What Minuit knows about stock Jeep radios

[rasch]

Thanks for the feedback. So I keep looking.

In my country, the last time such a factory radio appeared on sale was 2 years ago and it was broken. I regulary follow sales offers all the time without success.

[Pete M]

9 hours ago, rasch said:

Thanks for the feedback. So I keep looking.

In my country, the last time such a factory radio appeared on sale was 2 years ago and it was broken. I regulary follow sales offers all the time without success.

 

 

you should try ebay.  some of the sellers do ship overseas.  

[Chip Fleming]

Hello. We have a 1990 Cherokee Larado with the original stereo. it powers up but no sound comes out. Do you repair these or know anyone who can? I would like to keep the Jeep as original as possible.

 

Thanks

[Pete M]

On 6/19/2023 at 8:54 PM, Chip Fleming said:

Hello. We have a 1990 Cherokee Larado with the original stereo. it powers up but no sound comes out. Do you repair these or know anyone who can? I would like to keep the Jeep as original as possible.

 

Thanks

 

@Minuit

[Jeephazlett]

I recently purchased a factory radio and am trying to un hack up factory harness. I have two black wires. Does one go to pigtail ground and other to chassis ground? Radio works if one is hooked up to plug ground. Does the other go to chassis ground?

[Pete M]

don't know how often he checks on this thread, but let's try: @Minuit

[Minuit]

2 hours ago, Jeephazlett said:

I recently purchased a factory radio and am trying to un hack up factory harness. I have two black wires. Does one go to pigtail ground and other to chassis ground? Radio works if one is hooked up to plug ground. Does the other go to chassis ground?

If AMC era, one is a speaker (typically the right front negative) and one is ground. What kind of radio? Post pics if you are able.

 

Here is '86 and '87 typical as a quick guess. '84 and '85 have different connections but colors are mostly the same other than negative wires being shared between both speakers on the same side of the vehicle.

 

Minuit checks occasionally, has time to respond infrequently. Hope to change soon but work schedule shows little sign of letting up. Minuit needs to get better about letting go at quittin' time. Bright side: I re-charged the AC on the '91 today and it works awesome.

[Jeephazlett]

1 hour ago, Minuit said:

If AMC era, one is a speaker (typically the right front negative) and one is ground. What kind of radio? Post pics if you are able.

 

Here is '86 and '87 typical as a quick guess. '84 and '85 have different connections but colors are mostly the same other than negative wires being shared between both speakers on the same side of the vehicle.

 

Minuit checks occasionally, has time to respond infrequently. Hope to change soon but work schedule shows little sign of letting up. Minuit needs to get better about letting go at quittin' time. Bright side: I re-charged the AC on the '91 today and it works awesome.

I just installed a rx170 and the harnesses even matched up

[Jeephazlett]

Has anyone other than @Minuit add this line level amp? I just hunted down and installed an original rx170 and the tape player sounds great… only at low volumes. I assumed the values of the tone knobs and the rear speakers being stuffed behind a foam bench seat resulted in a poor EQ but now I’m wondering if these issues were solved by an external amp

[Pete M]

very few even bother trying to fix the old radios.   it's a real shame.

[jpnjake]

12 hours ago, Pete M said:

very few even bother trying to fix the old radios.   it's a real shame.

Sure is, I’ve been collecting a stack of broken stock radios from the junkyard, I keep telling myself one day I’ll try and fix them 

[Pete M]

9 minutes ago, jpnjake said:

Sure is, I’ve been collecting a stack of broken stock radios from the junkyard, I keep telling myself one day I’ll try and fix them 

 

I'm certain that if you learn how, you'll get a bunch of customers.  

[Eperot]

I don’t know if Minuit comes on here anymore, but l have some questions. I just did a faux pas and went against your advice to avoid 1985 AMC units. I picked up a super clean AR-7550. To me, something about the super basic tuner and push button presets coupled with the sweet AMC logo just got me. Plus, l have no desire for a tape deck. 
I know you only ever recommended an aux hookup but l truly want to hook up a Bluetooth transmitter, and preferably to the AM input, preserving FM usability. I don’t want (or even really have) the ability to hook up my iPhone to an aux input and l hate cords. 
l know you are out of the business now, but would you be able to advise as to where l could tap in with the Bluetooth? 
l also understand you don’t like these due to the wacky plugs that match nothing, but if l wanted it in an 86-96 XJ, wouldn’t l be able to make it work by creating my own connectors from junkyard harnesses? Hell, l had a VW GTI that had the head unit stolen and they simply cut the connectors off. Next time l had to straight up hard wire a new unit in. It worked fine. 
 

thanks in advance (including anyone else reading this) who may be able to offer me some assistance! 

 

[eaglescout526]

13 minutes ago, Eperot said:

also understand you don’t like these due to the wacky plugs that match nothing, but if l wanted it in an 86-96 XJ, wouldn’t l be able to make it work by creating my own connectors from junkyard harnesses? Hell, l had a VW GTI that had the head unit stolen and they simply cut the connectors off. Next time l had to straight up hard wire a new unit in.

Just to help you out here without cutting anything. 84-early 86 used pack-cons, a pain to find some of them on the internet but very serviceable. 
86-88 used metri-pack 150’s, also very serviceable and very easy to get and use without cutting up good harnesses. 
89-96 used the Chrysler Jeep|Eagle connector. That’s all I know. 

[Pete M]

5 hours ago, Eperot said:

I know you only ever recommended an aux hookup but l truly want to hook up a Bluetooth transmitter, and preferably to the AM input, preserving FM usability. I don’t want (or even really have) the ability to hook up my iPhone to an aux input and l hate cords. 
l know you are out of the business now, but would you be able to advise as to where l could tap in with the Bluetooth?

 

 

 

I just plugged a little bluetooth dongle into that aux port.  easy-peasy.   no cords outside the dash.  well, except for the power cord I added to power my phone. 

[Eperot]

Yeah, l can see just plugging a dongle into the aux cord, but l’d rather skip the middle man. I’m assuming you can hook a BT transmitter directly to a source like AM input, l just don’t know how to locate it. 
 

And Eaglescout, thanks for the terminology about the different connecting pins…that should help me out. 

[Pete M]

I guess I'm not familiar with the other side of the equation.  where do I buy a single bluetooth unit that I can hardwire in?  all the ones I see in the general public have a dedicated input, usually a 3.5mm audio plug. 

[Eperot]

PeteM, you can usually use one that has the 3.5mm and cut the plug off. Inside the sheath will be 3 wires. They are super inexpensive. Just have to find which AM signal wires are. Here’s one on Amazon. 

[Pete M]

On 12/21/2023 at 4:09 PM, Eperot said:

PeteM, you can usually use one that has the 3.5mm and cut the plug off. Inside the sheath will be 3 wires. They are super inexpensive. Just have to find which AM signal wires are. Here’s one on Amazn.

 

 

does this help?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-bkSEGC3-g

 

[Eperot]

Perhaps it does…. Although l won’t know until l open my stereo up and see. I’m assuming those two input posts are not in my radio but we shall see. Thanks for the link!

[NickyV]

I'm deep in a phase of radio experimentation. A few weekends ago, I hooked up an AR-series radio (the radio-only kind with the sliding faders), and I hooked up an RCA channel selector out of sight, so I can switch easily between the radio and bluetooth.

 

But I thought I could do better. Today, I found an RX-171 at the JY, and I follwed the video posted by @Pete M to perform one of @Minuit's "Science Projects." It is very easy to do. Per the video, I disconnected the AM band as well, and even repurposed an RCA cord I had lying around to hook up my bluetooth module to the radio.

 

I'm going to drive around with it for a while, but I don't know if I will keep the set-up.

 

The Pros:

 

I really like the fact that I can control the volume of streaming media with the built-in radio knob, and adjust bass and treble and the signal from the bluetooth sounds great.

 

The Cons:

 

The reception on the radio is a bit fuzzy. I don't know if that is unique to the one I grabbed or not. Maybe it could be improved somehow by boosting the signal coming in from the antenna?

 

Now that I have the confidence to repurpose RCA cables and tear apart radios, I am considering trying to do the same process with the the radio-only AR I have by tapping into the appropriate cables above the treble slider.

 

The one thing I'm a bit wary about is that the two cables Minuit identified are from a slightly different model AR than I have. Has anyone tried the hack he described on page 3? Did it work? Also... it sounds like it will work a bit differently than the RX hack, in that it might not override the radio signal.

 

Maybe a simple A/B switch mounted on the dash would do the trick. Or I could just use the RCA channel selector I already have hooked up. Hmm...

 

If I succeed in this next science project, I may offer up the other radio with aux in the classified.