Radio parts wanted

[rer233]

OK, so I'm in the process of installing a factory cup holder in my '87 M/T t4 (see my thread under "cup holder.") Any way, the car had a 2 piece factory radio/cassette player out of an '84 SR5, and with the cup holder installed, there's no room for the cassette player (no biggie-it didn't work anyway.) Problem is, if I unplug the cassette player, the radio quits too. Seems there's a "dummy plug" that plugs into the back of the radio where the player wire was. The toyota pn for the radio is 86120-14480. I found a NOS radio on ebay complete with dummy plug- guy wants $500 (what I paid for the car!) Any body out there have an old factory 4 speaker radio not equipped with a cassette player that I can buy/rent the dummy plug from? I'm sure it's just a matter of jumpering wires together, but I don't want to screw it up and fry an otherwise good radio.

Failing that, anyone have a good later model factory 4 speaker radio (again sans tape player) they'd like to sell? I found one years ago in the trunk of my now-totalled '88 SR5 that would work. Only problem is it's currently installed in my '87 FWD. I'd post the toy pn but the label's illegible. I'd really like to keep the dash all toyota OE if possible.

Any help is greatly appreciated,

Rich.

[BaileySims]

I haven't seen mine around in awhile. I'll search around to see if I still have it tomorrow afternoon.

[emmahumpfritter]

Like this one?

[rer233]

Yep- JUST like that one- wanna sell it ? Does it still have the dummy plug?

[emmahumpfritter]

Sure. Make an offer. It does have the plug on the back.

[rer233]

Update:

Well, it looks like my radio quest ain't goin' so well. Has anybody here tried installing a later model (IE transverse engine) Tercel radio in one of our cars? Are the plug configurations the same? How 'bout the holes for the mounting brackets? Found a bunch of 'em on EBay, but not sure they'll fit. I'll probably go to my local Pick n Pull Saturday for a little "exploratory surgery." Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Rich.

[Petros]

I have several later style radios I want to adapt to the T4wd. the original am/fm radio is in bad shape, I have to give it a wack to make it work sometimes, and a lot of the reception is very "buzzy".

The mounts can be made to work no problem, you have to pull the old side mounts off the original radio and than find mounting screws that work, or drill some new holes in the old mounts.

The connector similar but different enough it will not plug into it, but has the same number of wires. You can either order and adapter made at a lot of car sterio stores, about $20, you give them the year make and model of the car and radio, and they can fab a pig tail with the correct connectors. Or you can make an adapter yourself with some wire, and some bayonet type contact you get at any auto parts store. The other and easier thing to do is if you have the later style plug, is pull out each contact from the old connector, and insert them in the correct places for the new one. you need a slim tool to slip down inside the connector assembly along side the contact to depress a tang that releases the contact from the plug assembly. Than you slip it into the new plug housing and it locks into place. you will need the wire diagram for the new radio and the old one, I think that is usually in the service manual wire diagram, so you get the correct color wire into the correct place. I have done this before on a Honda.

BTW, they change the color coding from various years, so do not assume the black wire with the yellow strip is the speaker wire, you need to study the car's wire diagram to determine what each wire does, and than connect it into the new radio for correct contact for that function.

[rer233]

Update: Went to the PicknPull yesterday (man I love junkyards- always have, even as a kid.) Not a single Tercel of any vintage to be found. Lots of Corollas and Camrys 'tho (one second gen Camry had 524k on the clock.) Lots of the cars had aftermkt units with missing removable faceplates (not what I was after.) Found a '98 Camry with a factory radio and pulled it- EXACT same electrical plug configuration as my '87 t4. Tercel mounting brackets would also bolt right to it with no modifications.

However, the Camry radio had some blemishes, so I figured I'd keep looking. Found a '96 Corolla with a premo OE 4 speaker cassette radio that looked brand new and bought that one ($20.) Same plug configuration and mounting holes as the Camry.

So it seems Toyota radios are pretty much universal (from the mid '80's to the mid to late '90's anyway.) I have however noticed that my '83 has slightly larger electrical plugs than my '87's (maybe changed in '85??) One of my early model two piece radios has a conversion harness so it can be installed in a later model car.

So I installed the "new" radio (and cupholder) last night, and everything works (even the cassette player!) Looks factory- guess 'cause it is. Man I love these cars.

Hope this helps.

[irowiki]

The plug was changed in 87 and Toyota used that plug for the next oh, many many years.

You can buy a converter to go from 86 down to 87 up.

I put a 2 DIN 2001 Camry CD radio into Pokey, and it works!