Hey everyone, I'm new here and I'm looking for some help. The aftermarket stereo that came with my 87 Camaro was stolen last week. Instead of buying a new aftermarket, I bought a stock Delco off ebay. My idea is to open it up and install a 3.5mm aux jack directly into the amp so that I can connect my ipod to the stereo while still havign something that no one would really look to steal. I know it can be done b/c someone on ebay is selling them pre made but for way too much and I'd rather do it on my own.
Too bad I'm not electronically inclined. Can anyone direct me to schematics/wiring diagrams that would help me.
Any advice would be cool too.
Thanks

 

I advise you to take it to an audio shop, it will be faster, cheaper, and you wont have to buy another stock radio.

 

I have some electrical experience, but not by beinbg schooled at it. Th truth is in many cases you can simply open up some device, and by studying what parts are where, actually figuring out what must be what inside there. Now I have not opened a stock delco radio, but I would expect the amp part to have some kind of heatsink, and also be at the side/rear. One may just find the right place to solder on that way, but then again, maybe not.

But, if you take no chances, you never win either.

Personally, I'd rather do the 3-5mm jack thing, but then simply draw the wires outside the back on the delco unit, to a secondary BETTER amp, as it's not all that good whats in there. That way, you could get great sound, if you also have some decent new speakers, and still look stock.


This is what I am going to do, NO WAY is ever an aftermarket stereo coming into my car. I mean, it's like putting up a huge blinking neon sign "STEAL ME".
And it's not the loss of the stereo that hurts, but all the small stuff they wreck that the insurance wont cover.

ALL my stereos have been stolen, never even had a stereodeck for one full year the 17 years I have had cars.

Latelay I have actually converted MP3's from the pc, onto tapes Lol

 

Anyone know of a link to a site that details on installing the jack in a delco radio?

Theres a guy like 50 miles away that sells them on ebay but Im sure he wouldnt tell me what he does. I can solder and am sure Ive got enough equipment to do the job its just I dont know where to make connections

Heres his CL ad so you know what im talking about

http://stlouis.craigslist.org/pts/546003531.html

 

Subscribing...Ive seen his kits before but would rather do it myself. Wonder how I can make it work on my 00 delco monsoon unit.
Matt

 

I've run across a website where the procedures and drawings for doing this were explained. I'll have to do some searching to see what I can find. I was more interested in using the aux input harness on the back of mine for Sirius input when I found it. What type of radio are you planning to do this to? I was looking at the Delco Theft-Lock during my search.

 

Ive got 3 different equalizer cassette radios and a regular radio w/o cassette
2 of the equalizer radios I just pulled out of econovans today at the junkyard

Hey, al, you need to get on findin that site!

 

Al Hasse If you could find that site for me on the delco lock radios that would be awesome. Lemmi kno what you find.
Matt

 

That may take a while. I stumbled across it while looking for something else, I found it quite interesting but didn't bookmark it for any future reference.

 

I didn't find what I was looking for yet, but found a seller on e-Bay with a kit consisting of a cable you can hook up to the back of your head unit that has the 3.5mm jack on the end. You can hide this thing anywhere and it supposedly works the same as having the jack on the faceplate. Probably going to cost as much as the deck you're getting. I'll keep looking, but here's the link to the cable he's selling.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CHEAP...mZ320216385562

 

I have a few old stock radios out in the shed. It's a little late right now, but tomorrow I can get one out, and get some pics for you guys.

I can tell you now, it's going to be very simple, enough so it can probably be explained here.
You mentioned earlier that you had some decks that had the tape players. These would be where I begin tinkering.
Inside the deck, coming off the actual tape playing assembly, look for 3 wires bundled together. These will be your left+ right+ and a ground. Follow them back to their sources and destinations and see if there are any markings to indicate which is which. If no marking are available I would consider powering up the unit, attaching 2 speakers, then cutting one of the wires. Both left and right stop playing? That was the ground.

I'm not sure it would be as simple as tapping into these lines or if you may need to diode isolate the the tape player side of the wires to prevent damage to the pre-amp output of the tape player.

An afterthought...
When you insert a tape is when the "source" is switched from tuner to tape. I'm pretty sure this will be a mechanical switch. We will need to see how we can trigger the switch to amplifying the tape source, instead of the radio tuner, but without you having to insert a tape.

I do have a question though. Why not use an FM modulator? It would not require opening the deck, and would bypass the "do I have a tape in" part of this.

 

While not the site I was looking for, this is an excellent how to for installing an iPod cable (apparently you can keep it charged too) to your head unit.

http://www.bradgoldring.com/delco_auxin.pdf

 

I dont know if I wanna go into that much detail.
I wonder if they make black ipod docks and if it would be possible to figure out a way to vut the wire and change it so it has a charge going to it and an audio signal coming out

Maybe buy that kit off ebay just to figure out how to override the cd changer input.
Then get one of those ipod docks, and wire it to always have constant charging voltage. Plug an input jack into the dock and then solder the end to a delco cd changer plug if I can find one in a junkyard

 

Found this searching around

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/hard...-stereo-2.html

 

So can anyone tell me what the 4th "blank" spot on our delco radios is for?
I didnt know if this was some sort of cd changer plug or what and if so, couldnt you just input it from there?

 

Cd changer control would be on the separate 9 pin connector (on so equipped radios) normally for a slave deck auxiliary input. That open spot is pins 11-16 (11 on the outside and 16 next to the 4-pin connector). Pin 16 is for a VSS input for radios equipped with speed controlled volume on Camaros and pin 14 is for the steering wheel interface for so equipped radios on Firebirds. The other 4 pins I have no idea, one of them may be for power antenna.

 

So a guy could make an input out of that without even needing to open the radio? What would switch over from am/fm/cassette to playing from the cd changer input? Does it automatically play from the cd changer when the radio senses a signal or what?

If I got a 1 piece harness out of an early 4th gen with all 4 connectors on it and dremeled the cd changer harness out, could I wire that to a headphone input jack and use it as an input for my ipod?

Ive got 4 equalizer radios and one radio with no cassette Id like to play with and so I need to find a way to do it as easily and cheap as possible