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#1
08-08-2016, 01:13 AM
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reinstalling becker radio
in the 280se i have, there is some aftermarket unit. I have found the original becker radio (grand prix) that goes in the car, and i am trying to figure out how to install the becker.
Are there any special tools i will need? is there a guide anywhere? Thanks. 
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#2
08-08-2016, 12:29 PM
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This can get as complicated as you wish, or can stay simple.
To install the radio you need to establish if you have four speakers to drive or just two. If you have four then you will need the fader switch that is usually installed on the dash or somewhere on the console. You can pick up one of these off of Ebay. There are only a few wires coming off the back of the radio. In general there is the antenna socket into which the antenna plugs. Then there is the ground wire which, if present, is brown. You can also ground the radio through the plugging in the antenna or bolting the rear lug to a strap or a chassis point inside the dash. The power in wire is black. The upper right, as seen from the back, has two plugs with flat holes. One is white and one is black. One is for the left speaker and one is for the right. Yes, you will need the plugs from Becker in order to just plug in the speakers, or you can pick up some speakers off of Ebay with the plugs already in place. To install you just remove the dials, the adjustment levers (some radios have one on each tuning stalk, some just have one on one side) the chrome surround and the face plate. Be careful with the face plate; it is easy to break. Then you will need the two mounting lugs. These are the long metal pieces with a large screw in the middle of them. The radio is placed in the slot and the mounting lugs are slipped into place. Then the screws are tightened and the radio is secure. You have to hook up the wires first in the back. Then slip the radio in and mount it. Then replace the faceplates and the knobs. Don't put power to it until you have the speakers hooked up. Some of these unit will blow a transistor if there is no speaker attached and the radio is turned on. Becker has a page that shows a lot of this, but without a description like I just gave it is somewhat hard to follow. The Becker page assumes that you have done this before. Hopefully this will help a little bit.
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#3
08-08-2016, 05:03 PM
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Quote:
Step 1: remove everything aftermarket from the dash. You should be left with a hole. Step 2: Does your Becker have a separate amplifier (answer should be yes). Figure out where to mount that. If the car originally had an amp the best chance is that the bracket that it mounts on is still in place - basically top center of tunnel in front of heater stuff. Step 3: Does car have the old speakers still? If so, 2 or 4? Is there a fader knob in the dash of the car? Are there wires running to it? If that stuff is still in place you are fortunate. If not, then you need to make decisions about what to do. I can't over-emphasize this: do not try to drive modern big-ass speakers with the wimpy (by today's standards) Becker amplifier. It will sound like crap. Step 4: when you have have finished steps 1 - 3 post something and include some pics.
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#4
08-08-2016, 07:27 PM
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ok. I will probably get to this in 2 weekends. Next weekend i have my 300tdt A/C repair job i have to finish. After that it's onto this becker radio thing.
1. Yes it is a 280se 4.5 2. i have the becker grand prix (face plate is cracked though and i have a becker europa replacement faceplate. This does not fit though as the grand prix has that horizontal dial towards the bottom (what is that for)) 3. i have the metal brackets with the screws on them. They are currently hanging towards the front of the stereo and are loose. 4. Do i ahve to remove any trim pieces or glovebox to install this radio? Or can i just slide it in and adjust it? (with those brackets) that are hanging out. I will take some pics tomorrow when i get to work (radio is there). 5. I don't see a separate amp (although it could be in the car already). It looks like i only have 2 speakers but i do have the fader switch on the dash.
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#5
08-08-2016, 07:43 PM
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Quote:
In general you don't have to remove trim or glovebox to install the radio. The exception would be if you have a separate amplifier and if you have panel covering in front of the heater stuff. That would need to come out. Regarding your radio and your (non) amplifier - We need a picture of the radio. Specifically, does it have a big grey cable with a bunch of wires inside coming out the back of the radio? If so, that cable goes to the separate amplifier. If the cable is cut, plan on not doing this project 2 weeks from now. If you don't have the correct dial scale, that isn't terribly important as long as it fits. The dial scale snaps into the chrome bezel, and the chrome bezel snaps onto the pot metal (at either side there is a little clip on the pot metal). That's all that holds the bezel to the radio. Well, I suppose the knobs also hold the bezel/dial scale to the radio... If you have a fader knob then you probably had rear speakers. Wiring the radio to use the fader MAY involve taking things apart more. Scott
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#7
08-08-2016, 10:35 PM
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OR you can use an adapter to connect the Becker to a modern amp. When I find the link to how I did this in one of my cars I'll post it to this thread. Anyway, back to your radio. You can tell if it is stereo lots of ways. If you look at the front, you should see a green plastic thing that gets illuminated (it has a bulb behind it) and lights up whenever the radio is on. If it's a stereo radio it will also have a little red stereo indicator that will light up when you are tuned to a stereo station. Other ways to tell: on the grey cable, if you have 8 pins including the center pin it's stereo, and if the little cap that isn't connected on your radio has 4 jumper pins it is stereo. If you have a 7 pin plug or a 2 jumper plastic cap then it's mono. Don't bother installing the radio until you know what kind of amplifier you need. Assuming your radio is stereo, you can use any of the three (I think) different styles that existed. If it's mono, then there is one choice and it's more difficult to find. But I don't think it's mono. So your grey plug goes into the socket in one of my pictures, and the wire with your grey plug that is next to your plug is a ground wire that goes on the ground terminal of the amplifier, right next to the socket. (same for mono). The speaker connections are on the amplifier. Two powered speaker outputs, left and right. Those go either to front speakers or in your case to the fader control. The black wire coming out of the back of your radio near where the grey cable comes out goes to +12V (unswitched typically, and fused under the hood in an accessory fuse box). What you want to look for is if your car has an amplifier already in it. Unlikely, but possible. If it does, it will be slightly larger than the one shown in my images and have the length and width match the length and width of the back of your radio. I'll look for my write-up on installing a modern amp with a radio like yours... Scott
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#8
08-08-2016, 11:03 PM
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wow thanks scooter. I will take a look to see if i have the amp. If not... i mgiht as well get a modern amp... no bother spending a lot on an old amp just to get it to work. At that point... might as well get a modern amp. I'm ok with that.
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#9
08-09-2016, 11:17 AM
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If the amp is not still mounted in the area behind the radio then check behind the glove box. Some later cars, and 114/115/107 cars, had them mounted there.
You don't need to remove the glove box to check for this. But you would need to remove the interior panel under the glove box area so you can look up in there. On some of these radios the amp mounts on the back of the radio. There are two metal brackets that bolt into the sides of the amp. The brackets then extend out for two inches or so and then bolt to the sides of the radio. This allows you to swing the amp into a spot behind and under the radio if you need to. You will pick up a lot of extra info during the course of this project and some of it will not be needed. But knowing this extra stuff will help you to make sense of extra wiring you might find. You should have two speakers mounted in the kick plates; one on either side of the car. The fader being there is a dead giveaway that the car came with four speakers. And the speaker wires will plug into the fader. The other two speakers are, of course, in the rear package tray. You can look up these faders on Ebay and find some excellent photos of what they look like before you start to work on them. Hopefully your plugs are still there, and even more hopefully your speakers are still hooked up through the fader.
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#10
08-09-2016, 01:45 PM
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thanks guys for all the tips. I will have to remove the "new" radio first to see if the amp is still there and what the wiring looks like behind there.
below are 2 more pics of the radio. Not sure where i can get a faceplate that has room for that horizontal scroll wheel under the left knob.  
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#11
08-11-2016, 01:42 PM
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Quote:
A lot of Becker faceplates from this era have a part number of sorts printed on the front of them under the left side knob. You have to remove the faceplate to see the numbers.
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#12
08-11-2016, 04:40 PM
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Quote:
BTW, I was kind of assuming you would bench test this prior to installing it in the car...
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