Well, I just got done figuring out how to get a new cable. For those of you who know, the battery cable on '99 Z24's (or at least on my car) has a bracket that grounds to the battery tray and then the cable continues on to the engine block. Well mine corroded at the bracket at the battery tray...while I was 50 miles from home. So after splicing the cable back together with no ground to the tray I noticed alot of lights on the dash telling me I had high beam problems, DRL issues and funny as it seems, my radio worked intermittently. (Aftermarket radio)
So GM tells me they can't get it, then they tell me they CAN get it, but it's going to take a week and $60. The wire manufacturer has to specially make it for my car. Go figure.
In the mean time, I took the bracket off the battery tray and opened it up to release the old cable. Not an easy thing to do.
I found some 2 gauge audio power wire I had laying around and spent about $12 on JL 4 Gauge wire eyelets, of which I needed only 2. I reclamped the new wire into the old bracket and remounted it then re-connected it to the block. The only issue I had with the fix was I had to drill out the battery-end of the wire eyelet to accept the battery bolt. Once done it worked fine and all idiot lights on the dash went out.
HOWEVER...now my radio has stopped working all together. I'm thinking a blown fuse on the deck itself, since it has the "mask" feature and it's not operating correctly. In other words, there IS power going to the radio. You can hear the radio trying to fold up to go in the dash when car is turned off. You can also hear it try to fold out when car is on, but it's movement is slow and when fully opened, it still doesn't light up or do anything.
Any ideas?? It's a Kenwood deck with a "Mask" feature. Not sure of model off the top of my head. There was no problem until the battery cable broke.
Thanks guys.
~Donny Lowrida~
You Must Be Fast, 'Cuz I Was Haulin' Ass When I passed You!!!
1999 Cavalier Z24 w/ Toyota Cavalier tail lights.
1988 Buick LeSabre T-Type
1983 Buick Regal T-Type
Try the audio forum, and I would say you are not getting enough power now. Try running a new wire directly form the battery to the deck, and see if that helps, it will have to be turned on and off manually, and not by the ignition. Hope this helps, if not, do like I stated above and try the audio forum.
98z24, lowered 2", aem intake, cat-back striaght pipes!, cop ligths in the front and rear, 18" liquid metal's, primer black, tint, full audio and video.
Seems odd that the wiring was duplicated to factory spec, yet all of a sudden this radio thing comes up, but nothing else is effected anymore. I'll see what I can do about this fix. For all I know it's probably the ribbon wire in the decks folding faceplate decided to break at the same time as the battery cable.
I'll try out your idea and see how it goes., thanks for your input..
You Must Be Fast, 'Cuz I Was Haulin' Ass When I passed You!!!
1999 Cavalier Z24 w/ Toyota Cavalier tail lights.
1988 Buick LeSabre T-Type
1983 Buick Regal T-Type
