Is it posible to wire a switch into the radio controls on the steering wheel of a firebird?

The wiring diagram shows only 1 wire in and 1 wire out.

Thanks

Joe

 

i am not familiar with your car, i havent worked on the f-body electrical(steering wheel controls), but what i have seen before is the column just under the wheel itself there is a biscuit that the wires run in from the top, into the biscuit and wrap around in there a few times(to allow for turning) then out the bottom.

(thats a kinda simple explanation)
anyway, if you find the wires you want to use then find the wires on the other side of the biscuit you should be able to do that.

 

What are you trying to do?

 

I am wanting to hook up a nitrous switch to the radio controls. That would put them where I wouldn't have to take a hand off the steering wheel, and since I have an aftermarket stereo, the buttons are otherwise useless. Plus, I just think it would be pretty cool.

Joe

 

It is possible. WS6_keith did it a while back and was actually going to market what he created, but I don't think he ever did.

 

Neat idea, if you get it to work make sure you post up the wiring that you had to do. I could see this being useful in the future.

 

Seems like you should be able to gut the internals out of one of the modules from the steering wheel, disconnect the other side, and trace the wires to the end of the column. You could put a switch inside the steering wheel module that is pressed by the outer button (so it's stealth) and should be able to get it to work.

But, with an aftermarket radio the steering wheel controls aren't useless. If your radio supports remote control, you could get a PAC-SWIX and use the factory controls on the aftermarket radio, that's what I'm doing.

 

I don't believe that there is an aftermarket adapter to make my stereo controls work. If I am not mistaken, the PAX ones are specific to certain head units. My head unit is a Kenwood KVT-911DVD let me know if I am wrong, otherwise I am goning to try the nitrous thing.

Thanks

Joe

 

The problem is that the switches currently work by changing the amount of resistance that the radio sees which in effect changes the amount of voltage available at the other end. So ideally with out totally making new switches you would need to make some kind of electronic circuit that could distinguish the different voltage levels and then trigger relays from there.

Here is the scan from the 1997 Helm's service manual for the steering wheel controls.

Back in 1997 when Keith was working on this I was helping him by sending him the wiring diagrams and tracing down the wires coming out of the steering wheel column. There is a 4 conductor grey cable with yellow heat shrink tubing that comes from the steering wheel and goes to the radio with the following wires:

• Column || Radio || Usage
• Yel || Yel || Power to switches
• Grey || Grey || Power for lights
• Lt. Grn || Dk. Blue || Switch Return
• Black || Black || Ground

Here is the various resistances for the specific button pressed:

• VOL(UP) || 1270
• VOL (DWN) || 1564
• PLAY || 1912
• MUTE || 2387
• SEEK (UP) || 3102
• SEEK (DWN) || 4282
• AM/FM || 6652
• PRESET || 13632

 

But he could probably use the yellow and black wires to set up a momentary. If he's going to disable the stock usage for the buttons, there's no reason why he couldn't rewire one of the others for a power return as well. The voltage and resistance changes I believe are done in the modules themselves so if he cuts the wires at the base of the column and does his work there, and puts the momentary switch or whatever in the module, I think his idea would work.

I know that the PAC interface doesn't work with ALL brands, and Kenwood might be one of those that it doesn't work with.