Blaupunkt Reno replacement

[colinsco]

The Circuit City installation 'experts' say I will need to bypass the amplifier that was installed with the stock Reno which has started to show its age. They want $100 to do this but I know how to splice wires! There is no other reference to by-passing the amplifier that I can find on these forums or on Crutchfield, nor is there a wiring harness to adapt the stock system to the Pioneer I purchased so a little confused. Do I really need to bypass an amplifier, and if so has someone done this before so I can learn from them? BTB, mine is a '88 Carrera. Thanks in advance.

[89911]

It sounds like you and I have (or did have) the same system. Mine came with the Reno and and amp under the passenger seat as part of the "deluxe" stereo set up. First off, it sounds like you want to keep your Reno head unit? Why? If it is for resale, remove it and put it somewhere safe until you sell your car. If I remember correctly, the head unit had a din cable that ran to the amp. I'm not sure if the head unit needed a harness to run the speakers, but even if it did, the power output would be woeful. My conservative suggestion is to find a nice head unit that plays cd's, maybe has a mini aux jack for Ipods, and decent power. Run the speaker wires from there existing position and pick up some terminal adapters from Crutchfield that let you leave the speakers terminals intact. Use the newer( and more powerful then your old amp) head unit to power the speakers. Chances are the speakers are going to need replacement soon also.

[colinsco]

What I think is the amp is a box mounted directly under the 'head unit'. If I just make some jumpers for the power and get the speaker harnesses from Crutchfield I don't need to worry about the amp? My goal is to leave everything original alone so that if some day someone wanted to the stock radio and speakers could be reinstalled. My concern is that if I plug the speaker leads into the new unit I could damage something, and electrical problems no-one needs! Can I just jump the old power harness and speakers and not worry about the amp?

[Newsboy]

I just finished installing a Blaupunkt MP47 Reciever/CD player in my 1990 Carera 4 with six speaker system. May be different for 4 speaker system.. Got the radio from Crutchfield, the installation instructions were not really any help. I had there tech E-mail me the Porsche speaker and power connections at the Pre-amp.
Pull the radio and(undo DIN cable, antenna, power connector) The pre-amp is under the passengers front seat. Remove the DIN cable and plug in connectors and remove pre-amp. The speaker wires are attached to the plugs, cut them free. Here is the color coding for the speaker wires at the pre-amp location, for my vehicle.
Left front + White
Left front - Brn/White
Right front+ Red
Right Front- Brn/Red
Left Rear + Yellow
Left Rear- Brn/Yellow
Right Rea+ Blk
Right rear- Brn/Blk
So connect these to the appropriate wires in the speaker wiring harness supplied by Cruthfield. So you have to run 8 new speaker wires from the radio to the pre-amp location.
Power Connections
Red/Blk Stripe in Porsche goes to Red on Crutchfield harness(accessory 12 Volt)
Red in Porsche goes to yellow On Harness(constant 12 volt)
Brown On Porsche goes to Black in harness(chassis ground)
White in porsche goes to Blue in Harness(Power antenna) Even though there is no power antenna, running this wire supposedly improves the signal.

I used Radio Shack round push on connectors(red for +spkr & blue for - speaker( to make the connections at the amp location, and radio.

The whole job took me 2 hours.