How-to: Installing stock '99 CD player into '89 Blazer.

[00S104.3]

Here is a little write-up on how I installed a 2nd generation stock CD player (from a '99 S-10)
into my 1st. generation 1989 S-10 Blazer.



My '89 S-10 Blazer had a stock am/fm cassette player in it when I bought it. The radio worked good but the cassette player did not play correctly so I decided to figure out how to install a stock CD player from a later model S-series truck into my blazer. I did not want an aftermarket deck since this truck was a daily driver with no alarm or tinted windows and I didn't want to worry about it being stolen.

Here is a picture of the Blazer's stock am/fm cassette deck. (Tired and out-dated)
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/2000s10v6/Stockcassettedeck.jpg


Here is how I did my install:

First thing I did was remove the stock cassette deck and see what kind of plug was on the back. The wire harness was not the same as the newer stock cd player so I went to the junkyard and clipped off a stock wire harness from a later model S-10 blazer (I think it was a 1999 or 2000)
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/2000s10v6/StockBlazerwireharness.jpg
Next I went to wal-mart and picked up a Scosche wire harness for my '89 Blazer. (Part # GM01) This harness is used for plugging in an aftermarket deck into a factory wire harness.
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/2000s10v6/harness.jpg

[00S104.3]

I began searching the internet for the stock wiring colors for the newer Blazer. I found this information in a sticky on this very site. I used that information to label the wires in the wire harness I got from the junkyard. Now that I knew which wire was for what, I spliced the Scosche harness and the junkyard harness together.
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/2000s10v6/Harnessessplicedtogether.jpg

The newer CD player was about 1" deeper than the cassette deck.
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/2000s10v6/StockontopNewonbottom.jpg
The air vents for the a/c run down behind the stock cassette deck and they needed to be modified to gain some depth for the deeper CD player. I tried using a heat gun to soften the plastic air duct so I could bend it in some to gain the depth I needed but it did not work very well. I ended up using a dremel tool to cut a piece out of the air vent so the CD player would sit back farther.

These pictures show how far the radio bezel stuck out before cutting the air vent.
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/2000s10v6/IMG_0760.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/2000s10v6/IMG_0761.jpg

[00S104.3]

Air vent cut
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/2000s10v6/IMG_0736.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/2000s10v6/IMG_0737.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/2000s10v6/Cutairvent.jpg

After cutting the air vent
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/2000s10v6/IMG_0763.jpg

[00S104.3]

Once I gained the depth I needed I used some spare Fat Mat sound deadener I had to seal up the hole in the air vent.
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/2000s10v6/FatMatusedtosealthehole.jpg
Now I went ahead and plugged in the wire harnesses I spliced together and plugged in the CD player. This is where I hit a little snag because the blazer's antenna would not plug into the CD player's antenna spot. The hole was a bit too small so I used a small punch to ream the hole a little bigger so the antenna would plug into it. (sorry, no pics of this)

I turned on the CD player and checked to make sure everything worked like it should. I checked the bass, fade, treble, balance, radio, CD player, clock, and all other fuctions and they worked fine.

Now that I know everything worked it was time to mount the CD player. The stock mounting holes for the cassette deck were not even close to the CD player mounts so I had to make a bracket to hold the CD player in the dash. It is a crude bracket but it works.
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/2000s10v6/Fabbedupbracket.jpg

[00S104.3]

Now all I needed to do was put the radio bezel back on and crank it up!
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/2000s10v6/Alldone.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/2000s10v6/99S-10cdplayer.jpg

Night shot.
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/2000s10v6/IMG_0772.jpg

Everything works except the SCV (sound control volume) Since this option is not available in the 1st gen blazer there was no way to hook it up. I hope this information will help out a fellow S-dimer in the future.

[Mikz86TA]

Good write up!
Looks very nice and like it should be there from the factory. Ive had to do some cutting out like that on cars B4, especially with FlipOut screen units.
There is an antenna adapter to go from GM small to Std (not what you needed) and also from Std to GM small (what you did need.
Metra numbers are GM-10 for GM to Std and GM-20 for Std to GM.
You needed the latter.

[chevybrat]

Awesome. Looks great and nice write up. Glad it worked out for ya. Now you can rock out to Nickelback. ha ha ha.

[00S104.3]

Awesome. Looks great and nice write up. Glad it worked out for ya. Now you can rock out to Nickelback. ha ha ha.

I wanted to buy that CD and now I don't have to. :D

[bespurcell]

Looks good. Nice write-up.

[hero dave]

that look great! how did you get around the theftloc?

[00S104.3]

that look great! how did you get around the theftloc?

Theftloc was not activated on this particular cd player so I just plugged it in and it worked.

[Jay-Sliver]

Nice Writeup! Looks Great!

[LiLWickedSdime]

so what if u get a the cd player and it lock with the theftloc how would u get that off or can u get that off and im fixin to do this to a 1992 s10 so if any one got any good help ideals thanks