Hi everyone,

So myself and a friend of mine pulled the aftermarket radio and speakers out of the Z28 and it was bad.


Really bad.



I?m surprised I didn?t have an electrical fire or something short out on me.

That?s all the stuff I took out.

-My main concern now is 1) figuring out this wiring mess, and 2) finding a decent replacement that matches stock specs for the original radio. But can anyone tell me what the yellow, green and brown wire were for? They were shoved in the back like this when we undid everything.

 

That's kinda ... brutal.

There are any number of vehicles from the same time frame that used the same (or very similar) radios. They have the same plugs, the same color wires.

I'd suggest going to the junkyard with a good clear photo of your car's wiring for the radio, showing the colors of all the wires; finding one from about the same age that matches; (could be a Monte Carlo, a Buick of some sort, a truck, ... who knows) grabbing the radio connectors, and meticulously and carefully splicing those replacement plugs onto your car's OE wiring, using rosin-core solder and heatshrink. If you have a MicroCenter or Fry's or some such in your area, they have all manner of materials for doing this; the right solder, irons, paste flux (makes an AMAZING difference), heatshrink, heat guns, and so on. Clean up all the flux with lacquer thinner before slipping the heatshrink over the joint.

Once you de-sodomize the car, there are companies that make adapter harnesses for radios, that you splice the new radio's connectors onto using the same careful neat and meticulous technique that you will be using to repair your car, and then they ... PLUG INTO ... the car's OE stuff. How miraculous is that? NO MORE HACKING!!! What the person who fornicated your car should have done in the first place.

The wires you're asking about are for the original front speakers I think.

 

Thanks. Its been years since I've soldered or worked with any wiring. Its honestly my least favorite thing to do working on these cars and was beside myself when stumbled onto this nightmare chop job.

 

Well stated!

 

 

BONUS ROUND: I found this under the dash. Its a switch, but I am unsure where is goes or what it does. I will have to trace the wire to its source. That will be fun.

 

I can only see 8 splices and it looks like the 'power' plug is still intact,.......... might be as simple as splicing new speaker plugs in place. Sending a PM now !

 

To piggyback onto this suggestion, you can also cut the harness farther up under the dash of the donor car, which will give you a few additional inches to splice onto your car's radio wiring to make radio removal easier in the future.

 

In my area donor cars are becoming harder and harder to find, I think in part these cars are becoming popular again and people are now keeping them and trying to restore them. The I've been to 3 yards in my area, and only 1 car was found already picked clean. John in RI is sending me a radio plug that might do the trick so I'm waiting on that. In the meantime, I also found yet ANOTHER wire clipped that I overlooked:



It's kinda funny.......Not really.

 

All of that right there is part of some aftermarket alarm. It's the "horn" or whatever you want to call the noisemaker.

Into the trash with no reservation hesitation or equivocation.

 

Done and done! I'm wondering what treasure trove awaits me when I pull the dash.

 

Could be like those deals where people take down a wall of their house, and find 100,000 bees, or a 70-yr stash of used razor blades, or the mummy of some forgotten red-headed stepchild...

Think of it as "automotive archaeology".

 

I bet you youngsters do not know why razorblades are found in wall?

When folks shaved with these



Medicine cabinets had a slot in the back, intended for the used blades to be dropped into. Thousands of used blades could accumulate in the wall.

 

Yep. One of the houses I grew up in had a "used razor" slot in the wall. House was built sometime in the 20's. My dad took a wall apart during a renovation and there wasn't any insulation, just a bunch of old newspapers, clothes and shoes thrown in to act as "insulation".

 

If it makes you feel any better, my car's PO used athletic tape in his stereo installation instead of the wire nuts your car's PO at least bothered to use. He also used SPEAKER WIRE as a replacement for the power cable. Stuff like that makes me realize that my car was on a long path to the scrap yard until I rescued it.

 

Yikes. That is where I believe my car was also heading towards as well: to be parted out and the rest scrapped.

 

UPDATE: The connectors came in (thanks John!) as well as the mounting brackets.



When I compared these to the wires in my car it looks like it might not be a complete match. Some look slightly bigger and different colors. I have my Haynes manual that I will be going through to match everything up, but post again if I get stuck.

 

No Problem !!

Looking at this pic of your center console it appears that your "power" ( BLACK) plug from the dash harness is still fully intact. If so,....... you will not need the BLACK plug that I sent; just plug in the original & toss the replacement.



You'll be hearing music soon !!

 

Thanks John. That one plug is not cut and it fits right in, but It looks like there is one plug missing that I need to track down.

 

You don't need that last plug,...... not in a Thirdgen anyway !

 

The electronic odyssey continues! First, I took off the dash pad


Looks like I still have the front stock stereo speakers. I cleaned them up a bit. Hopefully they still work.
(And yes I’m in the market for a new(ish) dash pad. PM me if you happen to have one for sale.

Next, those mystery wires were hooked up to this:



I did a search and it looks like an aftermarket alarm system, maybe the one that was hooked up to the horn in the front. I’ll be splicing the plugs and harness together sometime this weekend, First I’m tracking to see if there are any other surprises before I reinstall the radio. Last thing I want is to find out the wrong ohm’s running through the front from some aftermarket speaker setup that would fry my radio.

 

Obviously not factory.

See earlier advice about "into the trash". Then, all you have to figure out, is what some jackbilly hacked and cut and sodomized in the process of "installing" (I use the word VERY loosely) it.

I've been around cars for several weeks now. I still can't understand how it is that people can look around them and see all the trouble this kind of crap causes, not so much that the "things" themselves are crap but more that the effect that it has on cars is, and yet think it's A Good Idea to actually spend THEIR OWN MONEY to shoot themselves in the short hairs with it. Kinda like, how is it that some Rhodes Scholar potential kid gets into his/her mind that it's A Good Idea to buy some twisted-up baggie of unknown sh** from some sketch loooser down on the nearest dark rodent-infested street corner, and force it directly into the bloodstream with a random needle they found in a public restroom? Seems like at some point the accumulated experience of the human race, let alone the obvious YUCK factor, would make itself available over the Interwebz if nothing else and warn them. Butt no... life goes on. Sometimes.

You'll get there. Keep sleuthing, dig into every dark corner, get that self-defeating crap OUTTA THERE. Life will be simpler and smoother for it.

 

100% this. The car luckily still runs and so far the engine is solid. Aside from an aftermarket BBK throttle body was installed (again, it’s gonna be gone. Replacing it with the factory). But it was clear where my car was heading towards had I not bought it, and we’ve all seen cars in a lot worse shape on the forum get restored into masterpieces. A little TLC and it will be good to go.

 

Not only are aftermarket car alarms crap, but upon hearing a car alarm activate, NO ONE ever reacts "A car is being stolen, I better call the Police"

It's more like "What pain in the ***'s alarm is going off"!

 

I’ve soldered the wires and the plugs are connected, wrapped in heat shrink. Not the easiest job, but the hard part is done! I hooked up the radio and it plays great! But I need the lower radio mounting bracket bar and the side brackets ( the ones I have are incomplete)



If anyone happens to have these that they would like to sell let me know., otherwise I may have to figure something else out. I’ll take some pics of the job this far later and post them up.

 

The side brackets I was able to locate and install on the radio, no luck on the lower back bracket, so I hope the bolt on the side will be strong enough for the long haul. Here it is.



A big shout out to everyone who helped me on this thread.

 

Attach some wire and alligator clips. They are good to keep in your toolbox, to remotely test for current, when working alone and the test lamp is not in your vision. DO NOT use on computer circuits.