matt69olds

Cant make this crap up!!!

I got my replacement Custom Autosound stereo installed in the Olds a couple days ago. I’m trying to adapt to the lack of manual tuning. I think it’s a stupid design but that’s the way it is.

My son bought a Retro Sound stereo for his 92 Yukon. For those unfamiliar with these thrills, they were made during the “Dark Ages” of GM interiors. These trucks have a terrible radio design, it’s actually 3 seperate parts. The radio part in the dash is just the control box, the tuner/amplifier is mounted under the dash above the gas pedal, the cassette deck is near the glove box. The part in the dash is much smaller than a normal radio, leaving few choices for aftermarket radios.

Retro Sound makes a aftermarket radio that fits in the smaller dash opening, and looks somewhat stock. My son bought one we installed it a few weeks ago.


New replacement radio

Factory radio


The very next day, he found the battery dead. He was incredibly annoyed when he had to drive my neon to school! I hooked the battery charger to the truck, the radio powered up, along with all the amplifiers. The radio wouldn’t play, but the display lite up, and the amps powered up as well. After a little diagnostic work, I determined the “BATT” and “IGN” power sources worked as expected. The radio was defective. Crutchfield sent a replacement out, we ATTEMPTED to install it today.

I say attempted, RetroSound made a design change to the radio, which requires a different harness. They screwed up and sent the replacement new design radio, but sent the old style harness. No way to plug anything in!!!! 😡😡😡



New design radio plug

Old design harness. The harness included with the replacement warrantied radio fits the old style, but not the new radio.


Im baffled, and really beginning to wondering who I pissed off in the aftermarket radio world!!! Two separate radio installs, from 2 separate manufacturers, and both have issues.

Once again, this is why I don’t normally make upgrades or improvements to the cars during the nice weather.

Phoenix8990

I've got a radio manual that's as big as the owners manual and I still can't get the bluetooth to connect as well as not being able to read the writing on it without putting glasses on. Good luck!
Steve

matt69olds

Well, I feel pretty stupid. There is a harnness that adapts tge white/black plugs to the radio. I got one with the first warrantied radio, but not this one. They are sending a replacement, hopefully that solves the issues.

Koda

Pretty much all aftermarket radios come with a pigtail of theirs, and you buy a pigtail for yours, then connect the wires the right way for a converter harness.

matt69olds

I got the missing adapter today. Here is the completed harness. The adapter at the upper left plugs into the factory radio plugs, the middle are the white/black plugs I posted earlier, which plugs into the missing adapter that plugs into the replacement radio in the dash. Just seems a bit Rube Goldberg, but it works.