Where IS the Fader and How Can I Bypass It?
 

Getting rid of the Becker; I'd like to wire directly into my new head unit without rewiring everything. I've done some searching in the archives but I couldn't find where the dang fader actually lives and if it's possible just to bypass it and not rewire all the speakers.
Thanks!

You didn't look too hard. Here's a post with 'fader' in the title, which might help. I'm not familiar with the 84 300D, but it's usually a rotating wheel on the console, black, with little speaker symbols http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/car-audio-multimedia/70117-w126-stereo-fader.html
Some members recommend running all new wires to all four speakers. I've been successful using the existing wires, but cutting off the connectors at the fader, which now justs occupies space in the hole.

The above post really helped me...also try this for some nice pictures: http://www.peachparts.com/Wikka/W124Stereo

Thanks for pointing to those threads guys. Dummy me, I actually had read the first one but I guess it must've been late and I'd been staring at a computer screen too long - I must've skimmed through it because all I absorbed from it was how to rewire the speakers but that's more time than I wanted to invest in that at this point but missed all the good info.
& I always *wondered* what the dial beside the window switches was....!
thanks again.

Yeah, you can't really bypass it due to the shared ground system it uses. Just run new wires, takes about an hour or so.

Rewiring is easy, the rears require removal of the rear seat, passenger front and rear door plastic sill plate, and B piller trim base.

Fronts require removal of the underdash panels, the rears also require these to be removed so do them at the same time.

Don't use the common ground, most new head units do not support common ground but will run like that for a while until they begin to have quality issues.

Matt.

Don't need to rewire!
 

This is not true.

Just an update on this topic because I've read so much about "not being able to bypass the fader" without rewiring. The shared ground system is misunderstood, I think...there is a separate ground wire going to each speaker, pre-wired from the factory. Sure, they grounded them together (and you can, too) but you don't have to. Here's what I did...took only a few minutes:

-Cut off the wires at the fader plug. Now you can gently pull that whole bundle through the console and up into the "DIN sized" hole where the radio goes.
-If you fudge around some more, you can pull the two factory "front" wires with the little round 2 prong plugs out from the tie-down and you'll notice they just run right into the wiring for the fader that you just pulled to the front.
-Pull the covering back, make sure you have all "8" speaker wires coming from the large bundle and cut off all the excess. Throw it away (or plug it back into your old Becker).
-You now have 8 wires (4+, 4-) and you'll have an easy time wiring to a 4 channel radio.

It's all just redundant wiring that breaks 2 channels into a "false 4 channel" setup through the fader. If anyone has any questions about this, please feel free to contact me. It's really SO easy...I wasn't even going to try it because of all the "it can't be done" comments I've read but it turned out to be a piece of cake once I actually looked at it.

I found that if one just runs a set up new wires to the rear deck, leaves the fader set in "front only" mode. One should be fine. This is what I did.


Kris

Thanks:)

i am putting in an audio 10 in place of my old becker. It will install with a plug and play harness. Do I still need to bypass the fader?