I just bought a 1994 Pontiac Sunbird with the factory cassette deck and radio. The two are completly apart. I have an Alpine CD player, that I would like to attach to the dash radio (I need a hole new dash to change it... or close.) I got the color code for the car's audio wiring from here and for the cd player, but I can't seem to find it for the radio (and I dont want an harness.). I know it is extremly old, but it cant be that ttought to find.
The main problem is that there are less wires in this on. I figured there is at least Power, antenna, ground, 8 wires for speakers...... but there are only 9 wires, and color coded in a way I have never seen before (not that I am that experienced but...):
Brown
(Joined together) Red, white and black (this black one is a bit bigger than the other, probably ground)
Orange
Blue
Grey
Black
Blue/Black
Can anyone help?
Tanks
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JF
You do want to buy the harness for this thing no matter what, it is probably $8.00 at the most but will save you a whole pile of problems. What you need to do is find the hidden module where the radio and tape deck plug into, that module has another main plug on it, this plug has all the proper wiring there. You will also need an antenna adaptor as well should you want to listen to the radio. If my memory is right, the hideaway amp is above the factory tape deck , hidden above a piece of dashboard.
One of the more frequent posts on this site start with I cut my wires and now I have no power or someting else does not work. This is answered by why did you not buy the harness.
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Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.
Your factory radio is made up of a remote cassette deck, a control head/display and a amp/tuner box. Thge tuner box is the silver box located inside the dash behind the control head. If you remove the nut at the bottom of it you can free it up enough to remove it. It has two studs on either side holding it in, so when it's loose, just push up and pull it out. The wiring you need for power and speakers is in the plug going into this box. You will need an antenna adaptor to use the existing antenna connector with your new radio. It would be wise to purchase a wiring plug for ths car as the wires on the factory plug are very short and will be hard to splice into. A plug also virtually eliminates wiring errors. As for mounting your new deck there is enough room to mount it into the pocket of the console directly above your factory cassette. New trim plates can be made or may still be availabe in the aftermarket to cover the holes from the factory eqipment. To make it really nice, you can try to get your hands on the factory trim panel used on the front of the cassette console for the factory optional CD player. This plate had a storage pocket where the cassette is and a rectangular hole for the factory CD player. The hole would need to be enlargened slightly to allow your new radio to fit.
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sparky
Go with the knowledgable guys here. I never install a radio in a car without the wiring kit. It saves hours of frustration and if you happen to get rid of the car and want to keep your radio, you can plug the original radio back in with no problem. (undoing splices or solder joint) Ge t the kit.
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Harv
I have to throw in my 2 cents in agreement with the good advice above. NOT using a wiring or dash kit when one is available is just plain stupid.
This car is hard enough to do with a harness. Not using a harness would make it even more difficult and could be more costly in the long run. We at Metra have made a wiring harness for vehicles just like yours with longer wires than a normal harness as a normal harness is really too short on vehicles like yours with seperate tuner pack and makes the job even more frustrating. Some radios you even have to extend the wires. Not fun. So if you can get Metra part# 70-1855 your frustation on this already hard car will be minimized.