Blue LEDs in a 94 Stereo

[AK49BWL]

Tape deck is DONE



On the right side of the cassette deck, I ended up sticking in an LED with an internal resistor. Good thing I found those, because I really don't think anything else would have worked over there.

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Little bit of custom bending of the leads lol. Points the bulb directly into the distributor.

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This came out GREAT.

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On the other side of things, I wasn't having any luck with any bulbs in the stock location for lighting up the EQ buttons. Well. Guess we're gonna have to go full custom.

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There's plenty of room between the base of the buttons and the light distribution plastic.

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It ain't pretty on the inside anymore, but it sure gets the job done lol.

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Got out my actual camera to take these lol.

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So this is where we stand.

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Unfortunately, this pretty well marks the end of my endeavor with this system, until someone figures out how to remove and replace the display filter on the radio head without destroying the sticker sheet... The one I tried to pull apart I ended up cracking the sticker sheet, and the silver backing came off in a few places, stayed stuck to the head. The filter piece itself is held in by this sticker. The replacement filter has to be the exact same size as the original, or it just won't work... And you might notice it's recessed as well, so even more interesting. So unfortunately, that's it for me right now.

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[Erik the Awful]

Scrub all the backing off the sticker sheet and repaint with enamel? The enamel paint should have enough stickum to hold it on.

 

[AK49BWL]

"The only solutionless problem is one where a solution is not sought."
-- Me. I just made that up.

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And I'm not done yet.

 

[AK49BWL]

I should have named this thread "Blue LEDs in 94 Electronics" lol. Because it's no longer JUST the stereo getting my attention

Anyway.

So I had a thought... Since I can't remove the green filter from the radio head without likely destroying it, and our blue filter is too thick to fit in its place.. Why don't we see if it's possible to cut it out from the back? .... Obviously a dremel gets involved. Turns out it might work... Tried it on my test head first.

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"Oh no. He grabbed the production head for his attempt and destroyed it."

Well, I wish I could say you're wrong, but.............You are half wrong I did grab my production head. Because other than the test head, it's the only one I have left here lol.

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IT WORKS!!

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And refer to the above post for the lit versions



The stereo is complete. ................So I moved on. The stereo isn't the only thing with lights and a display in it!

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Yep, HVAC time! I had tried to simply replace the bulbs and reuse the little factory twist-in bulb holders, but that only worked well for the temperature button. The other two became four lol. And of course, another cutout of the blue acrylic.

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Resistor soldered in and heat shrinked just like the EQ.

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This cat has no sense of personal space.

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Put it back together and added it to the rest of the system.

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It looks like a total mess over there but I promise you........

It is

That's a complete HVAC harness from a 94 back there, with all three door motors, all four relays, and resistor pack.... Well the latter is back there somewhere, but not hooked up because I have one of its connectors plugged into the headlight switch lol. Next to the headlight switch is a Hot-Side PWM Dimmer. I'm going to have two of these - one for the backlights on everything, and another for the displays. It works GREAT!

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Next? ... Well, there's not much left. I did some cluster work, I guess I'll post that up. Other than that, maybe a fog light switch... What's left?






Now I need a dash to put it all in.

 

[William Keiter]

Amazing work! Glad I found this post, I just got a 1990 that has a head unit with buttons that sometimes work and tape deck that appears dead 99% of the time. Might start rebuilding them soon. Do you have a parts list for your rebuild?

 

[man-a-fre]

AK49BWL great write up thank you for taking the time to post this! You are a real asset to this forum! I have learned alot from your contributions. Thanks again