I had to take out a sony radio was not working and am trying to install the stock Becker radio. The wire plugs were not the same on these radios. I have the stock 4 prong plug but cannot hook my speaker wires on and there is no light in this radio as maybe because to the left of the 4 prong hole there is a smaller 2 prong hole and I do not know what wire goes in there and do not have the female part of that connection either. Does anyone know or have the proper plugs? The radio does play properly except I cannot hook my speaker wires up to it properly and there is no light in the radio for operation at night thinking because there is no juice to the light.

Attached Thumbnails

   

Since nobody else answered, I'll throw out some possible mis-information. I installed newer radios in my 2 300D's. I followed an internet thread w/ many photos. The stock Becker radio had no "fader" (proportions front to rear speakers) and used the fader knob on the wood shifter console. I disconnected that and cut back the sheath to expose where M-B combined some speakers w/ solder junctions, disconnecting until I had 4 separate speaker wire pairs. I wired those to the new radio. I applied a 1.5 V battery to each pair to find which pair went to which speaker. I saved the factory wiring in case I ever went resto-crazy and decided to put the Becker radio back, w/ its old quirks and failed LED segments, but doubt that would ever rise in my life's priority list.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

I can't think of any reason someone would want to bring the car back to stock audio except to keep it PERFECTLY stock. The stock sound system sucks. It's awful in all of these 80s-90s Benz.

What I did in the 84 was pull out the Becker, remove the speakers, ABANDON the stock wiring in ENTIRETY except the radio power wire bundle, run quality speaker wire from each speaker to the center console so I had one + & - for each speaker, and install the head unit. Now, I also ran power and RCA cables from the head unit to the trunk for my 10" Kicker Comp subwoofer, but that isn't totally necessary if you aren't an audiophile.

The stock system uses a standard Becker which is seriously obsolete because it only has two channels. MB took those two channels and split them front and rear at the fader switch on the shifter wood panel. So they took whatever power was going out and split it. That does not make for good quality in the first place, and THEN they went and used a rheostat fader and wire that's too thin. Horrible system all around.

Now I have a much more powerful headunit with the ability to play from CD aux or USB flash drive, 4 individual channels with the integrated digital fade and balance, thick high quality wiring, fresh new high quality speakers, and a high quality 10" subwoofer that gives me all the bass I could ever need in a W201.

I threw my Becker in the garbage a long time ago.

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'84 190D 2.2 5MT (Red/Palomino) Current car. Love it!
'85 190D 2.2 Auto *Cali* (Blue/Blue) *sold*
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I know the becker radio is not the best but it beats what I had if I could just get those special ends that the speaker wires need to plug in or figure how to make a stable connection some other way the radio works. I stopped in to a local radio shack to check if they might have something and to my dismay they have the place boarded up might check at the next town over if their radio shack is still open. Is there a wireing diagram aa to how the radio is wired?

You'll probably need to just go to the junk yard and cut the connector end off a car with the Becker still in it. When people put a new stereo in, they just cut and crimp. I bought my new stereo from Crutchfield. They have me a power adapter and a speaker wire adaptor. I used the power adaptor but ran all new speaker wire so I didn't need the speaker wide adapter.

If you can muster 50 bucks, it'll be worth it to just buy a new low end stereo.

__________________
'84 190D 2.2 5MT (Red/Palomino) Current car. Love it!
'85 190D 2.2 Auto *Cali* (Blue/Blue) *sold*
http://badges.fuelly.com/images/sig-us/302601.png
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/a...0/sideview.png

Beckerautosound dot com used to have the pinout diagrams, but I cant find them just now. Im sure that if you give them a call they will help.

I'm having a problem locating tne stock wireing off the back of the 612 Becker. I have the main plug but am missing speaker wires and some other wire that would attach to 2 prongs right aside of the main plug. Would anyone ojt there happen to have these wires?

For what it's worth, I just installed one of these in my W123 yesterday and am loving it:
Amazon.com: Bravo View IND-100U - In-Dash Digital Media Receiver with AM/FM Tuner and USB/SD/AUX-IN: Car Electronics

It's an in-dash MP3 player. NO CD/tape. AM/FM/MP3. It plays off a USB flash drive, or an SD card, or through an auxiliary jack.



It's cheap, sounds OK, and is way more convenient than CDs or tapes. I took out a working CD player in favor of this. I'm loving it so far. If your Becker works, I'll bet the radio is OK but the tape player is long-since kaput.

Thanks for all the replies especially mxfrank,and magicbus I found some original speaker plug wires on e-bay and they are on the way and when I called beckeraudio they told me what wires go where so I am pretty sure I will get this radio to work. But magicbus you did show me what looks like an excellent choice of radios in that I could plug my I-pod right into the front of it and have thousands of sounds to chose from on those long roadtrips if I had known this before I purchased the speaker wires I probably would have went that way in fact at that price I still might get one of those thanks for letting me know magic.

No problem. I've only had mine for 3 days now, but I'm liking it very much. Here it in installed:




Like I said, I'm very happy with this as a low-cost option. Very convenient for me, too. Also, it looks and feels a bit more expensive than it actually is.

I suggested aftermarket. I have a CD/USB/AUX headunit. They sell plain Jane receivers and USB units for cheap, hence my $50 suggestion.

__________________
'84 190D 2.2 5MT (Red/Palomino) Current car. Love it!
'85 190D 2.2 Auto *Cali* (Blue/Blue) *sold*
http://badges.fuelly.com/images/sig-us/302601.png
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/a...0/sideview.png

Attached is the FSM wiring diagram.

A Jan 2013 post I made (my copy):

W123 300D 5-pin Antenna Wiring
I fixed the radio antenna in my car today, so am posting the wiring colors and operation for posterity. I found conflicting info in other posts, some due to year differences and some maybe errors. My car is a 1985 CA model, W123 300D. Earlier models (pre-1984?) had a 3-wire antenna that is simpler. My antenna has 5-pins. My Haynes manual has a 1984 wiring diagram but shows a 3-pin antenna.

Antenna pins:
1 - blu/yell from up/dwn switch (max)
2 - red & red/wht, +12V supply, 1 wire passes thru to trunk lamp switch
3 - not used
4 - blu/grn, outputs +12V when radio on
5 - blu/wht from up/dwn switch (mid)
6 - brn, to chassis ground

Up/Down Switch on dash:
1 - empty, jumpered to 2 on switch
2 - blu/wht
3 - blu/grn, "radio on" signal
4 - blu/yell
Swith in down position: no connection between any pins
Switch in mid position: pin 3 connects to pin 2
Switch in up (max) position: pin 3 connects to pins 2 & 4

Radio:
brn - gnd
blk - 12 V power, same as cigarette lighter
red - ?
vio - ?
blu/grn - separate spade connector, +12 V when radio is on

It appears there is a junction somewhere in the PVC sheath that splits the blu/grn "radio on" wire to both the up/dwn switch and antenna. I see just blk PVC tubing on mine at the up/dn switch but others said "blue wire" when stripped back. It ohms out as being the same wire.

This is how I infer the 5-pin antenna control logic works:
pin 4 off: antenna goes full down, regardless of other pins
pin 4 on, pins 1 & 5 off: antenna goes full down
pin 4 & 5 on, pin 1 off: antenna goes to mid position
pin 4, 5, & 1 on: antenna goes to max position

I don't know if pin 1 on is sufficient to go to max position, regardless of pin 5, but expect both must be on.

I expect one can "program" the mid position to be anywhere desired by flipping the switch from "max" to "mid" at the desired position. The antenna will then return to that position each time you start the car, if you leave at the "mid" setting. If so, it could be an electro-mechanical design inside the antenna. My only owner's manual is 400 miles away in my son's 300D.

In my case, the antenna problem was simply that the "radio on" spade connector was unplugged. I am getting the car back on the road after sitting in the garage 3 yrs awaiting an engine and don't recall everything, but I have been borrowing parts for my son's car.

Attached Files

W123 radio wiring.pdf (127.5 KB, 128 views)

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

How deep is this unit? Without a tape or CD player it should be about half as deep, right?

Sixto
83 300SD

I didn't measure it. It fits noticeably shallower into the console. Maybe a little more than half... It's probably somewhere between 50-75% as deep.

EDIT - I just thought to check the manufacturer's website and found this:

7.4” (width) x 2” (height) x 3.85” (depth)

For comparison, the CD player that came out of the car was 6.5" deep (it's on my desk, so I measured it) up to the faceplate.