wanklenoob

so about a month and a half ago my 7 got pulled out of the garage for the winter. Everything seemed to be running super, except the center console wasn't working at all, antenna, clock, radio, tape deck, the works. I finally got around to taking a look at everything last weekend.

First thing I checked was the fuses. The one for the clock and stereo was popped. So I stuck a new one in, and it popped. So I knew there was a short somewhere. I ripped out my center and started poking around with the meter, and being lazy popped about 10 more fuses in the process. I finally discovered the short was behind my dash somewhere and there was no way to repair it without ripping everything out, which I wasn't prepared to do.

I decided to rig up my own little system and run a new power wire with a fuse link, and some heavy duty speaker wire and use some cheap nifty taps that you can buy at radio shack. I set it all up and got my clock to work! I was so HAPPY! then moved on to hacking up my stereo. I got everything figured it out, no thanks to the wiring diagram, which was a piece of shiat. (Got it from an online 85 wiring diagram) hooked it up, but whenever the stereo got fed any type of power the fuse would pop.

I slept on it and decided it had to be some sort of blown fuse link in the actual stereo. Next day I pulled it out and was going to pry the actual stereo unit open and poke around. No Luck, I couldn't get it apart without destroying it. I decided the best course of action, was to buy an after market, or use one of the other old tape decks I had laying around.

I happened to have two older Clarion decks that would work with a little bit of harness hacking, one out of an old Protege, and one out of an old Saab 900. The Saab one looked better, and came with an EQ. it didn't fit in the dash, but with a little grinding I got it in nice and snug. I hacked the harness so it would be a lot easier if I decided to remove it in the future. FINALLY I have a working clock, and a working stereo and tape deck! It looks pretty cool too! the back lights match up well and I'm pretty happy! If any readers want I can get some pics of the saab/mazda zombie. Sorry no pics of process I lacked a camera on hand.