Let There Be Music

Well, I finally had a window of opportunity to work on my van's dead music system. As mentioned earlier, the fine folks at AAMCO pronounced my stereo DOA after they fixed my transmission. In fact, they had pulled it out and left it sitting on the floor when they returned the vehicle to me.

I was able to negotiate a $150 deduction on the repair bill to subsidize the purchase of a new deck. Schweet!

Then, as noted here, the new deck didn't work when I installed it, causing me to think that something in the van's electrical system was compromised.

Well, I grabbed my tool box and multimeter on Saturday and went out to do battle. I pulled the panels off the console, yanked the stereo and started hunting for that elusive +12 Vdc amongst the various connections.

Elusive is right! Nada, nothing, zip! Just to be sure, I verified that there was voltage at the cigarette lighter. Yep, there it is, twelve whole volts.

I had taken out two Chilton manuals to see if I could gather any insights into how the circuits were strung within the beast. Hah! Basically what these manuals said is that there are two fuse blocks and assorted relays and you're on your own.

I poked around a little more and decided to call it quits.

Just for laughs, I figured if there was going to be a non-functional deck plugging the hole in the dashboard, it might as well be OEM. I hooked up the old stereo and bolted everything back into place.

As a final act of desperation I started the engine and pushed the deck's power switch.

Sweet, sweet music, such as I had never heard, came blaring from the van's four premium Infinity speakers.

Why? I don't know and I don't care. I finally came out on top!

Thank you, AAMCO, for buying a new stereo for our other car!