I'm trying to replace my Bose system in my '92 right now,

I was told on this forum that I could simply buy a GM harness from best buy and the radio would then plug into my car directly.

It doesn't fit. I got an 88-02 harness and it won't fit.

So I tried to cut the harness off of the old BOSE unit and splice the radio into that (just the power and ground wires) and I tried to hook up the radio that way. But it won't get any power!

I need some advice here!!!

 

Maybe you blew a fuse. Test the wires with a test light. There are two fuse locations: Door frame and under the carpeted dash panel above the passenger's feet. Both have radio fuses in them. The harness will allow you to get power but not hook up speakers. You need to run new wires and replace those. If you want to use the bose speakers you need a power converter which is $50 or so. I don't know why the harness won't fit. There should be two plugs and it should fit. If this doesn't help, I'll dig up the link for the wiring diagram tomorrow from work.

 

Fuse is possible, but I doubt it.

I was told (on this forum even) that if I bought a harness for GM cars from best buy, and then replaced my speakers I would be fine.

Well I bought new speakers, which don't exactly fit (anyone know how to fit 5 1/4 in speakers in the front??? Mine are too tall and hit the speaker cover) and now the harness won't plug into the car!!!

This is a major pain and I'm starting to question how badly I even WANT a stereo.

Anyways do I have to wire my radio DIRECTLY into the car? If so what are the colors for:
Switched Power
Constant Power
Ground
Illumination
Power Antennea

I'm assumming
Red
Yellow
Orange
Blue

but who really knows.....

 

http://www.corvetteradios.com./Page3.html
Here's the wiring codes. The speakers will fit in the front as long as they aren't to deep. I don't know of any 5 1/4" that are that deep. You need to do some minor mods. First, you should remove the bose housing. Two or three screws so you can work on it easily. Next you want to get the speaker to sit lower into the hole than it probably is. It is a little wider than the bose stuff. You can trim a little plastic to get it to sit down with a file or dremel. Next, plug the port at the back of the box so it is a sealed enclosure. Then, bolt them back in. Should fit under the speaker grills no problem.
Not sure why the harness you have isn't working. You may have the wrong one. If you haven't cut the wires yet, you may want to call a car sterio shop that is local and ask them if they have one and return the one you have to best buy. They probably have some inexperienced chuckleheads in the best buy installation bay that only know how to install on hondas.

 

Well thanks for all the help....

In regards to the harness: It says it will fit all GM Vehicles from 88-02. But it's not compatable. I just got back from Best Buy, Dukes, and Radio Shack and none of them have a harness that matches the one I took from my Bose head unit.

Is it possible to either:
a) Wire my head unit to the old bose harness and plug it back into the car?
b) Wire the head unit diretly to the car?

and which option would you suggest.

Regarding the speakers:
I have Pioneer 5 1/4 inch speakers (not SURE of the model, but they are the best Pioneer 5 1/4 inch 2-way models) and they are simply too deep! A friend and I were looking at it yesterday and even if we cut down the bose box it still looks like it's going to be too tall. We were thinking about mounting the speaker to a piece of wood or something, but we couldn't figure out how to shield the magnet from the car. Our other thought was to to cut out a section of the carpeted cover and use the Pioneer covers to protect the speaker.... but i'd like to avoid cutting the carpet if possible. Perhaps I just bought the worlds tallest 5 1/4 inch speakers :eek:

As for the 6x9's I put in the back.... they simply didn't fit. I don't know why you people told me they would :cool:
:)
Well actually they DID technically fit, but it required quite a bit of surgery on the Bose box that I wasn't really expecting to have to do. They look VERY nice though.

 

OK, here's what I did last week on my 86-wired the radio with the wires that were for the bose radio(no harness). The black from the car to black on the HU(ground), pink to the blue/white stripe(antena), yellow to red(ignition hot), orange to yellow(battery hot). That should be all you need to power the HU. All the speaker wires I ran from the amps. This was my first time hooking one up to. It's a PITA but it's worth it.

 

Yes, you can connect the wires to the car's wires. The harness is there only so you don't need to cut the wires. It isn't necessary. If your speakers are hitting the back of the bose enclosure, then they are too deep. Find out how much play you need. It can't be more than 1/2" or so. If 1/2" will do it, cut a 5 1/4" hole for the speaker to go through in a 1/2" piece of mdf, then cut the mdf to fit over the bose speaker hole and bolt the MDF to the enclosure. You now have a spacer ring. Seal the gaps with puffy double sided tape, etc.

 

Wow,

Ok thanks again for all the help guys, without this forum I would be totally lost! :cheers:

I'll give the spacer a try, and I'll see if I can manage to get at the wires in my car (hope I have enough slack to get a wire stripper to them!) and wire my radio directly to the car.

 

Wait a minute!!

Is the harness I want located at the reciever (under the glovebox) or behind the radio (where NORMAL cars put it)

if it's under the glovebox, how the F&^k do I get at it?

 

Behind the radio, not the receiver.