New Radio Installation

[dmcscott2002]

Hey folks

I've finally got round to replacing my 81Craig. Well, I'm in the process. In terms of the wiring harness behind the radio, how easy is it to rig up to a modern system? Any tips for stuff to watch would be much appreciated!

Cheers!

[hana 5284]

Hi scott yes im sure if you need any advice on old radios claire usher would be the one to talk to as her radio only picks up a selected few stations yes only she know and poor phil of course lol

sorry mate couldn't resist but i cant help a bit colour blind

cheers tyson

[Guinney1971]

hana 5284 Wrote:Hi scott yes im sure if you need any advice on old radios claire usher would be the one to talk to as her radio only picks up a selected few stations

the radio's picking up sweet fa at the moment, as Flopsy's battery is currently
on my Cavalier! lol :lol:

[Dan6457]

On mine the standard delorean connector is simply replaced with the connector that feeds my Alpine radio, spliced in by soldering the wires and heat-shrinking over the joins. The mess behind there when I got the car was shocking :o

Basically you have 4 pairs of wire for each speaker, a feed for automatic aerial, permanent power, power on with ignition, and earth. You just need to find these same connections on your new unit and join them together! 12 wires.

Oh and the thick coax lead for the aerial may need an adapter on the end to fit new radio depending on what make it is.

There maybe an adapter lead available to convert the delorean connector to standard connectors?? But then you have an adapter lead, and if the unit is like mine then another lead from that to the headunit so a lot of adapters and bits to hide away, so simply replacing the standard connector for the one that fits the radio made sense and can always be soldered back to stock if you keep the original connector.

[Rich Hanlon]

Just don't throw your old radio out, that's all!!

[dmcscott2002]

Cheers for the tips. In terms of speakers are the front ones the same as the golf MK2? I thought I read that somewhere but I'm not sure.

Cheers

[Dan6457]

If the golf has 3.5" speakers then yet :wink:

[NickT]

Dan1986 Wrote:On mine the standard delorean connector is simply replaced with the connector that feeds my Alpine radio, spliced in by soldering the wires and heat-shrinking over the joins. The mess behind there when I got the car was shocking :o

Basically you have 4 pairs of wire for each speaker, a feed for automatic aerial, permanent power, power on with ignition, and earth. You just need to find these same connections on your new unit and join them together! 12 wires.

Oh and the thick coax lead for the aerial may need an adapter on the end to fit new radio depending on what make it is.

There maybe an adapter lead available to convert the delorean connector to standard connectors?? But then you have an adapter lead, and if the unit is like mine then another lead from that to the headunit so a lot of adapters and bits to hide away, so simply replacing the standard connector for the one that fits the radio made sense and can always be soldered back to stock if you keep the original connector.

You can also wire the original delorean wires to an ISO Connector.
If the stereo ever fails you can simply unplug and plug in a new car stereo.

NickT

[Dan6457]

Yes of course nick. But with my radio there would be another lead from the iso to the alpine connector, so wiring straight in made a neater job, and while I own the car I won't be changing the radio again.

[Outatime]

Dan1986 Wrote:Yes of course nick. But with my radio there would be another lead from the iso to the alpine connector, so wiring straight in made a neater job, and while I own the car I won't be changing the radio again.

I thought of the same as u earlier (same stereo in the D forever).... but I changed headunit three times after all!!! (Craig>CD (previous owner)>mp3 CD>DVD> back to mp3 CD due to lack of use of the DVD.... :lol: )

Hence.... I have converted the wiring to ISO like NickT suggested, as i can get nearly all "ISO to whatever harness" for future headunits if there's any.

[Dan6457]

When I got my D one of the first things I did was sort out the wiring and fit my Alpine unit with ipod connection that I had in my last car. Its great, I just leave the ipod in the glovebox and control my whole library through the radio

[Guinney1971]

Dan1986 Wrote:When I got my D one of the first things I did was sort out the wiring and fit my Alpine unit with ipod connection that I had in my last car. Its great, I just leave the ipod in the glovebox and control my whole library through the radio

bit OT I guess, but I wanted an 'original' looking stereo in my 1989 Cavalier,
but have it fully upgraded.

The idea was to rewire the original Philips DC672 Radio/Cassette player, but
there is sweet FA wiring to one of those, so we decided to use a Grundig SC303
Radio/Cassette from a later Mk3.

Phill cut into the ribbon cable to the volume control circuit board, then connected
the leads to a small 12v 2 pole changover relay, then the aux input leads
connect to the same relay. The coil connections of the relay are connected
to the +supply inside the radio and the relay is activated by an external
switch connecting the other coil connection to ground.

This switch is next to a small stereo jack connctor, which I plug my MP3 player
into and it is fully controlled by the original cassette head unit.

The beauty of this is, is that anyone looking in the car will just see a boggo
standard looking old cassette player and therefore wont bother (hopefully!)
breaking in the car as there isnt a fancy pants looking stereo to nick

Here's some pics of the install in my Cavalier

One, standard looking radio/cassette (with code block removed )



The MP3 input jack and switch (which flicks between radio/cassette or MP3 coming out of the speakers - but
the head unit still controls volume, bass, treble, etc)



Phill said he could probably do the same thing with a Craig unit if anyone
wanted it doing, obviously its just a case of deciding where to put the switch
and input jack.

Cheers,

[steve.s]

hi

yes on the specialtauto site is a wiring diagram of the fm and amp driver circuit.

looking at the circuit diagram, there are two rails called mpxl and r running from the preamp i think.
so the tape has a magnetic pickup, then into a preamp circuit, then into the main amp.

i would say you could solder onto the board at the point between the two amps as the mp3 output is already preamped, and the earth is common, which would then give you a stereo aux input.


i don't think you would need a switch, as i would say the amp is live always at switch on, waiting for a feed from the fm circuit or the tape circuit.

perhaps we could do a mag article. i would say the main mechanism would not be too hard to sort, particularly if you have a dead one for parts.

[steve.s]

sorry may have misread the circuit diagram.

it is not complete, and there may be an easy feed to one of the connectors.
i will investigate!.

for the diagram see
http://www.specialtauto.com/delorean-pa ... radio7.jpg

i think i need to get out more!.