Foo - Need help: Yet another car thread.

I just installed a new air filter, and now I am working on installing a cd player. I am having a great deal of difficulty getting the old radio out. It should be easy, but I haven't done it before. I had thought you just pryed at the slots with a small screw driver or something, but apparantly not. How exactly do you get the damn thing out of there?

There's gonna be a bolt or two holding it on in the back, as well as whatever bolts or screws hold the face plate on.

http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/dettol/tnt.gif

Its out. Turns out it just needed 4 nails smashed in all 4 holes at once to pry against 2 leaf springs and out it came. For some reason, I just reconnected the battery cable and despite the fact that the battery reads 12.6 volts, the engine won't turn over. Between that and wiring the damn thing up, I'm in for a fun night.

Make sure you've got good connections!

One way or another, the alarm activated. The horns not blowing because the wires were ripped out of the alarm horn, but the lights are flashing. The original owner told me the alarm was deactivated, so I have never seen a clicker for the thing. Currently I can't find my Chilton manual, which would be nice to have so I could find out where the alarm is and go yank it. Not having my Chilton manual also means I don't have the needed diagram to wire up my new cd player. Once it stops raining cats and dogs, I'll go see if I can find the mfing alarm system. Things just aren't going my way.

Alarm systems suck! I knew some kids in San Jose that would break into cars to steal the alarm system, because it was worth more than the stereo!!! :eek:

A lot of times, a shorted or open door-switch confuses the alarm..

Its out. Turns out it just needed 4 nails smashed in all 4 holes at once to pry against 2 leaf springs and out it came.
Dude, the easy way to make a homemade DIN tool is to cut the two ends off of a wire hanger. This leaves you with two handy U-shaped pieces of wire, one for each side.

Not having my Chilton manual also means I don't have the needed diagram to wire up my new cd player.Do yourself a favor and just get the plug that wires to your new deck and plugs into the factory harness. It will make life much easier.

disconnect the battery first, always!!

Do yourself a favor and just get the plug that wires to your new deck and plugs into the factory harness. It will make life much easier.

I would if I could find the kit, but murrays didn't have it. Pulling the radio seemed to set the supposedly disconnected alarm off, so I put the old radio back in for now since I have to go somewhere today. Even though I don't have a clicker I did manage to get the car going. There was a kill switch by the pedals that I didn't know about. The switch had broken, and I simply bypassed it and problem solved.



disconnect the battery first, always!!

I did. It goes without saying.

Car audio systems usually only have a limited number of wires, probably at most like 13

8 being for the speakers
1 ignition on
1 hot
1 ground
and optional are
1 for lights
1 antenna

Get a battery light tester (looks like a pen or screw driver with a light inside and a wire with an alligator clip) and go through the process of finding the wires.

I have a voltmeter, but if the battery is unplugged, it seems like the only thing that could be checked is resistance, and I don't know what to look for there.

Plug the battery in. I've done this a bunch of times, so have others. Just watch out for the obvious.

Maybe you can find some help here or at least use these for reference:

http://www.autobytel.com/content/research/forums/index.cfm/action/topics/fid/50

http://www.2carpros.com/store/ford1.htm