be an antenna turn-on wire. Whatever is left will be speaker and possibly dimming/illumination.
The harness takes all the guesswork out of it if it is the right one for the unit.