With the new speaker installed in the dash the next job was hooking up all the wiring. RetroSound makes this easier with a two part harness: they have a short harness that plugs into the radio and the main harness plugs into. This means that you have a visible plug to connect to when the radio is installed rather than trying to find a multi-wire connector by braille buried deep in the dash on the back of the radio.
Connect the four speaker wires and then connect switched and unswitched power. Unlike the factory radio, modern radios have a continuous power connection and use switched power to turn the radio on and “off”. There isn’t actually an off, just a (very) low power mode. These connections were easy since there are several open circuits for both switched and unswitched power in the new fuse block. There are even short leads already connected! Add MetriPack connectors to the radio harness and plug them into the connectors already available from the fusebox. Connect ground and we are ready to go!
Mount the radio in the dash, including front and rear supports and tighten securely. Plug the wiring harness into the radio. Sit back for a moment and admire how it looks!
Turn on the radio and listen to sounds of silence…
Oh, right, have to turn the car on! Turn the ignition to accessory and hit the power button again. This time I’m rewarded with the RetroSound boot screen – but still no sound. Try tuning the radio and listen to the dulcet sounds of an FM radio station. Try several other stations – good reception and sounds good.
And there was much rejoicing!
The last thing to do was grab the user manual and set up the radio. Adjust bass and treble and sync to phone. I now have hands free telephone in the Imperial as well as streaming music. Figure out how to set the time – I now have a clock in the car!
Everything works. People that don’t know it isn’t the factory radio won’t notice anything. I’m going to declare this a success!