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SHEARON: Yeehaw! Wired for sound |
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Thursday, 08 November 2007 |
 I posed the question in a recent column — rhetorically, I thought — if three days would be enough to install a radio into my new-to-me 1987 pickup.
Turns out, it wasn’t.
I bought a radio/tape player from Sue’s Pawn Shop for $5. It was brand new and in the box. Pretty good deal.
I had some speakers I had removed from my motorcycle a couple of years ago. I purchased assorted connectors and wire. I also bought a cigarette lighter. I don’t smoke — it’s for my cell phone charger.
I spent a long time staring at the fuse box, trying to figure out how to run a new circuit for the lighter, since there had not been a lighter installed before.
After a while, it finally hit me that there was already a circuit there. I traced the wires from the fuse box and found a plug-in all wired up and ready to go hanging down behind the dashboard.
It was a matter of only a few minutes before I had the lighter plugged in and working.
Encouraged by this success, I got out the radio and started following the installation instructions. They seemed to make no sense. I tried to use a bracket included with the radio, ended up cutting myself on the hand with it, and threw it out. I used the original bracket and the new radio slid into place with almost no drama.
I wired up the speakers, turned the power on — and nothing happened.
Darn.
I consulted with my mechanic friend, John Hoffmeister. He said I might want to try hooking the hot wire to the lighter, since I knew that circuit was good.
I didn’t have much hope for this. I mean, I half expected a $5 radio not to work.
I started just to pull it out and go get another radio, but decided at the last moment to run the hot wire up to the lighter circuit.
“It’s gonna be a Ho-n-n-n-n-ky Tonk Christmas,” sang Alan Jackson. I almost jumped out of the truck I was so surprised. I was using my “Christmas in the Country” cassette to test things out.
I spent the rest of the day installing the speakers and hiding wires and such.
I realized I didn’t have an antenna, so I went shopping and got a new one for about $6.
This, of course, is where things got all balled up.
The antenna mounted easily to the truck fender. The problem is that there seems to be no way to get the cable from the fender to inside the cab of the truck.
I contacted an online community of truck owners, who, while sympathetic, were not particularly helpful.
So, I had no choice but to wait for the big guns. Well, actually, my 14-year-old daughter, Kate.
She is an excellent mechanic’s assistant and has helped me sort out some knotty problems with other vehicles.
For perhaps the first time in her short grease monkey career, she was stumped.
My options now seem to be to drill a new hole through to the inside of the cab, which I just know would end in disaster, or take it to a shop, which I just know would end up costing me money. I’ve only got about $20 invested in this project so far, and I’d kind of like to keep it that way. I’m not sure if that qualifies me as thrifty or just plain cheap.
For now, I’m enjoying the song stylings of Alan Jackson and the others on my “Christmas in the Country” cassette.
Maybe Santa will bring me a shop manual.
Robert Shearon is news editor of the Courier. His column appears periodically.
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