[luxobarge]

Hello

i wonder if anyone can help.

I purchased a negative earth car 8 track unit (entitled "Mustang") with some cartridges recently and now want to use it in my garage instead, not in the car, so i want to wire it up from a 12v transformer.

The unit was without a connecting jack, just having what looks like an a-typical female 4 pin din plug. A-typical because it looks a bit bigger than normal even though the diamond shape plate is similar to the usual ones.

Maplin were unable to supply the matching male din plug so i thought i woudl replace the the exisitng one to the current easily available type.

removing the cover on the unit revelealed four pins connected as follows clockwise as viewed from rear:

12 o'clock - a black wire (thin gauge) and a yellow wire (thinner gauge - seems to go to unit power light)
3 o'clock -a green wire (thicker gauge)
6 o'clock - a grey wire (thicker gauge)
9 o'clock - red wire (thin gauge), and between this and the 12o'clock wire there is a small capacitor

Questions:

does the unit need a separate amp to work?

if this is really a negative earth unit, is it right that the unit power light is connected to the black 12 o'clock wire?

which are the feed and return wires?

Perhaps the unit is to earth through its casing, in which case what are the functions of each wire?

assuming its a stereo unit, do the speakers also have their return via the common earth?

if i change the din plug, should i go for a 4 pin and replicate the existing, or go for a 6 pin ie to give me a pin for each of feed, return, left speaker out, left speaker return, right speaker out and right speaker return?


all help gretfully received!

thanks

RDS