[Matt88S]

Has anyone ever installed a radio in the equalizer slot? My father’s vert has one there and it looks alright.

I want to put my radio in the Equalizer slot and put the optional gauge cluster where the stock radio goes. That way the radio is somewhat out of sight and the gauge cluster is located in a spot where it can be more easily read.

Would the radio be wired directly into the equalizer harness or does the harness from the radio above have to be ran down into the bottom din slot?

This is what the gauge cluster would look like in the radio slot. Not to bad I think, and a lot easier to read.

 

[eggsngrits]

It will be a lot easier to simply run the radio harness to the eq slot.

 

[john-w]

There's enough length in the cables to pull the loom down to the centre consul, the only problem is the front speaker cables which are very tight, I would advise you to lengthen these.

I moved my radio down into the consul after the original was stolen.

 

[Orca]

I bought mine with the gauges and the radio already in the lower DIN slot. I've had the dash fascia off a couple of times and the knee board out once. I must say, it makes perfect sense to have the head unit in the lower slot. As John says, some of the wires may need lengthening. My installation is a bespoke job, but nothing beyond the most simple and straightforward of wire splicing. I put some inline fuses into the wiring last time I had the uinit out.

... I have returned the dash fascia to black now and those window sills have been removed.

 

[JohnnyGrey]

Just out of curiosity, where would i find those gauges and are they relatively easy to hook up to an 88 900 S that doesn't have those gauges to begin with? Also, in order to mount a stereo down in the center counsol, would i need a mounting kit or does it fit in there on it's own?

 

[eggsngrits]

Both the upper (dash) and lower (console) locations are single DIN size. No additional hardware required.

 

[Matt88S]

Just out of curiosity, where would i find those gauges and are they relatively easy to hook up to an 88 900 S that doesn't have those gauges to begin with?

I think all the wiring is already there regardless of whether the car came with the cluster or not. Somebody correct me on that if I'm wrong.

You can find the clusters on ebay sometimes. There are a couple styles I think. Incidentally, the picture I posted above was from ebay. A while back someone had listed it. Supposedly he had taken a Saab cluster to a machine shop and had them replicate a bunch of them and he was trying to sell them on ebay. He wanted around $30. This was just for the cutout, no gauges.

Anyhow, I had saved the auction page to my watch list and I am going to try and contact him to see if he has any left. The one he put on ebay never sold so I'm guessing he does. I kind of like that style too, it kind of angles towards the driver.
Here was his idea of what you could do to a 9000.

 

[pda]

I left mine where it was factory fitted, only replaced it with a nice Alpine headunit..

Paul

_____________________________________
Full Throttle until you see God, then Brake...

 

[Blacky Turbo S]

No, as far as I know, there are no wires in the original harness to hook up the extra gauges. You have to make the harness for the extra gauges by yourself. The gauges you can buy for example from VDO in a good car parts store. You can choose what you like; oil temp, pressure, outside temp, voltage, current, etc, etc. VDO is just good quality and they look very original..
Still have to install mine.

The advantage of the radio in the higher slot, is that you can operate the radio and read the display much easier, especially for the trafic info.
Well I turned the display off, and the radio is in the lower slot.

For the dash speakers, I would better run speaker wire to the speakers that lengthen those tiny originals.

 

[-Frank-]

My antener cable was abit short to reach to the centre console. But you can pull it out as it runs beside the centre console and just poke it in the back.

 

[Matt88S]

Well, I’ve got the job done. It was a bit more of a task than I had thought at first. Had to take the speakers, the lower and middle consoles, and a dust guard off the access everything and get all the wiring through. I had thought I could just reach up through the equalizer slot and pull the harness down. Ha.

The speaker wires were indeed too short and I simply replaced them. I should have lengthened all the other wires too, it would have saved me a lot of trouble.

But I didn’t and after I got everything put back together and the radio’s harness wired in, I found I didn’t have enough room to plug it into the back of the radio. lol It took some major surgery, wheedling and coaxing to get it in there. But it looks nice now. I’ll have to post some pics later.

Cheers and thanks for all the help.

 

[cinemarr]

... I have returned the dash fascia to black now and those window sills have been removed.

Paul have you still got the wood dash?

 

[Orca]

Quick answer - no!

It lives in a red T16S, along with the window sills, that my garage sold a short while ago. Funny thing was, I gave the dash to my garage and forgot about it. When I saw the T16S, I was quite interested ... until I saw the dash. I took that as an omen :cheesy: