Not really mechanical, Radio...Need some help

Alright. I took my old sterio out, and decided to put in a new (to me) Pioneer DEH - 445. i got the speakers hooked up, but I'm having problems with the power part.

I have a red wire, and a black wire coming from the dash, as well as a purple and orange stripe wire. Black is negitive, i know that much. Black to black, Red to red. we

Now, i have a red, black, an orange, and a yellow wire. Red is pos. switched 12V, Black is ground, orange is Constant (battery) 12V, and yellow is illumination.

When i have red to red, black to black, and orange with the reds, i get power to the radio. Heres the funny thing. I get power whether the ignition is on or off. as soon as i take the orange off, the radio dies. It has full function, but will not turn off with the key being turned off. Any other combination, and the radio doesn't work. yellow doesn't really affect anything.

Now the reason i mentioned the purple and orange stripe wire is because when i touch it to the positive lead coming from the jeep, the "low washer" idiot light comes on.

Whats going on? Anyone?

sounds like you need a meter to figure out whats going on red might be the hot all the time wire for the memory and clock imguessing someone already cut the factory plugs off huh would have mabye made it easier

Where should i put the meter? Voltage across red and black in the dash is 12.26V.

read from black (known ground) to the other wires with and without the key on to determine if in fact the red is the switched wire

Alright sweet. Thanks.

http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/stereodetail/1149.html
hey i found this see if this helps

This doesn't help now but next time, just buy a conversion plug kit from your local stereo shop. the longest part of my install was soldering the conversion plug wiring harness to the stereo.

Pioneer wants $13 for the dam manual, they are downloadable from manual web sites for a charge. I think I'm going to really start collecting them instead of throwing them out when I get something new. The yellow is for the dimmer, at least on the last 3 head units I've installed.