GM radio swap

I have a 2006 Chevy 3/4 ton express van. It has the stock GM AM FM radio in it. I have a 1990 GM AM FM cassette radio that has seen many vehicles over the years. I have rebuilt the cassette mechanism and it is in perfect working condition. It is coming out of my 2002 van before that goes to the junk yard. I would like to install that radio in the 2006. I went to the dealer to ask if he could please pull a print of the 2006 wiring harness showing colors, etc, but he said that that information was not available. I know that when I did this swap into the 2002 years ago I don't recall having any trouble finding this information. In fact I think that it was at this particular dealership that I did. He says that all he could pull up was a picture of the whole harness which doesn't break down to colors of wires. Could it be that he only has access to a "parts" manual and what I'm looking for would be in a separate "service" manual?

What I would like to do is to cut the 2006 connector off the tail end of the harness and splice the 1990 connector in it's place. I don't care about power antenna or chimes etc. I just need the 2006 harness colors for power, standby power for the clock and tuner memory, and front and rear speakers, and ground.

Let me add that if you feel it necessary to tell me how foolish you feel it is to install a 1990 radio into a 2006 vehicle, please don't bother. This is what I would like to do.

If anyone can help me with this I would be most sincerely appreciative. Lenny

wrote:
> I have a 2006 Chevy 3/4 ton express van. It has the stock GM AM FM radio in it. I have
> a 1990 GM AM FM cassette radio that has seen many vehicles over the years. I have
> rebuilt the cassette mechanism and it is in perfect working condition. It is coming out
> of my 2002 van before that goes to the junk yard. I would like to install that radio in
> the 2006. I went to the dealer to ask if he could please pull a print of the 2006
> wiring harness showing colors, etc, but he said that that information was not
> available. I know that when I did this swap into the 2002 years ago I don't recall
> having any trouble finding this information. In fact I think that it was at this
> particular dealership that I did. He says that all he could pull up was a picture of
> the whole harness which doesn't break down to colors of wires. Could it be that he only
> has access to a "parts" manual and what I'm looking for would be in a separate
> "service" manual?
>
> What I would like to do is to cut the 2006 connector off the tail end of the harness
> and splice the 1990 connector in it's place. I don't care about power antenna or chimes
> etc. I just need the 2006 harness colors for power, standby power for the clock and
> tuner memory, and front and rear speakers, and ground.
>
> Let me add that if you feel it necessary to tell me how foolish you feel it is to
> install a 1990 radio into a 2006 vehicle, please don't bother. This is what I would
> like to do.
>
> If anyone can help me with this I would be most sincerely appreciative. Lenny

Have you tried searching on the Internet?
There are tons of data available for 2006 Silverados and SUV's.
http://www.modifiedlife.com/2006-che...ing-schematic/
You may need a can-bus adaptor since the radio is an integral part of the vehicle.
http://www.dealerworksinc.com/Afterm...ryfeatures.htm
C2R-GM.

wrote:
> I have a 2006 Chevy 3/4 ton express van. It has the stock GM AM FM
> radio in it. I have a 1990 GM AM FM cassette radio that has seen many
> vehicles over the years. I have rebuilt the cassette mechanism and it
> is in perfect working condition. It is coming out of my 2002 van
> before that goes to the junk yard. I would like to install that radio
> in the 2006. I went to the dealer to ask if he could please pull a
> print of the 2006 wiring harness showing colors, etc, but he said
> that that information was not available. I know that when I did this
> swap into the 2002 years ago I don't recall having any trouble
> finding this information. In fact I think that it was at this
> particular dealership that I did. He says that all he could pull up
> was a picture of the whole harness which doesn't break down to colors
> of wires. Could it be that he only has access to a "parts" manual and
> what I'm looking for would be in a separate "service" manual?
>
> What I would like to do is to cut the 2006 connector off the tail end
> of the harness and splice the 1990 connector in it's place. I don't
> care about power antenna or chimes etc. I just need the 2006 harness
> colors for power, standby power for the clock and tuner memory, and
> front and rear speakers, and ground.
>
> Let me add that if you feel it necessary to tell me how foolish you
> feel it is to install a 1990 radio into a 2006 vehicle, please don't
> bother. This is what I would like to do.
>
> If anyone can help me with this I would be most sincerely
> appreciative. Lenny

I won't tell you it's foolish. I will tell you it won't work the way you
plan on trying to install it.
The OEM unit in that van is controlled through the data bus, all of the
memory, clock, light dimming are controlled through the BCM, not the
radio itself.

No switched power in the harness either. You will need to find that
somewhere else and come up with some way to control the brightness of
the buttons and clock.

You would be a lot farther ahead to just grab the optional 9R0
AM/FM/Cass that GM used. BUT you would need to get the VIN in it changed
to make it work.

Because it's a base radio I don't think it's got any anti theft control
like the higher end units, but you may want to test that by removing it
and seeing what still works. The higher end ones will kill a few things
when removed because they are VIN locked.


BUT If you still want to try. Get one of the plug in adapter harnesses
instead of cutting, just in case you have a problem. That will also have
the wires you need marked on it.

Black w/white stripe is Ground (pin A12)
Red w/white stripe is un-switched battery Positive.(pin B1)

Speakers
Fronts -
Dark Blue (pin A8) - LF Pos.
Light Blue (pin A9) - LF Neg.

Orange (pin B11)- RF Pos.
Dark Green (pin B10 - RF Neg.

Rears -
Tan (pin B8) - LR Pos.
White (pin B9) - LR Neg.

Tan (pin A10)- RR Pos.
Orange (pin A11 - RR Neg.

These pins are easy to figure out, there are two rows, the top are row A
the bottom row B.
If you look at the speaker pins you can see they are located in a single
"block" of 8 pins. So the dark blue of the LF speaker is over the tan
wire of the LR.

Notice that there are 2 orange and 2 tan? Don't mix them up.

There will be a third orange wire in terminal A1. That wire is the data
wire, DON'T TRY CONNECTING ANYTHING TO IT... It would be really easy to
fry the computer if you did.


--
Steve W.

> wrote:
>I have a 2006 Chevy 3/4 ton express van. It has the stock GM AM FM radio in=
> it. I have a 1990 GM AM FM cassette radio that has seen many vehicles over=
> the years. I have rebuilt the cassette mechanism and it is in perfect work=
>ing condition. It is coming out of my 2002 van before that goes to the junk=
> yard. I would like to install that radio in the 2006. I went to the dealer=
> to ask if he could please pull a print of the 2006 wiring harness showing =
>colors, etc, but he said that that information was not available. I know th=
>at when I did this swap into the 2002 years ago I don't recall having any t=
>rouble finding this information. In fact I think that it was at this partic=
>ular dealership that I did. He says that all he could pull up was a picture=
> of the whole harness which doesn't break down to colors of wires. Could it=
> be that he only has access to a "parts" manual and what I'm looking for wo=
>uld be in a separate "service" manual?

This is a misguided idea.

However, if you really want to do this, Crutchfield will get you a copy of
the harness pinout, and they will also make you up an adaptor between the
old radio and the new wiring harness.

The nice thing about all of this stuff is the color codes are pretty universal.
Wish that was the case for the engine harnesses...
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 5:38:55 PM UTC-4, wrote:
> I have a 2006 Chevy 3/4 ton express van. It has the stock GM AM FM radio in it. I have a 1990 GM AM FM cassette radio that has seen many vehicles over the years. I have rebuilt the cassette mechanism and it is in perfect working condition. It is coming out of my 2002 van before that goes to the junk yard. I would like to install that radio in the 2006. I went to the dealer to ask if he could please pull a print of the 2006 wiring harness showing colors, etc, but he said that that information was not available. I know that when I did this swap into the 2002 years ago I don't recall having any trouble finding this information. In fact I think that it was at this particular dealership that I did. He says that all he could pull up was a picture of the whole harness which doesn't break down to colors of wires. Could it be that he only has access to a "parts" manual and what I'm looking for would be in a separate "service" manual?
>
> What I would like to do is to cut the 2006 connector off the tail end of the harness and splice the 1990 connector in it's place. I don't care about power antenna or chimes etc. I just need the 2006 harness colors for power, standby power for the clock and tuner memory, and front and rear speakers, and ground.
>
> Let me add that if you feel it necessary to tell me how foolish you feel it is to install a 1990 radio into a 2006 vehicle, please don't bother. This is what I would like to do.
>
> If anyone can help me with this I would be most sincerely appreciative. Lenny

First let me say guys that I really appreciate the help. The 1990 is a nice sounding radio and all my music is on cassettes. but I have a few more questions if you wouldn't mind.

Is the annoying "Bong Bong" sound that comes out of the speakers when you leave your keys in the ignition or the door is opened even with the radio off digital data generated by the body control module, and then is this data pumped into the radio via that orange wire on terminal A1?

As far as the clock brightness can't I just tap into the instrument panel lighting circuit? And as to the switched power do I really need it? Couldn't I put constant power to both the switched and unswitched terminals on the harness? I would think that it would just mean that I would then have to manually turn the radio off each time I parked the car. Not a hard thing to forget. It might also allow me to play the radio without turning the ignition switch to accy. Lenny

On Tue, 25 Jul 2017 20:28:26 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

>On Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 5:38:55 PM UTC-4, wrote:
>> I have a 2006 Chevy 3/4 ton express van. It has the stock GM AM FM radio in it. I have a 1990 GM AM FM cassette radio that has seen many vehicles over the years. I have rebuilt the cassette mechanism and it is in perfect working condition. It is coming out of my 2002 van before that goes to the junk yard. I would like to install that radio in the 2006. I went to the dealer to ask if he could please pull a print of the 2006 wiring harness showing colors, etc, but he said that that information was not available. I know that when I did this swap into the 2002 years ago I don't recall having any trouble finding this information. In fact I think that it was at this particular dealership that I did. He says that all he could pull up was a picture of the whole harness which doesn't break down to colors of wires. Could it be that he only has access to a "parts" manual and what I'm looking for would be in a separate "service" manual?
>>
>> What I would like to do is to cut the 2006 connector off the tail end of the harness and splice the 1990 connector in it's place. I don't care about power antenna or chimes etc. I just need the 2006 harness colors for power, standby power for the clock and tuner memory, and front and rear speakers, and ground.
>>
>> Let me add that if you feel it necessary to tell me how foolish you feel it is to install a 1990 radio into a 2006 vehicle, please don't bother. This is what I would like to do.
>>
>> If anyone can help me with this I would be most sincerely appreciative. Lenny
>
>First let me say guys that I really appreciate the help. The 1990 is a nice sounding radio and all my music is on cassettes. but I have a few more questions if you wouldn't mind.
>
>Is the annoying "Bong Bong" sound that comes out of the speakers when you leave your keys in the ignition or the door is opened even with the radio off digital data generated by the body control module, and then is this data pumped into the radio via that orange wire on terminal A1?
>
>As far as the clock brightness can't I just tap into the instrument panel lighting circuit? And as to the switched power do I really need it? Couldn't I put constant power to both the switched and unswitched terminals on the harness? I would think that it would just mean that I would then have to manually turn the radio off each time I parked the car. Not a hard thing to forget. It might also allow me to play the radio without turning the ignition switch to accy. Lenny

Is your time worth absolutely nothing? Instead of spending all of the
needed time on a workaround to all the problems with this swap, just
buy a head that works with your vehicle. And even if your cassette
player is working perfectly, cassettes are crap, and just get worse as
they are played, and even if they're not played. Spend the time you
would have spent making that relic radio work on copying those
cassettes one time to high quality MP3's, and make sure the radio you
buy has a USB port, or at least an aux input so you can put the MP3's
on your phone. One more side benefit is that you will not have to
concern yourself with the continued degradation of those cassettes,
and you can even toss them. One USB stick will hold all of the
cassettes you could possibly own. You can even convert those cassettes
to a higher quality format like FLAC just for permanent storage, and
then make MP3 copies of those to use in the car. Some car radios play
a limited number of file formats.

There are excellent car radios out there these days for surprisingly
little money.

On Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 5:38:55 PM UTC-4, wrote:
> I have a 2006 Chevy 3/4 ton express van. It has the stock GM AM FM radio in it. I have a 1990 GM AM FM cassette radio that has seen many vehicles over the years. I have rebuilt the cassette mechanism and it is in perfect working condition. It is coming out of my 2002 van before that goes to the junk yard. I would like to install that radio in the 2006. I went to the dealer to ask if he could please pull a print of the 2006 wiring harness showing colors, etc, but he said that that information was not available. I know that when I did this swap into the 2002 years ago I don't recall having any trouble finding this information. In fact I think that it was at this particular dealership that I did. He says that all he could pull up was a picture of the whole harness which doesn't break down to colors of wires. Could it be that he only has access to a "parts" manual and what I'm looking for would be in a separate "service" manual?
>
> What I would like to do is to cut the 2006 connector off the tail end of the harness and splice the 1990 connector in it's place. I don't care about power antenna or chimes etc. I just need the 2006 harness colors for power, standby power for the clock and tuner memory, and front and rear speakers, and ground.
>
> Let me add that if you feel it necessary to tell me how foolish you feel it is to install a 1990 radio into a 2006 vehicle, please don't bother. This is what I would like to do.
>
> If anyone can help me with this I would be most sincerely appreciative. Lenny

I'm 71 and semi retired. I don't own a smart phone or any of the other equipment that you mentioned and I wouldn't know how to do what you suggested either. In addition my hearing is so bad that I would never appreciate the benefits of digital conversion anyway. And at this stage of the last roundup I don't really want to have to buy another radio when I already have one that should be able to do the job with some finageling. So it may not seem like it to you but I'm trying to use what I already have and keep it simple..
Copied from my first post:

"Let me add that if you feel it necessary to tell me how foolish you feel it is to install a 1990 radio into a 2006 vehicle, please don't bother. This is what I would like to do".

Lenny

wrote:
> On Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 5:38:55 PM UTC-4,
> wrote:
>> I have a 2006 Chevy 3/4 ton express van. It has the stock GM AM FM
>> radio in it. I have a 1990 GM AM FM cassette radio that has seen
>> many vehicles over the years. I have rebuilt the cassette mechanism
>> and it is in perfect working condition. It is coming out of my 2002
>> van before that goes to the junk yard. I would like to install that
>> radio in the 2006. I went to the dealer to ask if he could please
>> pull a print of the 2006 wiring harness showing colors, etc, but he
>> said that that information was not available. I know that when I
>> did this swap into the 2002 years ago I don't recall having any
>> trouble finding this information. In fact I think that it was at
>> this particular dealership that I did. He says that all he could
>> pull up was a picture of the whole harness which doesn't break down
>> to colors of wires. Could it be that he only has access to a
>> "parts" manual and what I'm looking for would be in a separate
>> "service" manual?
>>
>> What I would like to do is to cut the 2006 connector off the tail
>> end of the harness and splice the 1990 connector in it's place. I
>> don't care about power antenna or chimes etc. I just need the 2006
>> harness colors for power, standby power for the clock and tuner
>> memory, and front and rear speakers, and ground.
>>
>> Let me add that if you feel it necessary to tell me how foolish you
>> feel it is to install a 1990 radio into a 2006 vehicle, please
>> don't bother. This is what I would like to do.
>>
>> If anyone can help me with this I would be most sincerely
>> appreciative. Lenny
>
> First let me say guys that I really appreciate the help. The 1990 is
> a nice sounding radio and all my music is on cassettes. but I have a
> few more questions if you wouldn't mind.
>
> Is the annoying "Bong Bong" sound that comes out of the speakers when
> you leave your keys in the ignition or the door is opened even with
> the radio off digital data generated by the body control module, and
> then is this data pumped into the radio via that orange wire on
> terminal A1?

ALL of the warning and info chimes come from the BCM and through the
radio. Headlight, key in ignition, low fuel, seatbelt, low fluids, check
gauges all come through the data bus.

>
> As far as the clock brightness can't I just tap into the instrument
> panel lighting circuit? And as to the switched power do I really need
> it? Couldn't I put constant power to both the switched and unswitched
> terminals on the harness? I would think that it would just mean that
> I would then have to manually turn the radio off each time I parked
> the car. Not a hard thing to forget. It might also allow me to play
> the radio without turning the ignition switch to accy. Lenny

Nope, the brightness for those lights are BCM controlled. In the current
radio it uses that signal on the data bus to tell a chip how bright to
make the lighting, the 1990 unit doesn't have that chip. The 1990 radio
uses a variable voltage from the dimmer control, no voltage like that is
in the 06 harness, or available to tap into.

The switched power is needed to be sure the amp and internals in the
radio turn off when you turn off the key because they do take some
power. Forget to turn it off once and the van sets overnight, you will
be walking in the morning.

--
Steve W.

On Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 5:38:55 PM UTC-4, wrote:
> I have a 2006 Chevy 3/4 ton express van. It has the stock GM AM FM radio in it. I have a 1990 GM AM FM cassette radio that has seen many vehicles over the years. I have rebuilt the cassette mechanism and it is in perfect working condition. It is coming out of my 2002 van before that goes to the junk yard. I would like to install that radio in the 2006. I went to the dealer to ask if he could please pull a print of the 2006 wiring harness showing colors, etc, but he said that that information was not available. I know that when I did this swap into the 2002 years ago I don't recall having any trouble finding this information. In fact I think that it was at this particular dealership that I did. He says that all he could pull up was a picture of the whole harness which doesn't break down to colors of wires. Could it be that he only has access to a "parts" manual and what I'm looking for would be in a separate "service" manual?
>
> What I would like to do is to cut the 2006 connector off the tail end of the harness and splice the 1990 connector in it's place. I don't care about power antenna or chimes etc. I just need the 2006 harness colors for power, standby power for the clock and tuner memory, and front and rear speakers, and ground.
>
> Let me add that if you feel it necessary to tell me how foolish you feel it is to install a 1990 radio into a 2006 vehicle, please don't bother. This is what I would like to do.
>
> If anyone can help me with this I would be most sincerely appreciative. Lenny

They sure didn't make this easy. Thanks, Lenny

wrote:
> On Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 5:38:55 PM UTC-4,
> wrote:
>> I have a 2006 Chevy 3/4 ton express van. It has the stock GM AM FM
>> radio in it. I have a 1990 GM AM FM cassette radio that has seen
>> many vehicles over the years. I have rebuilt the cassette mechanism
>> and it is in perfect working condition. It is coming out of my 2002
>> van before that goes to the junk yard. I would like to install that
>> radio in the 2006. I went to the dealer to ask if he could please
>> pull a print of the 2006 wiring harness showing colors, etc, but he
>> said that that information was not available. I know that when I
>> did this swap into the 2002 years ago I don't recall having any
>> trouble finding this information. In fact I think that it was at
>> this particular dealership that I did. He says that all he could
>> pull up was a picture of the whole harness which doesn't break down
>> to colors of wires. Could it be that he only has access to a
>> "parts" manual and what I'm looking for would be in a separate
>> "service" manual?
>>
>> What I would like to do is to cut the 2006 connector off the tail
>> end of the harness and splice the 1990 connector in it's place. I
>> don't care about power antenna or chimes etc. I just need the 2006
>> harness colors for power, standby power for the clock and tuner
>> memory, and front and rear speakers, and ground.
>>
>> Let me add that if you feel it necessary to tell me how foolish you
>> feel it is to install a 1990 radio into a 2006 vehicle, please
>> don't bother. This is what I would like to do.
>>
>> If anyone can help me with this I would be most sincerely
>> appreciative. Lenny
>
> They sure didn't make this easy. Thanks, Lenny

Nope, and your vehicle is equipped with the most basic radio they have.
The next one up is MUCH more integrated into the system. There are many
that you cannot even remove or the vehicle won't run. Not just GM but
pretty much all of the auto makers have gone this route.

Common practice for people who decide to install anything other than
factory is to remove the stock unit, extend the factory harness and tuck
it into a spot out of sight. Under the seats, in the trunk or stuffed
behind the dash are popular. They use the factory speaker locations and
wiring if possible and wire in one speaker to the OEM unit and tuck it
out of the way as well. That way the vehicle doesn't melt down...

It's why I would suggest locating one of the AM/FM/Cassette OR the
AM/FM/CD/Cassette units that GM used. That would plug in and once it was
coded with the VIN from your van it would work very well.
If you go to http://www.car-part.com/ and punch in your year, make/model
the radio option you are looking for and a location, it will give you a
list of salvage yards that have a compatible unit in stock, plus the
prices. Around me the AM/FM/Cassette units are about $40.00 The higher
end units with CD are around $100.00 Most of those places will ship if
you don't find one local to you.

--
Steve W.