1989 Non-Premium Radio Install/Fader Bypass (Now with G.A.S. Local PCN & LukeBox)

[kid8]

Hi everyone. I tried searching for a write-up on this before I went to install my stereo today. I didn't see anything that was specific to my needs as the sticky was for the premium sound cars.

This is my first install and I couldn't have done it without the help of Luke and this forum. Thanks again, Luke for answering all of my questions!

I decided to write this up to hopefully help others out and save Luke some questions in the future! This is specific to my vehicle and deck, so YMMV. Make sure you take your time and check everything before installing. I'm not responsible for any damage done to your vehicle, blah blah.

The current radio in my car was already aftermarket and didn't work. After digging in, it was easy to see why I was having issues. The wiring was a mess. This is what I removed:


On with the install!

Steps

1) Remove the old radio and your fader switch.

2) Follow the fader switch back till you get to the wire tape. Remove the tape and find the two sets of grounds. (3 wires in each set, under the green caps)



3) Remove the green caps and cut the metal crimp off. Trace the wires to find the (4) pairs of wire for the speakers in the front and rear.

4) This is optional. I had my dash out and was able to unwrap all of the wire tape in order to remove the spit ground and illumination wire that went to the fader switch. You can just cap the second wires if you can't remove them from the main harness. These are under the yellow caps.


5) Wire up the speakers accordingly to the new radio harness. I tried to make it as clean as possible and made all the wires the same length. Use what ever method you prefer for connecting the two harnesses. I prefer the crimps personally.


This is the wiring for a 1989 Non-Premium System and my deck. YMMV.


Don't forget the antenna power. Mine was rather short, so I used some of the old wire from the fader switch to extend it to where I needed it.


6) Test everything out and make sure you wired it correctly. Check each speaker using the new radio fader/balance.


7) Once tested and everything is OK, tape it up and make it clean. I left my amp power out as I will eventually add one to the system.



I know most of you don't need this, but it would have helped me and I hope it will help someone else in the future. Overall, it was pretty easy and I'm glad I did it myself!

Thanks again to Luke (StereoInstaller1) for all of his help on this!

[mattjewell]

Wish I would have seen this a few weeks ago!

Nice writeup

[kid8]

Thanks! I was hoping it would help someone out in the future.

[lovug653]

Thanks for the write-up

Great pictures great rite- up thanks.

[kid8]

G.A.S Local PCN and Luke Box

Well last week I took the time to finally install the rest of my audio components. A big shout out and thanks to Luke as I would not have gotten this done without his help! Thanks again for taking the time to answer all my questions and help me understand this.

This is my first stereo install so take this all with a grain of salt. I followed a lot of other suggestions and did some things I thought made more sense to me, that doesn't mean it's right or the best way to do it.

So I installed the G.A.S. Local PCN and an 8" LukeBox. I also upgraded to the premium speakers from the E34 and the Dayton audio tweeters that have been recommended.

Pics of all the speakers/equipment:




As you can see I already setup the box/sub and the tweeters that had to be installed in the old housings. There are several examples on how to do this already so I won't bother with it.

So the first thing I did was turn my 4 pairs of wiring connected to the deck into 2 pairs. These 2 pairs of wiring won't be connected to the deck at all. You need to connect the left front and left rear positives together and then the negatives get connected to each other. Do the same for the right side speakers. I used end caps for them when connecting but I'm sure you could use something else.



I then moved onto the front mids and tweeters. My car had the wiring for the tweeters already in place in the door making it easy. This should be the case for most E30s as I understand it. After plugging in the tweeters, I moved onto the wiring inside the cabin. You are looking for a gray/yellow and gray/green wire. They aren't connected together and have plugs at the end. Cut the plugs off and fish the wires out. Make sure they are free of other wires and then you can use a drill to twist them together. (Thanks for the tip Luke!)




Then I wired up the front speakers to the local PCN. The mids needed speaker terminals connected to them to plug into the speakers. Everything else was just connected using butt-connectors. I then used velcro to move the PCN out of the way and keep it from moving around.





I moved onto the rear speakers next. You do the same thing for the rears except you need to connect speaker terminals for the mids and tweeters. I again used velcro to secure the PCN.




Now I prepped the rear speaker wires. This is what was confusing me and that Luke cleared up. We essentially are using the rear speaker wires to run the front speakers to the amp we install. So what we need to do is cut them in order to extend them to the trunk and add in new wires for the rear speakers. I cut between the 2 cable ties on the back seat.




Now just run 8 wires to extend the front and rear speakers to your amp. I used about 5' for the wires to leave myself room to route the cables and make sure not to short myself to the amp. Use the factory cable ties and grommet.



Next I ran all of my cables to the back and through the trunk using the stock grommets and cable holders. Take the extra time to do this, it keeps it tidy and doesn't take too long.



I made up my power cable and fuse holder and attached them. I made a small hole in the stock power cover and used a rubber grommet to make sure to not damage the wire over time. I also attached the fuse holder using a stock bolt. It's clean and tidy, but it interferes with the batter box cover slightly so I will most likely move this in the future.








I ran my ground cable different than most. I didn't want to drill a hole into the car so I used the stock ground point in the rear seat area and ran the cable through the grommet. This is working well for me so far and I don't expect any issues. If anyone thinks it may be problematic let me know, I may need to address it.



Then install the sub and amp. I still need to get some tin snips to clean up the opening a bit, but I was able to clean up some before running out of dremmel cutting discs. I'm not finished with the amp wiring yet, I'd like to hide them a bit more than it is now.






Overall I'm super happy and still need to tune the amp. The 8" is more than enough for me and I still have more than enough trunk space with this setup.

I hope this helps someone else out in the future and I can't recommend Luke and his products enough. I know I will use them again in the near future!

[phenryiv1]

Very nice install.

[robrez]

Very clean. Thanks for posting.

[kid8]

Thanks, guys! It was the first time doing anything like this. It wasn't too bad, it just took me a bit to get it all figured out and it was all made clear after talking to Luke.