GenI interior/stereo questions (any stereo experts?)

obaa996

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I'm in the midst of cleaning up my car's interior. Wasn't really planning on doing so until the winter, but my kid broke a couple of pins off the connector on the stereo headunit, so while I'm in there fixing it....

I've already started stripping the fuzzy grey junk off the dash, so I can refinish in a nice flat black. Sanding looked to be unpleasant, so I brought the pieces over to a plastic media blasting place; that didn't work so well either. Currently, I using a plastic-safe paint stripper, which is working surprisingly well.

I was going to fix the orange stickers on the door handles, but am kinda of thinking of swapping them out completely in favor of the GenII interior handles. Will those work on a GenI? To me, they look classier.

I'd like to get the center console dyed, but can't figure out how to remove it.
Everything is loose, but the parking brake handle prevents me from removing it.
Do I need to remove the handle to work it out? The manual says I should just be able to pull it out, but the lever doesn't come up high enough, plus the boot doesn't fit over the handle; what's the trick?

Finally, I need clean up the stereo; It's a RockfordFosgate 9400, with the stock amp and additional RF amp, driving some Focal speakers. I'm able to get
the part to fix the headunit, so I'm not planning on replacing anything just yet, but there are some annoyances with the way things are currently hooked up.
The person who installed the headunit did it by cutting and splicing into the original harness (blech). The rca outs for front and rear run through the same
harness, so I'm guessing everything is through the original harness?
There are "pops" in the output when the brakes are applied, and I can hear some rpm related whine while the car is running. I wouldn't have thought this should happen if everything was connected per factory, but... Any suggestions
on how to fix these?

When putting it all back together, I going to try to recess the headunit so that it's below the bezel, and put a blanking plate on front. Hopefully, my
kid won't be able to mess it with again. A small hole should let me operate everything via remote.

Enough rambling; I should get to bed...
Thanks for any help!
 

GTSnake

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It sounds like you have engine noise coming through your harness into the radio. You should tap into a clean power source as well as a good clean ground. I'm not sure of the GEN I harness but when I replaced my radio I just tapped into the stock power supply which goes right to the battery. Does your head unit have a DIN connection? If so, try to use that one instead of splicing everything. Secondly, I had engine whine as well and traced it back to a blown capacitor in the head unit. If all your connections are from a clean source it may be from your headunit. Thirdly, make sure the wires are not laying or adjacent to any other wires that have power running next to it or you'll get noise too.

Does your headunit have a CD player slot? If so, you want to make sure when you recess it that it can still open without crashing into the trim.
 

BADVENOM

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In order to remove center console you must first remove knee bolsters on both sides. Pop out center concole cover over shifter as well as over stereo head unit. Then lift parking brake. The brake cover will slide over brake handle. Tight fit but try alittle olive oil on parking brake and on inside end of parking brake cover to make it slide easier. Should come off. Thats it


Adam
 

Yves

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Stereo : there's a great place on Mc Adam (next to that place where they sell used Porsche's etc.). Kind of spendy, but really good. They do most of the Blazer's stuff.
The previous owner of my car went there and spent $3K on my car's system. Sounds...fabulous.

If you need a couple of pointers on how to work on your interior, just give me call. Upgraded mine a couple of months ago.
 
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obaa996

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Hey,
Thanks for the suggestions! The stereo was spliced into the factory power/gnd, so I thought it was all good, but a buddy I spoke with last night suggested that it might be a ground loop issue, since there are some added amps, and that I rewire the pwr/gnd to tie them all together. He also suggested that the plug wires might be bad (30k on mine); I've got a new set from Tator's that I'll throw on to test. Didn't think to check for clearance when the face plate opens/closes; good point, thanks!

Have to try removing the knee bolsters as well to get the console out..

Yves; where have you been? Haven't heard from you in a while... You need to send me your current e-addr. I'm going to start ripping repainting soon.
 
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