Well, The project is nearing the end.
Long long road (if you are even thinking about attempting this - start early in the damn morning, because you WILL finish very late at night).
I need to tweak the system a bit to get rid of a hum (I'm thinking its a ground loop fault.) but in general everything is working.
Few tips if you are planning to start this.-> Yes it works, and is possible, you just need a nice day (garage) and
lots of time.
-> multimeter (voltmeter) life saver. beg borrow or steal one. you
WILL need this.
-> HOT soldering iron with very fine tip. dont think of using a *BLEEP*ty one that cant get hot enough. 400deg+ is required for clean precise soldering. If you screw up in the radio you just blew everything. the board circuitry is tiny and needs you to pay great attention. some fine nose pliers might help you out too if you have chubby fingers. watch that you dont blob on the solder and accidently jump the circuit paths. Also I put some tape over and around the connections (thin strips) to make sure they dont touch anything. BE GENTLE.
-> Big blocks of wood to jam and lock the wheels. depending on your year of car, the key might need to be Acc/ON to move the shifter into neutral etc. very dangerous as the car can/will roll. block lock the wheels and feel a bit safer. mine is a '95 and it required the key turned to move the shifter.
-> good lighting. annoying as hell reaching around in the guys of the stereo hole. (I used a hang garage light, opened the moonroof and hung it up there.)
-> PRINT the link above. for the SC radio capacitor thread. don't be an idiot like me down in a garage needing to google up the thread on a cell phone.
-> PRINT a googled stereo jack wiring/diagram. how to wire in the ground etc.. or at least read all about it before.
-> PRINT a googled radio console removal for your year of car. there is 1 site that always comes up in google that is good.
-> get multi guages of wire. I prefer solid core, but stranded is fine. you need a heaver guage to extend your cig lighter socket. and smaller guage to do the stereo jack plug.
-> get spare 15A CAR fuses in advance. (3-4 minimum). I blew 2 in testing the 12v circuit. end of wires touched because I was not carefull and insta-blew the fuse under the steering wheel. It's the radio blue fuse that goes.
-> Get spare 2A 250v glass tube fuses (come in packs of 3 in the hardware department of canadian tire and cost $1.50). These are for the stupid cig adapter that comes with the XM radio. (the one that will convert 12v to 5v for the unit. The fuse is a piece of *BLEEP*, replace it right away. unscrew the end, flathead to muscle the 2 halves apart, and you can see where to pop the fuse. DONT LOSE THE SPRING when unscrewing it. My fuse in the adapter blew instantly, and caused me an hour of searching why the hell nothing was working. save the headache, pop and replace yours right away.
-> When splicing into the capacitors in that other thread. guy mentions blue dots. on my unit there were NO dots. they are soldered like <faceplate> |pin
| <back of unit> hard to describe, when you open it you will see instantly follow his images. use the pin facing the rear of the radio. leave the one near the front UNtouched. and yes you need the capacitors dont rip them out.
-> dollerama VELCRO sticky backing circles, strips. this will save you TONS of time with the antenna, wire hiding etc. Get some electrical tape while you are there and some small zip ties. grab a garbage cassette adapter to destroy while you are here.
Overall that is the heads up so you dont have to go running out halfway through cuz something broke. The most annoying problem I had was the 12V rewiring electrical problems. After doing your extention, I strongly suggest testing to make sure you have 12v coming out. (on my adapter it was the blue/white wires supplying the power out. but TEST your's first before snipping etc.. its hell on earth to snip, trim, solder, getting my cig lighter moved to under the cubby to hide all the connectors and wires, especially after you do it all you find out the 12v isnt even getting to your new outlet. the antenna was velcro'd to the 3rd brake light INSIDE the car. our windows are so angled back that its far out. glass doesnt affect it, seems perfect as it is.
You need to place a gutted casette in the player, hit tape and then your stereo wired in plug is activated. (else you will play double sound). I need to still solve the hum ground problem (im almost positive its that) and will post up more details once that is done.
project was a big one, but im happy its nearly done and is working "in general". as with anything needs some tweaking but hey - thats what long weekends are for eh?
