Well, the 500 has been sitting in the garage for weeks as part of scheduled-major-maintenance downtime. The stock Becker system conked out right before I parked the car (a shredded CD changer cable end), and I'm tired of trying to work with Becker to fix it -- they are most uncooperative.

Since I don't have any serious driving coming up other than to run to the store, I figured I would keep it parked a while longer, and gut the stock audio. Unfortunately, the stock audio is that byzantine twin-amp Becker layout which was inflicted on the premium 124 cars in '92 and '93. I know that a lot of other people here have done a full migration from that kludgy setup, and I'm hoping a few of you can convey words of wisdom.

I've got an Alpine tape headend and an Alpine AI-net changer already in hand to replace the Becker headend/changer combo. Still musing about speakers; a friend has some MB Quarts that will probably go in nicely, or I may order the factory-fit Rainbows from Scott at La Jolla Audio. But before that, I have to sort out wiring!

The Becker headend is out. I used the trick of cutting up credit cards to make radio removal keys, mentioned in someone's post here, and it worked, barely. I took photos and will be posting them along with everything else I learn on this task. The trunk changer is out. Easy.

I am planning to run wire for the new dash speakers directly from the headend, and run AI-net and RCA preout cables to the trunk. I'll run the rear speakers from a small trunk amp.

That leaves a couple of questions still, that I can't solve with an archive search:

(a) Can't quite figure the full route from dash to trunk. The W124 service CDs don't talk about this so far as I can tell. Perhaps it is 500E specific. I've taken the top off of the center console, and have the PS back seat out. I can see where the wiring bundle comes forward from the trunk to the area under the PS back seat -- then at the front of the underseat area, it goes into a frontward-facing floor wiring tube Although the wiring tube seems to run directly straight forward, the bundle then magically appears in the center console. Hrm? I hope the tube isn't right-angled under the front seat or something?

(b) The front speaker grilles are recalcitrant about coming off. I know that I must pry off the narrow strip on one side to get at the screw heads which hold down the main grille. Have been in there with jeweler's screwdrivers trying to pry, but I am stopping at the level of force where the screwdriver shaft starts to dent the surrounding dash material. The dash is pristine, as is the rest of the car, and I really don't want to leave marks in the dash just to get the grille off! Any suggestions? Alternate tools?

(c) The rear speakers are equally tough. The service CD *does* talk about those, and it says that the grilles are held on by clips plus a single non-clip fastener. I've gotten all of the clips off on one grille, but at the very back there is what looks like a post held down to body sheet metal with a screw, from underneath! Yikes! I went down into the trunk and was able to pop the speaker body loose, but I could not find a way to get a driver up and onto the screw head (if it even is a screw). I think I can squeeze the speaker assembly out past the grille even with the post fastener still in place, but if there's a magic trick, let me know, willya?

(d) I probably won't do door speakers on this job. The wiring for the rear speakers looks like a piece of cake. Front speakers, I am assuming -- perhaps incorrectly -- that I can snake new wires through the dash from the empty headend slot by taping them to a flexible shaft like coathanger wire. Or is that futile? I would hate to have to pull the instrument cluster and passenger airbag just to get some wire in place.

Thanks for any help which anyone can offer!

s/b

Following up to my own post here, for anyone else who may be doing the same job in future:

I had asked about the front speaker wire access. On this car, a 500E, and on a certain subset of the W124s, the speakers front and back are tied through a console fader. Front speaks run forward from there in a complex bundle, but it wasn't easy to trace their run on initial inspection.

Deep behind the headend recess, I found two wire pairs with a foam-padded cylinder halfway along the length of each. I thought those were the front speaker pairs, and -- yes!!! -- they are.

The cylinders I took for inline ignition noise filters, as they are fairly large. No, they're Euro plugs, and what a clumsy design those are. Superb for staying together. Quite difficult to pry apart.

Anyway, that saves much time. I am going to try to ferret out the rear speaker pairs from the fader later on today; will follow up if I learn anything new from it.

Still have absolutely no idea if the factory wiring channel from the PS rear seat to the console (the channel which routes the original CD changer cable, among other things) is useable. I may just have to route around the thing using doorsills. Feh.

s/b