Radio Questions for 1992 244

Ok, my oem tape deck just died. It endlessly auto-reverses now so I think it's high time to pop in a cd/mp3 player.

I have purchased a DIN bezel kit and a wiring harness kit for my vehicle. Mine apparently has the amplifier also, which seems to be broken as well, because when I turn the fader to the back all I get is very shoddy sound from one rear speaker.

I read in an earlier post that I should bypass or remove the amplifier. Is it only active for the rear speakers then? I don't have a problem with this as my new headunit should be plenty loud enough for my aging ears. Whats the best way to proceed?

I'm pretty skillful with wiring and such so I'm mainly looking out for potential problem areas and things to watch out for.

Reply to
Douglas
Loading thread data ...

Yes, remove the existing amplifier as well. Not only is it relatively poor quality, you'll spend too much time trying to figure out how to drive it with your new radio. You'll be able to figure out which speakers are driven by the amp when you remove it by the number of wires connected.

Reply to
Mike F

Ok, the radio just got here. Its a brand new Jensen MP7720 headunit with motorized face and cd/mp3 capability. I picked it because:

(1) Pretty inexpensive (2) Shouldn't get stolen (See [1]) (3) Trim matches 240 interior fairly well

I'm concerned. Jensen stuff is bottom shelf. I'm hoping this thing will last me a couple years at least before the laser burns out. I'll probably make a cdr with 100 or so mp3's, pop it in, hit shuffle, and forget it.

On the bright side, it has aux in, so I am planning on plumbing a little wiring into the glovebox so I can plug my PDA in with its Ogg/Vorbis player. The little Linux Zaurus PDA can store a bunch of oggs on its little SD card and its solid state :-) If the cd laser craps out I'll still be able to use the PDA to play music on the radio!

I'm going to tackle the amp tomorrow. I am tempted to use 3M connectors to jump around the harness, but experience with stereos tells me to get out the soldering iron and shrink tubing. Nothing worse than hitting a bump and your crummy wiring job blinks out leaving you beating on the panels trying to make it work again.

How about those expensive liquid filled telephone crimp connector things? Anybody ever use those on a car stereo?

Reply to
Douglas

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.