I'm pretty sure the Bose amp relay has failed on my 86 vert. All speakers quit working at the same time and if I jumper a hotwire to the +side of one of the speaker amps they'll work.

Problem is I don't know where the relay is. Anyone know where it is and how to get to it?

 

You Lucky, Lucky Man!!

I just went through hell on this one and I have the answer for you. Are You Ready???
Before you start............DISCONNECT THE NEG BATTERY CABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First Thing.. The shop Manual tells you that it is behind the passenger side dash.............eehhh, Wrong!! It is on the passenger side but not behind the dash! :mad. It is to the right of your center console about equal height as to the driver info panel, you know , the one that says. (Service this relay Soon) :D. Now you gotta trust me here because it took me a while to find the best way to get at this sucker after I allmost ripped the entire interiour out!
Now, the following steps are from my Viet Nam Burned out Brain.

Step One: Remove the trim plate from your speedometer ,also the trim from the center vertical console. Not The shifter Console. Remove and set neatly aside.

Step Two: Remove the lower carpeted panel on the passenger side. Make sure you remove the two screws that hold the AC floor vent in the pannel. Unclip the lamp connector on the panel. Remove and set neatly aside.
Also remove the plastic trim around the fuse panel so you can get at the hose
on the discharge vent in the dash. Add this to you plastic pile.

Step Three: (SCARY PART) You are now going to remove the screws that hold the top dash panel on!! Start on the left hand side(Driver side). Look up between the Speedometer and the top dash and buried in their some where you will find a phillips head screw , it will be to the far left of the speedometer housing where the top dash meets the speedometer. There are a total of 5 screws from left to right . the last screw wil be just before the dash bolster on the passenger side. (Man I need a Brake).

Step Four: (The Fun Part) Ok don't get scard, it's easy. Now Grab the top dash panel and lift up slowly to make sure you got all the screws. Ok, Now lift up and pull that sucker towards you!! The windshield end is clipped into place and will pop out when you give it a tug. Remove dash and put in garage because you don.t want your neighbors to see that thing laying in the drive way.

Step Five: (Were gonna Get this Sucker!!) Ok You will see the AC duct work on the passenger side. Go to the AC out let on the passenger side and work off the hose from the discharge vent.You might have pull up on the large tube going across to the center discharge ducts. When you do this the lower discharge floor duct that you unscewed at the bottom will come up with the hose and large duct. Ok, Here's the main part------------------------------

You have to remove the complete duct from the car. You will have to rock and roll and push and pull and stretch but it will come out.

Step Six: ( We Find It!!) Now look down near the center vertical console and you will see a vertical metal support Bracket. On that Bracket your will see a black reay bolted to it with 2 screws. That's The Bose Amp Relay!!!.
You might have to work from top and bottom to get it out. When you put the new one in ,do not bolt it back on. Just stuff it back up on the wireing maze. If it blows out next time, all you have to do is drop that carpeted panel.

One more thing. I did not try to get it out by just removing that carpted pannel. But if you want to see if you can
get it from the bottom take a look up their and see what you think.

You should be able to get at it in about 45 Min. doing it the way I did it. But keep in mind that it is easeier to come down from the top then being upside down with all that under dash wireing where the computer is. It can be done from under side but you are going to have to deal with all that wireing and the computer. lET ME KNOW HOW YOU MAKE OUT..

Regards Mark 86 Vortec Blown Cp.. 65 Dual Quad CP

:nopity :flag


[Modified by Viet Nam Vett, 5:19 AM 5/11/2002]


[Modified by Viet Nam Vett, 5:17 PM 5/11/2002]

 

Sounds like fun but.. how about going in from the front? Since you've been in the dash, do you think I could get to it with the radio removed? Found these insructions for removing the radio and this sounds pretty easy, but doesn't matter if I still can't reach the relay.

Full text and diagrams: http://www.corvetteradios.com/corvetteradios__1.htm

Basic text from above link: Corvette '84-89 Car Radio Removal


1) Remove screws from panel across the digital dash and car stereo trim panel. There is a screw hidden behind the edge of the digital dash trim panel.
2) Move the gear shifter to the lowest position.
3) Pull the right edge of the bezel forward, unhook the left side and remove.

 

Heh DClong,
From what I can remember, after you pull the radio which is fairly easy, their isn't much space to get in their. That relay is bolted to hat vertical support. Go ahead and pull the radio and take a look. Your other option is to go in from the bottom of that carpeted panel on the passenger side. Either way, this is not a fun job.But it should be easier for you since your car is a rag top which gives you more room to wiggle around.

Good luck and keep me posted on how you get the job done.Regards: Mark

 

That fixed it. You get a pretty good view of the bottom of the relay through the radio opening with the radio removed. I also removed the info/instrument switch panel above the radio which allowed the box behind to be moved back and provided a little more room to unplug the relay. It was a bit of a struggle but not that bad. Plugged in the new relay, buttoned everything back up and everything works fine. Thanks for the help. :seeya

 

Well now I guess everbody eles can forget my sure fire method for getting to the Bose Speaker Amp Relay. Looks Like we will now use the DCLONG method. So Now it your turn there DCLONG to write us a Tech Paper on the finer points of this chore. Well,it just goes to show that you should wait to have those BEERS (After) working on your Vette instead of Before and During! Glad to hear you got that sucker out!

Regards: Mark :seeya

 

I don't know if VietnamVette will see my note or not but this was the best write-up for replacing the Bose audio relay I found! Took a couple of hours but that was due to me cleaning as I went. Nice write-up VietnamVette! You saved me a ton!