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| The following is for informational use only, author(s)
are not responsible for damage or any other expense caused by the use of
this information. In all cases of jacking up the car, or using
tools, BE CAREFUL and DO IT PROPERLY. Parking brake, wheel chocks,
and jack stands are NOT OPTIONAL, they are NECESSARY. Always
disconnect the negative battery lead where electronics or welding are
involved, and make sure the lead is touching nothing but air. Be
safe, and have fun. See the
Safety Tips page for
more info. When you buy a car cover, there are 2 options, remove the antenna every time you put the cover on, or cut a hole in the cover and thread the antenna through it. I'd rather do neither, so I ordered a firebird power antenna and installed it, it fits perfectly from the factory. GM Part number for the antenna is 10402859. This can be purchased through your dealer or www.gmpartsdirect.com. If you don't want to cut the harness off this antenna for the power cables, get part number 12117322 (comes up as a lighter adapter) as well. I got this, but realized I didn't really need to, it did give me some extra wire to work with though. 1. Go shopping. You need a 1' piece of 7/16" clear tubing from Home Depot (plumbing department), 2 blue or red wire taps from Radio Shack (Fig 21), a 25 Pin D-Sub Female connector kit from Radio Shack (you just need 1 of the female pins out of it, can probably find these by themselves at another electronics store), about 15' of 18 gauge wire (solid or stranded), and a butt-connector (again red or blue if you used 18 gauge wire). Some caulking would be good too. If you can't find the Dsub kit at rack shack (a 9pin female would work also), try Pep-Boys or Autozone for the Conductite p/n 85324 (thanks Blue Demon for the tip). If you want to do it 100% right get a serial pin crimper tool. 2. Make sure the car is off and the accessories aren't getting power. You should probably disconnect the negative battery terminal too. 3. Remove the cargo cover, just pull up and it snaps out of the two holders. (Fig 1)
4. Remove the cover for the spare tire, there are 3 little screw things you have to turn to "unlock" (Fig 2). Then just pull up then out. (Fig 3) 5. Remove the spare tire. Unscrew the piece holding it in (Fig 4) just enough to loosen it good, then just unhook it from the back of the tire (you'll see what I mean). 6. Remove the big wing bolt holding the jack cover and jack in (Fig 5), remove them both. Note the hole the bolt came out of (Fig 6).
7. Remove the mast from the stock antenna, then remove the bolt holding the base in. Pull out the base from the bottom. Disconnect the antenna signal cable (thick black wire that plugs into antenna). 8. Install the new antenna in its place (Fig 7) and bolt it down, keeping an eye on where it comes out of the car to make sure it is high enough (but not too high, that looks dumb). Picture at the top of the page illustrates this. 9. Connect the antenna signal wire from the old antenna to the new one.
Next to the antenna, there is a black wire route (Fig 8) containing a whole bunch of wires, going behind a black plastic plate. This feeds the amplifier if you have the Monsoon system (if you don't have the Monsoon, pull the power from any other 12v non-switched connection, and ground to the bolt that holds the antenna on). 10. Tap the orange (power) off the new antenna onto either of the two orange wires in this bundle, they are next to each other on the amp connector (Fig 9). There is actually a third orange wire, but it is not as dark as the other two that are next to each other. 11. Tap the black (ground) wire from the antenna to either of the
two THICKER black wires in that bundle (Fig 9 Again). There are 3
black wires, two are next to each other and a bit thicker than the third,
use either of these. Just look at them, you can see that one is
slightly thinner, so don't use that one.
12. Pull on the bottom of the trim panel around the radio, it will pop out (Fig 10). 13. Push the trim piece out of the way (Fig 11). You may have to remove the connectors to the ASR and Foglight switches if you have them and can't get enough slack. 14. Unbolt the two 7mm bolts holding the radio in (Fig 12)., and pull it out. You may have to lift the radio before pulling it out to unsnag the wiring from the support in the back. Don't disconnect anything from the radio!
15. Crimp one of the female connectors (Fig 13) onto one end of the length of wire you bought (I used green). Unless you have the special tool for this, you can use pliers, the intent is to bend the two front tabs AROUND the bare wire, and the two rear tabs around the coated section. Just pinching them isn't strong enough, spend a few minutes and bend the tabs over the top of the wire then squish them to tighten. 16. With the radio just pulled forward (not turned around) look on the back. On the top (black) connector, the top row of pins, the third spot from the left is empty (Fig 14). Push the connector with wire attached into here, it should fit onto the pin in there nicely (Fig 15). 17. Ziptie this wire to a couple others so it won't get tugged out. Route the wire behind the radio and to the underside of the passenger dash.
18. The underside of this dash has 2 plastic "keepers" (Fig 16) right under the glove box, one on the left, one on the right (Fig 17). Grab these with pliers and just pull them out. 19. Flip down the panel, run the wire behind it (I stuck mine through the existing wire route and zip ties) (Fig 18), then close the panel and replace the keepers. 20. Now, remove the 4 screws from the passenger side trim panel. You'll need a stubby screwdriver for the 3rd one (Fig 19). 21. Pull the trim up and then back to remove it completely. 22. Route the wire along with all the others down to the floor, then under the carpet all along where the trim used to be.
23. When you hit the next piece of trim, put down the back seat, run the wire along the inside edge of the trim, then just tuck it under. 24. Go to the back and tug on it, and it will pull it toward the outside of the car and out of the way under the trim (Fig 20). 25. Replace the passenger side trim panel. 26. Use the butt-connector to crimp your wire to the green wire on the new antenna (Fig 21). If you want to be extra safe, put a small fuse in line with this lead, and one with the power for that matter. I skipped that but it is on my list to go back and do. That way you won't burn down your car and void the warranty. 27. Reinstall the stereo, reconnect the ASR and Foglight connectors if you took them off, and replace the trim panel. 28. Now put the length of plastic tube over the one on the antenna. 29. Drill a hole (I used a 7/16 bit then ground it out a bit with the rotary tool to make it fit) behind where the spare tire sits (so it doesn't block it). Mine is right behind the wheel well about 2" in from the wall. Make sure you don't drill into your bumper molding or anything else important. 30. Feed the tube so it sticks about 1/2" out of the car (Fig 22). Seal around the inside of this tube with caulk (Fig 23). Not necessary, but will keep it in place and seal it off. This tube feeds water out of the car, when the antenna is up it is not watertight. 31. Turn on the radio, antenna goes up. Turn off the radio, antenna goes down. Sweet. 32. Reinstall the spare tire, jack, and cover. 33. To put the spare tire trim back on, slide it into the groove (Fig 24), insert the two front tabs into the existing trim (Fig 25) then lock the screw things back to the "locked" position (refer back Fig 2).
$100 or so and about 1.5 hours of time. Not bad. Theoretically, there should be a remote turn on lead right on the amp. Unfortunately, when using my Nextel phone in the car (which interferes with any powered speaker). It continued to do this after shutting the radio off. Only when I shut the car off and opened the door (turning off accessory power) did it stop. Therefore the amp appears to be turned on by accessory power rather than a remote turn on lead. So this is the reason for running that signal wire from the radio. If you even install an amplifier, you can tap this same lead for the remote turn on. |
