House electrical is different. Wire a stereo wrong, you might lose a stereo. Wire a house wrong, you might lose your house.

You wanna use solder and heat shrink, go ahead. It works great. I just can't spend that much time doing a wiring job. Especially since I usually take it appart in the next few weeks or months. I have a stereo harness sitting right here that I've used 3 or 4 times.

Just put a piece of heat shrink on the wire, solder the wires together, then put the heat shrink over it and use a heat gun to shrink it. As mentioned above.

 

I'd venture a guess that I could wire up a stereo adapter faster using a wire stripper and crimp connectors than you could with your teeth, fingers, and electrical tape. And it would be a much better and longer lasting connection. Not to mention that the price of the butt connectors is probably equal with the amount of tape you waste. And in the end, you don't have to deal with all of the sticky left over adhesive.

 

soldering is definatly the best way to do it, but if you know what your doing, taping it works great and is safe. ive done God knows how many deck installs and i always use tape, not cause im against solder, i just dont have a gun. you just need to make sure you twisted the wires tight and make sure you tape them very well. and make sure not to put any strain on them either. crimp connectors are the biggest joke ever. if youd pick them over taping, your crazy. those things NEVER hold the wire. they always slip out.

 

Didn't have wire strippers, could only take 30sec. of video. I would've used my knife, but that would've taken longer. I wouldn't use those butt connectors if it was the last thing I had to use. Those things can pull apart easily. I know how to twist the wires to make my connections strong. I've had to cut the wires before because I have them twisted so tightly. I don't trust butt connectors. I spent 50 cents on tape, that's cheaper than 11+ connectors, which I believe cost over $1, and I have plenty of tape left over. You only get sticky adhesive when the tape has been on there for an extensive amount of time, mainly when it's in a high temperature and the adhesive starts to melt.

If I would've had my automatic wire strippers that I have now, I would've used them.

 

I agree that butt connectors aren't the best thing to use, but I still think they are better than twisting and taping. You do have to use properly sized crimp connectors to do the job correctly. If you use too big of a connector, it'll never hold.

May I ask why you are swapping out your stereo every other week. That just seems weird.

*EDIT* - Also, the last butt connectors I used would never come apart. 3M makes crimp on connectors with shrink wrap that also has a heat activated adhesive. When bought from the right place, they are much cheaper than the tape required and will last every bit as long as even solder and heat shrink tubing.

 

Something better. Had a JVC touchscreen in my Cougar, switched to the Bronco and the silver stereo didn't match the interior, so I got a Kenwood. Kenwood sucked bad, so I sold it and got a black JVC touchscreen. I liked it a lot, but saw the Clarion full-color touchscreen and thought it looked cool. Got that, but it sucked as bad at sound quality as the Kenwood. Sold it and had some other stereos in there along the way that I bought and traded along the way, then I got my current JVC KD-DV5100. It's pretty nice, but right now it's having problems playing MP3/WMA disks. So I'll have to send it back to get warrantied.

 

WOW... Can't say I've ever had the need to swap out stereos anywhere near that frequently.

 

So, what i gathered from all this is that it's basically just connecting wires from the car to the wires from the stereo. How many are there? about twelve-ish? Am i right? How about the actual mounting of the stereo? I know it comes with some sort of bracket type thing. Pointers would be much appreciated.

 

Go to Wal-Mart, CCity, BBuy, anywhere, but Wal-Mart is probably the cheapest. Get a wiring harness and a mounting harness. Wiring harness is about $6-8, and mounting harness will be from about $9-18 depending on which one and what store you get it from. Mounting harnesses differ, I'm not sure on this particular one.



You're gonna have to take off that whole trim piece around your stereo. You ought to be able to take that off with a phillips screwdriver, might need a socket set and a trim removal tool (if you have one). I haven't taken one of these apart, but Chevy's are usually a P.I.T.A. to do. Usually have to remove part of the dash. But take this piece off around the gauges and the stereo, and it should come off. Check for a couple screws above the gauge faces. You might need to remove some of the wiring harnesses if you need to take the panel away to do this. On my brother's Cavalier and friends' 1500 pickup there are some clips on the side, so once you have your stereo wired, and have the harness put together (if it's like I think, you'll have to use a pair of screws and screw the side clips onto the main harness), you just go outside, take off your front dash panel, disconnect your stereo, there might be a ground wire bolted to the back of that stereo, which you'll need to connect your ground wire to, connect your new one, and slide the assembly into place. Then it'll be working.

You can disconnect your battery, but if you're not messing around with wires, and just have the harnesses, there's no need. Your wires might be extra long, so you can cut them down if you want to. I usually leave them at about 6" on either harness, so they can be used again. Make sure you tape up or cover any extra wires that you won't be using. You don't want them to ground out on anything.

 

Thanks for the input. So walmart will have a harness and mount specific to my vehicle? Cool. How does this attach to the dash? I know what you mean about the trim piece on the dash. I know how that thing comes off. From what you described, it sounds easier than i previously though. I think i might do a wiring harness, just because this is my first time. It's not gonna be till like april-ish anyway. I plan on spending my tax return on it. Thanks again.