cd player

Anybody here got any experience puttin cd players in 73 - 87 chevys? i kno ill hafta cut the dash, but is there anything else i should be aware of? do i need to make a support for the back? what about wiring it up? any suggestions are appreciated.

my buddy hector rewired his.. he heard stories about the stock radio harnesses having issues because of the higher watt output or some crap. all he used was the power and stock ground and ran new wire for all the speakers

I would highly recommend you making a bracket (a mounting kit may come with one) to support the back of the CD player. Mainly to prevent damaging the radio itself.

I would just use the stock harness. Buy a kit that plugs into the stock harness, and you solder to the harness that comes out of the back of the radio (super easy.) Aftermarket radios put out a MAXIMUM of 22x4 RMS, and usually 50x4 PEAK, without the use of an external amplifier.

The stock wiring can easily handle 22watts/channel. (Your radio is most likely 14w/channel)


Don't worry about the 50x4 peak, you'll never see it. 50x4 is the most power the radio can put out (that sounds like 100% distortion, at a specific frequency.) If you are going to add an amp that does 65+ RMS to the speakers, I would recommend using a larger gauge wire. If you're just using the radio as the amp, you'll be fine. No need in doing more work than you have to, because it's not needed.

you don't know much about old gm wiring harnesses, do you william?

I installed a new radio in my 93 Sierra, (198-1994 body style) and have installed new radios, amps, etc in many older GM vehicles. I installed new speakers in an 84 Chevy, but he already had an AudioVox AM/FM/Tape unit in it.


I' not noob, that's for sure. I'm not even counting Ford/Dodge audio work.

thanks guys. the radio is an alpine, it says 60 watts x 4 on the face, but i don kno what the RMS rating is. i aso have an 800 watt kenwood amp id most liley use too. i had a this in my 98 so i now how to hook it up, im just unsure about the od wiring and mounting. i don wanna turn my truck into a pile of ashes over some tunes ya kno

run new speaker wires.. the old ones are crap.. to thin and more then likely will burn up.. it happened in both my yellow 86 and red 85.. 800 watts is 200 to each speaker so be carefull.. most speakers are only rated to 75-100 watts so they wont last as long or will begin to crackle at higher volumes..

i plan on puttin two 10's behind the seat. i don like the idea of puttin an amp to smaller speakers, i only like to use them on subs

that will work then.. wanna buy 2 10s.. lol. i have 6 sets of subs in my closet.. i gotta get rid of some electonics too..

007jimmy wrote:

run new speaker wires.. the old ones are crap.. to thin and more then likely will burn up..

thank you joe, that's exactly where i was heading with it lol