Late model radio in Reatta

[Barney Eaton]

I received the note below and don't have an answer.

<span style="font-weight: bold">I was wanting to install a CD in dash player hopefully with cassette too.

I purchased a unit from a later model year Buick , but it is too large to

fit the hole in the Reatta. Any suggestions on what OEM CD unit will fit?

Thanks for ant help</span>.

I would have thought the only problem would have been the electrical connection and maybe some bracket modifications.

The person does not tell us what year/model radio they have.

I am having the sender monitor this post, so give them your opinion/ideas.

[55chevy]

Isn't there a difference between 88-89's and 90/91's? What year is he trying to put one in?

[D-a-n-i-e-l]

I am going to assume that he is trying to put it in a 90-91'. If he is tring to do it in a 88-89' I will not have anything to do with tearing up the dash area.

I am not sure what radio year he is tring to use, but most GM (buick chevy will have the green back lights) 95' to 90' will plug right in to the harness. I would imagine that most single disc units would fit in the dash area. If some one can get me the GM part number off the radio for a 90-91 I will do some indepth research to find a modle cross over.

Personaly I would just go with a after market head unit for the 90-91's. Less issues with age, better sound, and wider variety on meadia formats, make it a no brainer in my opinion. But I will do what I can to help out.

[KDirk]

Barney,

Sounds to me like the sender picked up a double DIN unit for the later GM cars that have that size opening. The 90/91 Reatta has a 1.5 DIN (or din and a half as some say) which is unique to GM and some Chrysler products of the late 80's/early to mid 90's.

There is very little in true 1.5 DIN after market head units currently available. Pioneer makes 1, maybe 2 models that are decent but a bit short on features vs. most new units. Bear in mind the Pioneer's I refer to were first intro'd about 5-7 years ago and have been offered unchanged since then.

If they want to use another GM factory unit, they may check around for one that fit the 91/92 Toronado/Trofeo without the VIC touchscreen. I am pretty sure these were 1.5 DIN and had a CD player. They did not have cassette built in however (radio/CD only).

These should have the greenish back lighting. The only other thing I am unsure of is whether these units were self contained, or whether the in dash part was strictly a control head, with an outboard radio module like the 88/89 Reatta, and most later Cadillacs.

I seem to recall they were self contained, and should be a direct plug in to the standard GM 4 section harness. As a bonus, they looked almost identical to the Reatta stock radio but had a CD slot instead of a cassette. Even had the 5 band EQ and the same VFD readout as the Reatta.

Hope this helps.

KDirk

[Guest Squire Tom]

much honor and homage oh wizard of the reatta clan

dolby cassette equalizer in my 1991

model no. 16142094

ser no 1013512

cassette no workee

only one channel workee soso

tuner not very good

using radio from 91 camaro w fair results - fits nicely but cd no workee - won't recognize cd that is inserted

one less pin on chassis , think it is the amp conxn that is missing

recall that mine is 33 rd from last one made so original radio may be from gm ruh - roh parts bin

[DAVES89]

Keep in mind that cd players in 1991 were new technology and that now that unit is 18 years old. What I do is take a portable battery/power station to the u-pick yard, power up the car and try the unit in the car before taking it out and buying it.

[Richard S]

I installed a 1.5 din combo tape/cd in my 90 red. The only issue is the depth of the hole. Had to do a little cutting and filing of the fiber/plastic to make it fit and modify the radio mounts that also mount the climate control. Was a lot easier to mount the 1 din in the 90 white using an adaptor surround to fill the space.

[KDirk]

Richard-

Good point. I had this problem with my 91. I currently have a 1 DIN Alpine in there, but it is a very deep unit. Worse still, it has an outboard DC/DC converter attached by a 6" cable. I managed to stuff this down in one of the slots at the back of the dash opening, and got the head unit installed with no cutting but it wasn't easy. The wiring at the rear of the unit had to be just right to get enough rear clearance.

I am now planning to modify the dash bezel (I have two spares) and the mounting of the climate control to see if I can get a double DIN in there. Height-wise, the room to do it is there. Depth may be another issue.

There is a Pioneer Nav/DVD combo that I am lusting after in the latest Crutchfield catalog. I think this is doable, but it is something I will need to plan and execute carefully so it doesn't look like a hack job.

KDirk

[Richard S]

You are so right, Kevin. I made the 2 din height measurement but worried over the depth. The bezel for my 1 din allows the radio to stick out about 3/8" making it a relatively easy installation. Were I to go with something else, I would consider "building out" both the climate controls and the radio to get a little more depth while making the dash look more uniform.

[Guest C.F.Massie]

My advice is to just keep the original radio/cassette player and install a FM modulator CD deck in the trunk, simple to do in either an 88/89 or 90/91. At least this way you won't be changing the looks of the dash at all and you keep control of the CD deck through the existing radio. JMO

[Guest imported_Falconman]

I have a remote mounted cd plyer in a 97 dodge ram that didn;t have a cd type radio.installation was pretty simple. installed player under passenger seat then wire into remote mtd radio control module and operated wit handheld remote control.Have one istalled in an89 or did someone do it for you; did it work out well? Would really be interested how it worked and the cost. Thanks.

[D-a-n-i-e-l]

A GM CD changer(pre 96) should wire right in to the reatta radios. I am trying to find one to do a write up on it.

[jonlabree]

It has been done. If you want the wiring diagram let me know.

[HRP]

This may be a stupid suggestion, but my solution (when I get around to it later this fall) is to replace the speakers (usually the weakest link in any sound system), and add an mp3 player which could either plug in or broadcast to the lower FM ranges. Of course my original radio works fine, but neither the cd or tape players do. And over the years, my speakers have deteriorated significantly. And when driving with the top down, the sound isn't going to be "concert hall quality". Even with the top up, there's significant wind noise.

Additional advantages are being able to move the mp3 player to another vehicle when desired and having a much wider variety and number of songs, etc available. I've got 10+k songs in my computer jukebox plus hundreds of hours of old, pre 1954, radio shows ranging from Abbott and Costello to The Whistler (3360 radio shows in all). All of these will fit in an mp3 or other compressed file player (Wolverine) with 60 gigs of space. And most have playlists into which I can load my music/radio show files.

[D-a-n-i-e-l]

I do plug my Ipod and mp3 player into my stock radio. Also, I have a DVD/MP3/CD player hooked in throught it as well. My Reatta is a 89, but I am sure that you can do a stock 90-91 radio also, seeing how it had a slave cd player available.