Factory radio harness

caddelma · December 3, 2001

I am looking to add an amp to my factory GM stereo (1998 C1500 w/ Cass and Remote CD). I want to keep the factory deck and remote cd player, but I am replacing the speakers and adding an amp. I would to prefer to not cut into the existing wiring harness that connects the head unit to actual speaker wiring. I know you can buy aftermarket harnesses for adding a new head unit that plugs into the factory wiring. I was thinking about using part of this to go from the speaker output on the amp to the factory wiring. But since the amp only has rca inputs I am going to use a line-level convertor to convert the high level signal coming from the factory deck to feed the low level rca amp input. Is it possible to buy (from gmpartsdirect or etc.) the harness that goes from the factory head unit to the factory wiring. Worst case is I splice/cut into the factory wiring to feed the signal to the amp through the convertor. Any other ideas are welcome

MTmace · December 3, 2001

Any place that installs car stereos will have a harness for you. It will cost about 15-30 bucks

MTmace

caddelma · December 3, 2001

Any place that installs car stereos will have a harness for you. It will cost about 15-30 bucks

MTmace

I know most stores will have a harness for adding an aftermarket head unit. I am looking for the GM number for the harness that connects the factory head unit to the factory wiring. I couldn't imagine Best Buy or Circuit City carrying these, though it could make their job easier for their shops when adding an amp to a factory head unit. I have always done my own stereo work, but I will check around. It is much easier adding an aftermarket head unit, but I like the setup I have, that an my wife got my old stuff out of my old lumina (Kenwood Amp, Head unit, CD-Changer, 6x9s, old 8-inch truck boxes). Glad I didn't put my 6.5 inch polk components or infinity 4x6 component plates in her car! Perfect replacement for the truck.

NeXuS1 · December 3, 2001

never seen a special harness for gm oem decks just for adding an amp. probably just have to use a high level converter and use the stock speaker wire.

really the best way to go for best quality is a nice head unit like an eclipse or nakamichi, high end kenwoods etc. a head unit is nothing something to try and save money on it so maybe keep that in mind.

XSaNiTy · December 3, 2001

if you go to a local Chevy/GMC dealer they should be able to look up the part and order it for you, usually the parts guys can get the number fairly quickly.

Maverick · December 5, 2001

Caddelma,

Check out this place. They have alot of stock harnesses and other goodies.

http://www.radiosandmore.com/ ;)

duplantisjj · December 6, 2001

Also seen em in JC Whitney. ;)

JimDandy · December 8, 2001

caddelma: try auto toys. They have the reverse harnesses like you are looking for

Auto Toys storefront

Go to the storefront then

--Dash & Speaker Kits - Plug in Harnesses

--Replacement Radio Harnesses

On page 2 are the GM radio harnesses which plug into the stock radio for aftermarket amps & speakers...

Good luck,

Jim :stupid: :stupid:

caddelma · December 8, 2001

Thanks for all the help. I have found what I need, but I have another question. I wanted to double check the back of the factory radio to see if the harness matched an old wire harness I had for a Chevy Lumina that connected an aftermarmet radio to the factory wiring. It did, but I noticed on my factory harness there are two wires, solid green and green w/ a white stripe, but there are no correspnding wires on the aftermarket adapter. If you were to look at this link:

.gif]http://www.caraudioandelectronics.com/Cars....[1].gif

The wires would be just left of wire 1. I thought it may have been for the door tweeters, but they (wires) are red and black. Could it be for the speed compnesated volume control? Any ideas would help.

mikeb · December 9, 2001

Where did you finally find the harness you needed, I'm looking to do the same thing in my truck.

silverado man · December 9, 2001

Im sure you could go to a junk yard and cut one off.

sierra1 · December 21, 2001

Junk the stock head unit. I just did on Monday, and I wish I had done it a lot sooner. It's not just weak, power wise, the tuner is pretty sorry too. It was kind of touchy about CDs too, it didn't like black ones (click, click, click), and was very touchy about any smudges on them. My friend's 2001 plays black CDs fine, but skips once in a while. Mine never did that, at least. The WORST H/U I have had in a car/truck since my 85 caravan!

I should have done mine when the truck was a few months old, instead of 19 months old. For 336 bucks, the H/U, bass blockers (for the pitiful back speakers), and installation, it was money very well spent. I could have saved over $50 form that price, but I wanted to be able to play MP3 files on the H/U.

I was planning on keeping the stock H/U, and doing the amp thing, but didn't, and now I like listening to music in my truck!