Miata Mailing List: July 1996, Message #116
sponsored by



     


   From: Mike McNally 
Subject: Re: 6CD Changer
   Date: Tue, 2 Jul 1996 09:17:19 -0400

Timothy Lai wrote:
> 
> At 11:43 PM 28/6/96, Kristofer Munn wrote:
> >Can this CD changer be installed in a Miata?  

I now know (after a couple hours of leisurely work last night) that it
can indeed be installed, and it's pretty easy.

> WHERE TO PUT A CD-CHANGER
> 
> ... onto the flat panel where the spare tyre usually sits ...

That'd work, I guess.  I mounted the thing on the depressed part of the 
floor, towards the right kinda half-underneath the tire.

This particular changer only has the FM option, which to my taste is
just fine (I can't get too worked up about audiophile issues when half
the noise reaching my ears is from the dump truck in the other lane...).

There are four things to hook up to the car: power, ground, ACC on/off,
and the antenna.  The last is the easiest, or it was for me with the 
factory power antenna.  The antenna plug is tucked up behind the 
antenna motor, wrapped in gray foam.  It just pulls out easily.  The
FM modulator of the changer plugs in there, and then the cable to the
head unit plugs into another cable off the modulator box.

The power hookup was pretty easy.  I went off the hot battery terminal
for the power line (a rather wimpy yellow(?) wire), and then grounded to
a support bracket for the antenna assembly.  The on/off wire was trickier,
and I plan to have the genuine EE friend I expect to see over the weekend
look at it and suggest an improvement.  What I did was tap off the antenna
plug, as suggested by somebody on this list.  The connection was made by
a kludge; I basically trapped the lead in the plug.  Not really very robust,
but it resists light tugging and works for now.

Not feeling like doing any drilling, I opted for The Force: duct tape.  I
taped down the modulator to the little pad behind the tire.  The supplied 
cable to the changer box (DIN connectors) is long enough that I could have
mounted the changer in front of the radiator if I'd wanted to.

The changer itself went onto the floor as described above.  I just pulled
up the trunk carpet, firmly taped down the mounting bases (surprisingly
heavy-duty steel things), and then cut little tap holes in the carpet for
the bolts to protrude up.  Overall, pretty easy.

The control box has its own cable that goes to the FM modulator junction
box.  That I pulled through the starboard tunnel, a step I found much
easier than I'd anticipated.  I popped off four of the carpet "rivets" 
behind the passenger seat, and was able to push the connector through 
a small opening.  I had no need to unbolt anything.

I'd like to pull off the center console so's I can have the little control
interface in the lockbox.  I think that'd be possible.  Right now, it's
tucked down near the passenger seat belt buckle (the cable runs behind the
passenger-side carpet aft of the seat).

Pretty easy, and Cosi' Fan Tutte sounded just fine on the way to work
this morning.  We'll see how well this thing survives.

______c_____________________________________________________________________
Mike M Nally * Tiv^H^H^H IBM * Austin TX    * pain is inevitable  
       m5@tivoli.com * m101@io.com          *
               * suffering is optional