3/16/2018

Clarion RF-484I Connector Pinout

I recently acquired a Clarion RF-484I (FCC ID AX292ARF484I) made for a mid 1980's Subaru (not sure which one). This is a single speaker mono radio (no stereo). The wiring diagram pinout is below. Mine had a connector that had a Blue wire for +12v, Yellow Speaker wire, white and black wires that are bridged and then go to case or common ground, and then 2 wires Red with green stripe, and Red with Blue stripe, for the dial light, it does not really matter which wire is positive or negative since they are independent of case ground or any internal circuitry in the radio. Speaker ground can be to the white wire, or to chassis ground anywhere in the car. There is a small screw on the front of the radio near the AM FM words that is used to tune the antenna for AM reception, mine did not seem to do anything. The way you use it is tune a weak AM station (or your favorite) and turn the screw till it sounds better.
The unit seems to use a max of 200ma at 13.8 volts DC without the dial light. Sound quality is fine for a mono radio, it has Volume, Tone, and push button tuning. To set the buttons. tune a station, pick a button, pull it out, then push it all the way in. Unknown if buttons can be programmed for both AM and FM (probably not). Push the volume knob in to turn on and off.