Here's how to wire an aftermarket stereo in a 97 Tahoe without using a wire harness adapter

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1997TahoeFix

1997TahoeFix

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And wire nuts must be in a junction box of some kind, not just there in the wall.

Well I'll just have to be vigilant and make sure no contractor drills through the drywall of my radio and pierces the wires. Next you'll be telling me to run metal conduit for any wires below the dash

so you saved yourself 10 bucks i geuss??

Yep. That's a six pack of Sweetwater 420, which I'll be sipping while ya'll will be on Crutchfield, entering credit card info, probably wearing hard hats and reflective orange vests
 

drakon543

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Well I'll just have to be vigilant and make sure no contractor drills through the drywall of my radio and pierces the wires. Next you'll be telling me to run metal conduit for any wires below the dash



Yep. That's a six pack of Sweetwater 420, which I'll be sipping while ya'll will be on Crutchfield, entering credit card info, probably wearing hard hats and reflective orange vests
i would have suggested taking the wire nuts off and using butt splices. or just getting the wiring off Google and using wire taps so you didn't have to hack off the harness. i would have also downgraded to just an aux jack instead of Bluetooth so i could have sprung for the harness so i could have been done in 30 min. as i said ive seen way worse than your method. im not suggesting your an idiot, an idiot probably would have fried the truck doing what you were doing. im just suggesting there's easier ways to do what you did. also i use crutchfield because buying a radio from them you either get the install gear for free or cheap. cheapest radio from them with aux jack is 23 bucks and for another 24 bucks you get the mounting bracket, cubby bucket for single din, antenna adapter, and the harness. free shipping for a total of about 48 bucks. last time i bought the install gear at a Walmart i was definitely paying more than that.
 

drakon543

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my method is overkill anyway for radio installs. after chasing down wiring problems in vehicles for years. fixing royal hack jobs on radio installs where they would blindly wire into anything that seemed right. best one i still cant figure out how something didn't catch fire. they did what you did but failed miserably and used the power off the ignition switch. once the car was started you couldn't shut the car back off. i solder and heat shrink everything anymore so im 100% i never have to touch it again. i dont expect everyone to have the stuff i have as ive been doing mechanical and electrical either automotive or production factory maintenance for a while. next time you have a project like that hit us up on here we could have found you the wiring.
 

BentleyArnage

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Well I'll just have to be vigilant and make sure no contractor drills through the drywall of my radio and pierces the wires. Next you'll be telling me to run metal conduit for any wires below the dash



Yep. That's a six pack of Sweetwater 420, which I'll be sipping while ya'll will be on Crutchfield, entering credit card info, probably wearing hard hats and reflective orange vests


That's some funny shit right there. The safest wiring is marine grade, done to ABYC standards. Then NEC standards for the home. As for the car, well just twist and tape. Minimalist works great!
 
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1997TahoeFix

1997TahoeFix

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When I first posted this, you can see I was criticized for using wire nuts and assured my car would catch fire or the head unit would soon break. I was told this was a "hatchet job."

Well this might sound petty but it has been over 400 days since I posted this and I'm happy to report it worked perfectly fine everyday. Today I sold my Tahoe with a perfectly working head unit that never gave me any problems over almost 2 years and over 22,000 miles. I still assert that properly sized wire nuts are not only to code legally in residential / commercial properties and automobiles but extremely durable. They're faster than heat shrink and they can be easily undone and changed by hand without any tools. And if you know the corresponding color connections (like I've provided here) you can save the money of buying a silly idiot-proof "wire harness adapter" from sites like Crutchfield. in fact you can just look up a picture of the wiring harness adapter so that it gives you a cheat sheet of which color corresponds to which. I have no problem admitting when I'm wrong and in this case I genuinely believe I was not wrong.
 

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