Installing an 89 GTA radio in an 88 IROC - Third Generation F-Body Message Boards

bradley23150 · 10-07-2009, 04:07 PM

I bought a radio that came out of an 89 GTA to put in my 88 IROC. The wiring is different in 82-88 cars as opposed to 89-92 cars. My question is, can I go to the junkyard and cut out the plug that plugs into the radio from; say an 89 RS, or any 89-92 3rd gen and then buy a wiring adapter kit from wal-mart and splice those 2 harnesses together and make a plug-and-play harness. I do not want to cut into my factory harness. This radio is the type that has the steering wheel controls that also control it. The plug on the back of the radio has all pins used, and I've noticed that not all radios have all of the 20 or so pins used. Im thinking that the excess pins are for the extra 2 speakers in the back, and also the factory amplifier, so they're not necessarily 'needed' to use just the 4 factory speakers?

Any help is always appreciated.

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novafirebirdguy · 10-08-2009, 01:00 PM

What your thinking of should work. Don't know about running it without an amp though.
Alex

bradley23150 · 10-08-2009, 02:24 PM

Just got back from the u-pull it, and grabbed 2 89 harnesses, they were both different for some reason, but if one doesnt work, i have the other. Also went to wal-mart and grabbed the wiring adapter, Ill see how it works.

84ws689bird · 10-08-2009, 05:26 PM

if the radio from the 89 isn't a bose radio then the swap should work. even though GM changed the plug, the wire colors remained the same. you can order both harnesses from Metra Electronics, usually available at your local car stereo shop, part #'s 70-1677-1 for the 88 and 71-1858-1 for the radio, combine the two of them and it becomes plug and play. if the GTA had a bose system, then the radio will not work, look around for a new one.

bradley23150 · 10-08-2009, 05:55 PM

Thanks for the help, heres what I did:
Bought a wiring adapter that allows the car to plug into the harness, than attached that harness to a stock 89 t/a harness (I looked up the color-coded wires in chiltons, and adapted them accordingly) than plugged that into the radio.

Heres where I stand, I got the radio to power on, but of course its locked and displays 'Loc'. I know that if you hold 'mute' on the steering wheel controls it unlocks it, but my car is an IROC. I got the controls with the radio when I bought it, but I dont know how to hook them up.

The radio has a small plug in the back with 2 wires coming off of it for the steering wheel controls input. Colors of the wires are Black and Orange.

The steering wheel control itself has a 4-wire connector off of it. The color of the wires are as follows: Black, Orange, Yellow, and Gray.

The most I got the controls to do, is light up, by connecting the Black wire from the controls, to the Black wire on the radio, and connecting the Gray wire from the controls, to a + source. I CANT get the thing to unlock. Ide like to know what the 4 wires coming off of the controls connect to, so I can hook them up. I dont plan on running the steering wheel controls in my car, just need them to unlock the radio.

Any further assistance is greatly appreciated.

bradley23150 · 10-09-2009, 01:36 PM

Surely someone knows what these wires ultimately connect to.

Its the "Push-Button" style radio, I dont 'think' its a Bose ?

84ws689bird · 10-09-2009, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bradley23150

Surely someone knows what these wires ultimately connect to.

I looked up the instructions for a steering wheel interface kit from PAC audio and it listed four wires, however, they are different colors than yours, as they give the wire color at the steering wheel connector, not the radio connector, and somewhere in between they change color. (link here:http://76.12.243.71/swixprogramming/...ehicles&ID=195) According to the directions, you would have to interface their controller to the orange or black wire that is in pin one of the connector at the steering wheel,(it could be either) but you don't know that because you have the other end. the second thing I see you running into will be the actual code for the radio itself. pushing mute on the steering wheel will only get you into unlock MODE, where you would have to enter the radios unlock code. since this is entered by a previous owner, only GM can reflash the code to unlock it and they generally charge about 75.00 to do this.. Again, based on my experience. plus i think that you can also push and hold the am and fm buttons down to enter unlock mode as well, or look between these two buttons, sometimes there is a small hidden button that you hold down to enter unlock. GM used several different methods. only you can determine if all this is worth the hassle, or attempt to find a different radio that isn't locked.

bradley23150 · 10-10-2009, 08:15 PM

I appreciate your digging, but like you said, I need the other plug. Ive searched in multiple threads that say all you have to do is press 'Mute' and it will display the time, and the radio will function as normal. I installed a different radio in my car today, I will bench test the gta one further to see what I can do.

Thanks again