thanx for the info! unfortunantly i dont have my car or the radio to play with just yet. i should have my car by the end of sept. im just gathering all the info i can right now on this. gotta research everything befor i blindly go in fukcereding things up.

If all you're doing is checking each line from the amp board one by one, and you don't short anything (You could attach your probe with the radio off,) you can't really hurt it.

true true. i thought u meant while it was on. just like to be safe on anything i spend any bit of money on or is hard to comeby.

quote Originally posted by tjm4fun: ok, then, I don;t have an acdelco radio to play with, but that won;t stop me! I went thru this finding wiring diagrams back in the 87-88 timeframe, they dont seem to exist, except for certified repair places. So, if you have all the equipment, it should be a 2 minute job! Gotta teach these kids everything! from that picture above, and from other radios I've worked on, you have an amp board or section of a board. they are ususally labeled, sometimes, even correctly. So you set the radio up so it is safe to power on, power it on, put a tape in or hook an antenna up so it will produce some sound. you don;t need speakers, just don;t crank the volume, but do make sure it is at least 1/4 way up Now take your signal tracer and with it in speaker mode, probe each line going to the amp board/section til you find the sound. use the balance to confirm wihch line is which channel (may not work on all setups, some put the balance in the amp section). now if you don;t happen to have a signal tracer capable of audio, you can use the aux inputs of any amplifier, make a probe out of an old rca signal cable. the shield to a ground clip, which can clip to the metal chassis, and on the center wire of the coax, use a 0.1 or 0.01 mfd disk capacitor connected to it as your probe. this will block any dc voltage from thumping your amp too hard. Keep the volume low on your test amplifier, as it will be a rather high signal level usually. look for the sound,as before and verify it with the balance. if you are checking the level with a scope, that point on most amps is in the 1v to 3v peak to peak range, depending on the volume levels. Happy hacking!

OK. I will bite. I have a radio w/EQ (dead cassette). You have the knowledge and probably the electronic equipment to check this out. In the interest of figuring this thing out for all of us I would be willing to send my radio to you postage paid both ways, Are you game?

To be honest americasfuture2k whatever GM headunit you put in the fiero will sound like crap if you are a car audio guy. The GM monsoon headunit won't change anything. 10ohm 4x10s sound terrible any way you spin it, hell 4 ohm 4x10s sound like crap. If its just temporary for $60 or so you can pick up a Pyle(o-crap i know) headunit with the aux input and some 4 ohm 4x10s that will work with it. The stock 4x6s are 4 ohm and will work with aftermarket headunits. I am in the process of putting round woofers in my dash, 5" high excursion sub, Infinity 4x6 componet speakers, and a JVC headunit. I looked at all the guys who have won anything Fiero stereo related and they all got as far away from the stock HU and oval speakers as possible. The stock headunit thing is cool especially if you are going for a stock look, but you want a carputer, which to me says you could care less about OE looks. Also most carputers require that you use a headunit to run your speakers and control the volume. So wether or not you want to... you're going to be buying a headunit. Just my 2 cents.


www.mp3car.com

im just wanting sound that is not all distorted with interference. as long as there isnt white noise included with the aux or the cd player or the radio (depending on reception of cours) i want the stock look. im not trying to win iasca or anything. just want ok sound. i have always been happy with stock stereos as long as they played cds. having an aux input is just a added bonus

quote Originally posted by sjmaye: OK. I will bite. I have a radio w/EQ (dead cassette). You have the knowledge and probably the electronic equipment to check this out. In the interest of figuring this thing out for all of us I would be willing to send my radio to you postage paid both ways, Are you game?

If no one else offers, I'm willing to do it.

Thats cool, sorry if I was too blunt. I started hanging out with some car audio guys and unfortunately I now have expensive ears.

haha ya, i understand. thats how my brother is now. but hes still wanting to build up some sort of system for his 87 gt with the stock headunit. i want to find some sort of cd player i can rip apart and try to make work with the look of the stock headunit. i smell some engineering and trial and error for this.....

I bet you'd like



With a home made wire adapter, it'll drop right in.

jax, im not really understanding whay you mean with that picture. a good starting face to use for a aftermarket cd players guts to go in? if so, then the only hard thing will be the display. if i did make a stock looking cd aftermarket cd player, it would be very hard to make it look close to damnnear a stock delco.

I meant just use that. It's a CD player out of some oldsmobile or something, and looks 100% stock in the Fiero, outside of the green instead of orange display.

ohhh ok, i gotcha now.

My stock headunit has a green display

i dont think i have ever seen a pontiac with a orange display. just green. orange buttons though.

I'm fixin to send jax184 my radio out of my 86SE and let him add the little thingie to it so I can listen to mp3's and such. I have a Plane Jane AM/FM delco with no cassette or anything. It looks like it belongs there!

quote Originally posted by josef644: I'm fixin to send jax184 my radio out of my 86SE and let him add the little thingie to it so I can listen to mp3's and such. I have a Plane Jane AM/FM delco with no cassette or anything. It looks like it belongs there!

You beat me to it. Does yours have the equalizer? That's the one in question here with regard to getting the mod wiring correct. If yours is not, I am still willing to send mine.

Just want to get this wiring modification documented for everyone.

BTW- I contacted the guy on ebay offering the radios with the ipod/mp3 jack installed. He does not do it as a service or offer to sell the information for a DIY'er.

if it doesnt have a cassett then i dont think any inputs can be added to it. but since it is a older radio im sure that the radio board and the amp board are seperate from eachother. so maybe there are outputs from the radio to the amp. if so, those can be tapped into. not sure how the radio could be cut off with the introduction of clear and good music to the amp. i have no idea how those headphone jacks work on boombox type radios. ya know, the kind that its boomin and beatin pissing off the neighbors so u plug in a set of headphones and it cuts off the outputs to the speakers and reduces and directs the outputs to the headphones. no idea how it switches. but id definantly like to know. it sure would help me on a lot of my experiments. i was thinking a relay could do it. but im not entirely sure.

No I dont have a equel-izer, just a Plane Jane radio.

i cant wait till i can get home and go to one of the many junkyards so i can get a few of these radios to take apart and make an aux input for. and maybe some later model radios too if i can find any.

My mod injects the input into the amp board, not into the cassette system, so it doesn't matter if it has a tape or not.

I still need an EQ model to try this on, if someone feels like sending one.

ah ok. this should work for me then. for any year/model radio. if i do come across a eq model, ill try and see what i can get out of it. er into it.

[This message has been edited by americasfuture2k (edited 08-16-2007).]

quote Originally posted by Jax184: My mod injects the input into the amp board, not into the cassette system, so it doesn't matter if it has a tape or not. I still need an EQ model to try this on, if someone feels like sending one.

Hi Jax

I am out of town, but may be able to get my radio w/ EQ out to you by Monday or Tuesday. If you are still game can you PM your address?

quote Originally posted by Jax184: If no one else offers, I'm willing to do it.

PM to you Jax.

I finally got off my dead a## and have a factory radio with EQ in the mail from Tennessee to Vancouver BC. Thanks very much to Jax to offer to do this for all of us.

*bump*

Request for pics for install with Delco radio with Equalizer. (knobs)

Also Jax you have a PM.

I've read earlier in this (or another) thread about making sure the volume of the Mp3 player is balanced to the volume of the stereo. (As not to overdrive the internal amp.) I'm not an electronics guy, but would measuring the voltage of the FM stereo wires (during operation, so one can determine maximum voltage sent through it.) and then wiring a voltage regulator in series with the bypass switch. i.e.: if the voltage is capped at 5volts in FM mode, put in a 5volt voltage regulator that would cap the outgoing voltage, regardless on how high the Mp3 player is turned up?


-M

Jax seems to have dropped off the map. I sent my radio to him months ago for figuring out how to put an mp3 adapter on it. I am not sure what happened to him. He has made no posts or responses to PMs.

quote Originally posted by sjmaye: Jax seems to have dropped off the map. I sent my radio to him months ago for figuring out how to put an mp3 adapter on it. I am not sure what happened to him. He has made no posts or responses to PMs.

Hope he's alright though.

Plug & play fm stereo transmitter. No wiring skills required. Works in any vehicle that has an fm receiver or stereo and a lighter socket.

Great sound.

Check out that female socket on the side. There's your aux input.

[This message has been edited by 30+mpg (edited 01-01-2008).]

Thanks. I fear that might be Plan B.
Fry's has a no-name deck with an aux jack for $40, that might be my plan C. (can't be much worse than a 20 year old stock deck). Kragen has a $20 deck, but I don't think it had line in. - Plan D

I had one of those 2 years ago. It didn't work with my 20 gig portable harddrive. Figured it wouldn't work with big USB sticks either.

Is the sound quality good? In the past I remember that FM transmitter (I've had a few) had pretty crappy quality (lots of static and stations fighting for signal. Even in the desert between Monterey and Sacramento )

Did they get better?

Had a 1 gig jump drive plugged in. Listened to 4 hours of music on 87.7 FM from Parsons, Ks thru Joplin, Mo., Fayetteville & Ft Smith to Russellville Ar. Great stereo all the way, not even a hiccup.

*bump*

Did anybody figure out the schematics for the equalizer radio yet? Please post them.

Short thread hi-jack (don't want to start another one with this, hopefully simple question):

My stock stereo suddenly (eq. type) lost it's ability to store radio stations when the key is removed. (when I turn the car back on, it defaults to a random station in the early 90's FM, sometimes AM, and looses all saved stations) That's before I did anything. (interior lights, and headlights work with the key out, so I don't think it's a battery issue.) Did anybody else discover something similar?

Is it a simple fix?

[This message has been edited by Austrian Import (edited 01-07-2008).]

*bump?*

quote Originally posted by Austrian Import: Short thread hi-jack (don't want to start another one with this, hopefully simple question): My stock stereo suddenly (eq. type) lost it's ability to store radio stations when the key is removed. (when I turn the car back on, it defaults to a random station in the early 90's FM, sometimes AM, and looses all saved stations) That's before I did anything. (interior lights, and headlights work with the key out, so I don't think it's a battery issue.) Did anybody else discover something similar? Is it a simple fix?

Check your horn fuse at the fuse box.

oh oky. Will do.

thanks.

*bump* in hopes that somebody could walk me through how to make an aux in for a eq stereo.
I'm willing to give up the cassette deck if it makes the mod easier.

NOT FIERO RELATED, BUT GM DECK REPLACEMENT RELATED

here is my carputer i did to my 98 blazer. i have 2 of these computers. i am going to place one in a GT when i find one worthy of paying a large amount for. ive found some nice ones, but turned em down because they were auto

http://www.mp3car.com/vbull...-mp915-b-eby701.html

http://www.mp3car.com/vbull...americasfuture2.html

sorry to sound like i am bragging about this. but i am just so proud of this. i did all the work myself and researched a lot into it. this is how things will look if you take your time.

BUMP



It has been awhile since any updates. Did anyone get info on how to do this to an EQ equipped unit?