first, remove the face plate. i found it easier to push from top and pull out slowly...being that its getting colder let the interior heat up in the sun.

second, there are two metal tabs (one on each side) push them down and the entire tape deck will pull out. disconnect wire harness on back left hand side and take to your work bench.


third, remove plates off of tape deck to expose internal parts (3 brass screws).

at back left hand side there is a three wire cable that plugs in from the back of the main board to the back of the actual tape deck itself
(see pic)

they are (red, white and blue.) now you can do this several ways at this point. simply splice in what you are going to connect or like i did simply pull the connector and seperate the wires from the connector end you are going to solder / connect to. (see pic) (no i am not a pro at solder)

now, take whatever you are wiring in to make the jack point or in my case composite connections. either way there should be when you strip the wires (red, white, and 1 unshielded wire with each color)

now solder the ends from your stripped wire and join them to the harness at the end that connects to the acutal tape deck (see pic) (should be red to red....white to white.....blue to both combined unshielded.)
tape / heat shrink and secure. the new wire can be ran out the back where main connector is located.

now reverse assembely and reinstall tape deck in original housing.

now in order for this to fool the main board there still has to be a tape in unit to get the radio to switch over. i used a gutted shell with tape head intact. (see pic)


****if i forgot something, or not clearly described the process enough - post and i will get back with you****

this works great to get a clean look (see final pic)

edit**** i ran the finished connection back under cupholders and up thru cd case holder...the final path is up to you. also worth saying if you hadnt guess already this makes it impossible to actually play a tape anymore....one way street.

 

Nice thread... I was looking to do this... and make an ipod connector, or possibly other connections....

 

Thank You, this is great. Any chance you might know how to get it to work without a Tape in it?

 

There is no tape... its taking the inital connection in the tape deck and replacing them.... It could be done by removing the deck entirely....

 

but you have to put a tape in to get the Aux button to work right? And how does it sound?

 

I stand corrected....

 

... the only tape deck mod i did was throw it in a dumpster behind tacobell due to it's constant infernal squeaking....

wish i had held on to the wire harness now though. interesting mod

 

yes you still need a tape in the deck to trigger the aux (if anybody knows a way around this please post).
for the tape i just used what i had been with the "tape" as a connector for the mp3, but gutted the thing...no wires, gears, wheels...just empty shell. that way no noise at all from moving parts.
as far as sound, much better with the direct connection much clearer and it seems louder for some reason too.
happy with it all around.
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abn31b....quite a to do list in the sig. there. cant wait to see what the blazer brother from another mother has up his sleeve. watch the cv boots for slippage if you haven't t-bar cranked already.

 

Warthog, what exactly did you use to hook it up? I'm wanting to do this so I can plug my Zune in with just an audio jack, but I wasn't sure what to get to splice into the thing.

 

the whole job uses the tape deck adapter you can buy off the shelf.
i cut the wire off the "tape" adapter then soldered the wire to the back of the tape deck .....see pics.
i then took the shell, took out the moving parts (less noise) and put it in the tape deck to trigger the aux connection.

check out the pics. its all up there.

i ran the wire thru the console and up/out by the cd case holder.
you could hard wire a jack and mount it, but i took the easier route and just ran the connector thru.