Removal Help

bobman1235

Hey all,

I'm not really a car stereo guy. I've put in a few basic systems in my time, but admittedly am not that into it.

Anyways, I'm borrowing my sister's car for a while, and SOMEONE installed her head unit that had no idea what they're doing - only the front speakers work, every time you go over a bump the thing shuts off, etc. So I tried to take the thing out to see how badly hacked the wiring is back there, but I just can't for the life of me get the damned thing out. Of course, I don't have the "keys" that came with it - those got lost / thrown away. It has the slide-down-the-side type removal system, and I've tried shoving EVERYTHING down there to "unlock" it, and it'll slide out like an inch, and then get STUCK on the left side, and I can't figure out why. Is there some trick to removing these things? Or does anyone know where I can buy replacement "keys" (I don't know what those things are really called... keys sounds good). It's a JVC head unit. I've always used Pioneers and they usually slide out pretty easily once they start coming out.

spwuinmk67

I would think you can buy the removal tool at any audio shop, CC, BB, or maybe even a wal-mart. The wires might be getting stuck on the metal sleeve the radio sits in, that could be why you're having trouble.

bobman1235

Yeah, I tried WalMart, CC, and BB before harassing you guys. None of them had it - they're probably worried about thieves buying them, I dunno.

I'm ready to rip this thing out violently and buy her a whole new deck.

Thanks for the help tho.

spwuinmk67

Try a regular CA install shop. Maybe if they can't sell you the tool, they can take it out for you. Or see if a friend has one.

Jstas

It's hard to say without sitting in front of the head unit and trying to pull it out myself. It can be difficult but you have to have more of a Zen moment with the head unit. Pull it out to where it stops and then move it around some to see if you can't feel what it is hanging up on. If it is a hard stop, you probably have some mechanism stopping your from pulling it out or you have a wire plug getting stuck somewhere. If it is a soft stop and you can still tug on it and move it some then it's what Bill said and the wires are probably getting hung up somewhere.

Personally, I have a couple of sets of screw drivers just for this purpose. I also grabbed an old set of spark plug gapper shims. Well, they are used for lots of stuff but they are thin enough to slide between the sides of the stereo and not get hung up or stuck. They come in hand. So do the eye glass and "precision" screw driver sets.

To get really stubborn head units out, I have been known to disassemble a dash and pull the whole panel it is mounted to out. Then I can see how screwed up it is in all it's glory.

As for the removal tools, you will have to call the specific manufacturer and see if they can ship a new set of removal tools to you. What I did myself was I took all the removal tools that I couldn't replace easily and put them on a keychain. That keychain sits in the closet where all the spare keys hang. They are always there and I always know where they are so I won't lose them.

If you're head unit has the 4 holes, two on each side, then you can make the tool. Grab a wire coat hanger and cut off two pieces about 6-8 inches long. Bend them into U shapes so that the ends match up with the holes. Then jam the U's into those holes, one on each side. Push them in a small bit. You don't have to jam them all the way into the back of the dashboard. Then push the looped ends to the outside of the head unit slightly and pull the unit out in the same motion.

The JVC units though, they are like Kenwood and require a thin piece of notched metal to be slid into the sides, lifted up and then pulled out of the dashboard. It's a bit harder to get those made up your self but if you have some patience and some tin snips and even some tin, you can make a suitable set yourself.

I don't think that many install shops would carry tools for sale but if you are nice, they might give you a set or let you borrow a set. That is proabably not going to work out as nice as we all would think it would though.

Best bet is to call JVC and have them send you the tool, a new harness for the back of the unit and a manual and get the job done correctly, know what I mean? Just because some hack screwed it up for your sister doesn't mean you should have to deal with it too. Just think too, once you get it worked out right, she'll get her car back in better condition that she gave it to you and you'll look like a freaking god and the bestes brother ever!

exalted512

what kind of car??

i think the best idea it to find a shop that carries JVC and ask them to borrow their keys really quick. I dont know of anyone who sales them, maybe ebay???
-Cody

bobman1235

If anyone still cares, I got the thing out. There was a grounding screw on teh side that someone had used a ... fat connector on, and it was catching on the dash. I'm bleedin like a sumbitch after gettin it out too. Haha.

MacLeod

NOW youre a car audio geek! If you havent beld over an installation, youre still just a wannabe!

The next step is to get splinters in your fingers from strands of speaker wire!

bobman1235

OK, now I'm still confused. It's a newer Chrysler car - the stereo's wired with the correct harnesses, looks OK, etc -- EXCEPT, there's no connection for ground? Whoever installed it just tied the ground coming out of the stereo and screwed it to the side of the unit (?!?!) - but in the wiring harnesses there is no connection for ground (black wire). Why?

MacLeod

Just take the ground wire coming out of the head unit and ground it to a good solid location on the car.

Dont know why there wouldnt be one in the wiring harness tho.

bobman1235

Yeah, I've just never heard of a head unit needing a body ground, but apparently Chrysler does that. Odd.

Thanks again fro the help everyone.

Jstas

The ground for the stock stereo may be wired to the chassis of the radio unit itself and then grounded through the mounting bracket. I've seen it done that way before and it would also explain why there was not a ground lead on the harness.

bobman1235

Jstas wrote:

The ground for the stock stereo may be wired to the chassis of the radio unit itself and then grounded through the mounting bracket. I've seen it done that way before and it would also explain why there was not a ground lead on the harness.

Has to be the case, because I've been digging around that dash for an hour looking for where the old one was grounded with no luck. I need smaller hands

exalted512

Jstas wrote:

The ground for the stock stereo may be wired to the chassis of the radio unit itself and then grounded through the mounting bracket. I've seen it done that way before and it would also explain why there was not a ground lead on the harness.

exactly.
-Cody

MacLeod

Learned something new today. Id never heard of that til now.

swerve

psh... newbs.

bobman1235

Haha.

So I got everything back in, hooked up correctly... at least I thought. But I have ZERO bass coming out of any speaker. It just sounds tinny and disgusting. I know most people around here think that unless you're running a full separate amp it sounds disgusting anyways, but this is ridiculous

Seriously, any ideas on why this coudl be? Could the amp on the unit be blown? if it was, would I hear anything at all? What if hte ground point I chose was poor, could that cause this?

Sorry for newb questions, I know how annoying it is to repeat this basic BS.

exalted512

maybe you have a high pass filter set? Other than that, sounds like somethings blown...unless theres a seperate tweeter and the tweeter is the only thing thats playing...
-Cody

exalted512

MacLeod wrote:

Learned something new today. Id never heard of that til now.

want to learn something else about installing radios? dont ever do a damn cadillac. you have to find the external amp in the trunk. unplug it and plug the metra harness into that. Then run all your wires from the metra harness in the trunk all the way to the back of the radio. yes, all 4 speakers wires, ground, constant, acc, power antenna, even the actual antenna wire itself must be run. major PITA
-Cody

hellohello

Cadillac... King of the road

Jstas

exalted512 wrote:

want to learn something else about installing radios? dont ever do a damn cadillac. you have to find the external amp in the trunk. unplug it and plug the metra harness into that. Then run all your wires from the metra harness in the trunk all the way to the back of the radio. yes, all 4 speakers wires, ground, constant, acc, power antenna, even the actual antenna wire itself must be run. major PITA
-Cody

I the jellybean shaped Taurus from about 96-99, the only thing in the dash is the CD/Tape plaer drive and some buttons. Everything else is in the trunk. The tuner, the processor, everything. The only thing in the dash is the interface.

I ran my own circuits when I found that out.

MacLeod

bobman1235 wrote:

Sorry for newb questions, I know how annoying it is to repeat this basic BS.

No need to apologize. Swerve was referring to me having never heard of grounding to the mounting bracket. Feel free to ask as basic a question as you like. We all started out not knowing ****!

neomagus00

and some of us are still there

audiobliss

neomagus00 wrote:

and some of us are still there

Hey! What're you sayin'?! Eh?! You talkin' ta meh?!

hellohello

Its either directed at you, or me

neomagus00

no, i was OBViously referring to mac... (odd capitalisation intended)

hellohello

...is there a joke there im not seeing?

MacLeod

I tell ya, I get no repect; no repsect at all.

hellohello

^ My hero (rodney, of course)

bobman1235

Well, this thread got sidetracked, but if anyone is curious as to the outcome of my dillema, turns out the car had a factory AMP installed, unbenownced to me. So, I had to hook the trigger signal up to, what was labelled in the harness as the power antenna wire, and blammo, full, nice sound

I'm assuming the amp takes speaker level inputs rather than signal level, because there are no RCAs in the dash anywhere, and it just works. Is that possible? I've never heard of an amp that takes speaker level as inputs but... must be.

Thanks to those who gave their advice.

exalted512

youre right, no RCAs, after all--it is factory. I guess it has some kind of built in LOC in the amp itself, who knows.

Yea, 99% of the time if you dont hook up the blue wire and no sound comes out, its the factory amp
-Cody