Ok guys, I got a brand new Sony CD player for my boat. I installed it last night and something weird is happening. There is a red (hot) wire and a yellow (memory) wire which goes to the fuse box. Well in order for this new radio to work i have to hook the red and yellow wires together, here's the problem. The ACC switch that you flip to actually cut the radio on is set to off....however the light comes on????? Any ideas?

put the yellow wire to a constant hot,,, and put the red wire to the switch on the dash,,, it should work then

Hmmm...good idea, thats one thing I haven't tried, it makes sense though. It was getting dark last night and the mosquito's were having a field day on my legs so I said the heck with it and covered it back up. I'll give that a shot, thanks.

Obnoxious is right on.

The red wire is to be on the switch for when you want to power up the unit and the yellow wire needs to be hotwired directly to power(with a fuse, of course) so it will get a constant supply of power to retain your presets and clock time, etc.

Sounds like you may have a hot wire somewhere connected past the switch. In other words your switch isn't doing anything. Your switch needs battery to light the led, if it is lit.. and the switch is off.. you have battery voltage backfeeding into your switch.
My 272 came with a factory radio that already had a wire going directly to the battery, don't know which color?
Get a test light, disconnect all your power splices, turn your switch off and check each one for voltage, if there is a hot one, connect it to your yellow memory wire.
Or if you don't have a test light, disconnect wires until the led goes out, that would be the hot wire.

Good luck.

I think they are right though because here's what i have currently from the radio....red to red w/fuse, and yellow to yellow. This didn't work so i connected all 4 wires together and thats how it's working now. So if i just cross these wires....yellow to red w/fuse and red to yellow I think it will work. I know i probably just confused it all but I get the idea HAHA. Right now it's just remaining constantly on since i have them all hooked up, once I switch these wires the switch light should go off.

Hey 97... the others are correct. You'll need one "always-on" fused connection and one switched. Same goes in a car, except the switched is connected to your ignition.

BTW: You CAN have both of them switched if you want, but you'll lose your memory presets and clock every time you turn off the yellow.

Also, your factory radio should've been wired like this. Mine was.

You can do this too, and this way you'll only need one fuse junction or set of in-line fuses.

The power required to the yellow wire is negligable as it basically is somewhere on the order of what a watch battery could provide---Presets and clock time.

Is this one of the top end Sony's? If so all you have to do is hold down the OFF button for more than 3 sec and it will shut off the display. This was put in for newer cars that dont have a ACC switch. I have two differnt sony's that has this feature.
If you want to run through the switch than you need to do have the Yellow to hot all the time and switch the Red wire.
I have my yellow and red wire together in mine so I can use the radio at any time without haveing to turn on the key. Also this way I dont loose my presets when I turn off my Battery switch.

Good luck. I