Norcal 993

Usually, I would whip out my shop manual and figure out how to get into the dash and figure out a good switched wire to tap into for my radar detector installation, but alas, there doesn't seem to be such a manual available for this car at a reasonable price. Any of you folks opened up the dash? I could use some instruction for this installation on my wife's 993.

bigimp65

no one's gonna say "do a search"?

dbf73

or see http://p-car.com/diy/v1/

TheOtherEric

Nah, and no "lazybones" comments either guys. Here's the answer:
http://p-car.com/diy/v1/

TheOtherEric

Crap! Beat me by 3 seconds.

bigimp65

ok,ok...the consensus seems to be that the roof switch in the center console is the place to get your power. take a look at the diy for the oil cooler fan and hard-wired v1 on p-car.com for ideas.

TheOtherEric

lol, here's my car last week. Looks much worse now.

Mark in Baltimore

Needed to find that quarter that bad, huh?

ChrisA

As an alternative to the p-car option (which works fine), I used the switched and unswitched power leads for the radio. The radio is easy to remove and offered easy access as my Valentine wires were routed behind the dash.

TheOtherEric

Brilliant!! I'm getting ready to wire up my V1 and this would be much easier to tap into since my radio is out. Thanks!
nope, I was just dusting and one thing led to another.

DocTock993

Eric - I hope you are taking pictures along the way!
Is that with the carpet out as well?
Looks like you don't have the instrument console out - oh wait, I should probably call you as offered...

amfp

Chris,

How did you easily remove the radio ? TIA.

STLPCA

There's a tool to release the locks through slots in the front of the radio allowing the radio to slide out w/some manipulation of the wiring. The tools are available for a few bucks on eBay, from Becker, from some car radio stores, etc. or someone here may be willing to lend them to you. Mine went w/my oem radio when it was replaced.

FWIW, I was able to tap into the radio's switched power lead from under the dash w/o removing the radio.

ChrisA

I ended up making my own tool to remove the original radio unit by using a strong wire bent in a small loop. Fortunately or unfortunately I replaced the orignal radio with a Sony so I ended up discarding my newly created tools. For me removing the radio offered the best access to the wiring.

TheOtherEric

If your radio is like the climate-control unit, it comes out using a Ford radio removal tool, available at Pep Boys for $6. If you have an aftermarket unit, you can usually just take some thin steel (like a jimmy bar) and jam it into both sides.