Installing a car stereo.... Without Crutchfield......
Nov 09 '00
Well, everyone told me that I'd be getting into something bigger than my wallet. the last thing I had done to my 1993 Pontiac Sunbird was install an amp and some new speakers. This was all well and good until I get the line from the wife "Why don't you spend your birthday money and get a new stereo for the car??" As everyone with a wife should know, this is an open invitation to anything you want.....
Here we go.....
A few notes....
- The car: 1993 Pontiac Sunbird.
- The stereo: Stock AC Delco AM/FM/Cassette with Pioneer 6 disc FM modulater changer
- Front speakers: Pioneer 2-way 5 inch
- Rear speakers: Pioneer 3 way 6 X 9's
- 200W Pioneer 2 chan amp to the rear speakers
To install - a Kenwood KMD-671R Minidisc receiver
Tools Used:
- Standard socket set
- Standard assortment of screwdrivers
- Wire cutters and strippers
- Soldering iron
- Glue gun
- Cordless drill/screwgun
- Dremmel tool (I really love this thing)
To start:
Ok, when we last left our hero..... Oops. another story. Let's see, I guess I really started this by taking the ENTIRE dash apart. For those of you unfamiliar with a pontiacs dash... This was no easy task. There were several things to pull, pry, unscrew and unclamp until I could get a good look at what I needed to get at. I won't share all the details because your car may be different. I next removed the head unit from the Sunbirds stock unit Of course it is only 3X4 inches and a new stereo won't fit in that hole!!!! So I made up an enclosure for my old CD changer head and glued it in the spot where the old radio head went. I dazzled it up by gluing a peice of leather (obtained from an old wallet) around the head to make it look clean.
Now with part of the old stereo out, I removed the center console that attaches to the dash of the car and brought that into the house to work on. If I had bought the stock stereo with a CD unit, it would have been mounted here. Instead I had this little "extra tray" to put junk. Needless to say, I found where to mount the new stereo. I cut the tray out in the shape of the new Kenwood's head with my Dremmel. the new unit slid right in perfectly. I reinstalled the faceplate and attached the factory supplied mounting strap to hold the unit in place. With this all done I reinstalled the center console.
Ok, part 2 done..... The next bit I did was easy.... When I installed the center console, I left the new harness out on purpose. I wanted to stay inside and properly solder the wires needed to make this work. I had measured all the wires that I would need for the power, speakers and amp control. It looked all nice and pretty by the time I was done. Once it was done. I ran that through the big opening in the dash that was still there, pluging the power right into the fuze box where I previously removed the old fuzes for the power to the old radio (this stereo has built in fuzes) I then ran the 2 speaker wires to the front speakers. I has capped the rear ones off because I ran a set of RCA jacks to the rear amp.
Part 4, the final bits.... All that was left was to hook up my old CD changer and reinstall the dash. After that, I ran the amp control wire and the RCA line to the rear amp via under the carpet of the car. Once this was all done, I just cleaned up everything... (which was a big mess)
Something I found interesting.... When I bought the RCA cable to run from my stereo tot he amp, I bought a Monster Cable one. Has anyone ever noticed the little wire that runs down the center? I did and was curious to see if I could do something with it instead of clipping it off. I crimped on a wire lug on each end so I could attache the chasis of the stereo directly to the chasis of the amp so the would be directly grounded to each other. IT MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE. The sound is a lot cleaner. I used a multimeter to check for resistance with and without the wire hooked up and there ia a big difference when it is not. I thought you all might want to know that and see if it helps anyone else.
All in all it was not so bad. I did not need to hire an installer, or get everything I could possibly need from crutchfield. I just followed the instructions and took my time. The whole thing took me about 3 days and this was mostly due to trying to come up with something to do with the hole left by my old stereo. I just could not see leaving that in there for any reason.
I would not reccomend this for the novice or the weak at heart. This took about a week of planning and preparing to do the actual task but it was really worth it. The difference is astounding!
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John_Ferrara
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Member: John Ferrara
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