Car Tunes

We have three cars right now: Nancy's nameless Nissan Maxima (which really doesn't figure in this story beyond right now), the Dreadnought (a 1989 Chevy Suburban), and Lula (the 1990 Dodge Dynasty we inherited from Granny). When we got Lula, the plan was for us to sell the Dreadnought. It's been a good car, but it just uses way too much ga$. But due to an unidentified clacking noise somewhere in the engine compartment, we haven't been driving Lula much lately—though I am taking her in for a checkup on Thursday. So for me, the Dreadnought has been the vehicle of choice for the past month or so.

Now when we brought Lula back from Montana, it had the factory-installed Infinity AM/FM/Dolby Pro Logic Cassette stereo. Top of the line stuff for the time. But most of my music these days is on CD. And my brother-in-law had upgraded his CD player earlier this year and given me the old one. So he and I took out the cassette player and installed his old Pioneer CD player in Lula one Saturday afternoon/evening. And it sounds great.

When I got the Dreadnought, it also came with a cassette player. I bought a Boss CD player online, and I helped my brother A install it (which basically means that I kept the girls entertained while he did the work). And it sounded really good. For a while. But shortly after I started dating Nancy, it started to fail. For about the last year, the Dreadnought has had no CD capability, just an AM/FM radio with analog tuning that tends to drift...a lot. There was talk of replacing it, but A] We don't have a lot of spare cash for that sort of thing right now, and B] If we did, we'd probably find better ways to spend it than on a new stereo for a car we intend to sell in a few months anyway.

So the other day, I got this sudden rush of brains to the head: Why not transplant the Cassette player from Lula into the Dreadnought? So I started doing a little research and finding out just what would be required to pull off the switch. I talked to a guy at the local Sound Warehouse store, told him what I planned to do, and found out which wire harness would be necessary to reconcile the wiring. So I bought the harness last night, intent on making the switch this morning before going in to work.

Having seen Nancy out the door around 8:30 this morning, I immediately set to work on the transplant operation. I parked the Dreadnought in the driveway (and off the street where we normally park it). I disconnected the battery and took the dashboard off. And then I took out the screws holding in the defective CD player and removed it, mounting bracket and all. I studied the wires emanating from the back of the device and matched them to the diagram on the back of the small plastic bag holding the wire harness. And then I took out the harness.

That's when I began to realize there might be a problem.

There were no wires coming from the back of the cassette player, only a couple of slots to plug in a wire harness. When I looked at the harness in detail, I realized that they looked exactly the same. And that was the problem. There should have been one male end (a 'plug') and one female end (a 'socket'). I had two female ends.

So I scrolled back in my cell phone's Dialed Numbers record and called the shop back. I described the problem, and the guy there told me to bring in the harness I'd bought yesterday and he'd swap it out. So I fired up Lula for the first time in probably a month and headed downtown.

I should mention that this conversation took place a little after 9:00 a.m. I wasn't sure when the shop opened, but since someone answered the phone, I assumed they were open. Not so. I pulled into the parking lot around 9:25 to discover a sign reading "Open 10 AM to 8 PM". What to do, what to do? I headed for work (just a few blocks away) and hung out for half an hour, then made my way back to the shop.

I took the radio in with me this time, just to make sure I was getting what I needed. They took one look at it and said they don't carry that harness because they don't install factory-installed stereos into other vehicles. They refunded my money and suggested I try some of the local Dodge dealerships.

So I made my way back home and put the Dreadnought back together. Sure enough, everything went back in and fit where it was supposed to, and it started right up once I reconnected the battery cables. There's just one little difference now: the radio, which didn't play CDs before, now no longer works at all. There's power to it—the little red Power light blinks on and off—but it won't turn on. It's possible something happened to the faceplate in the day's activities. But whatever the cause, the Dreadnought is now completely music-free.

And as it turns out, I'm okay with that.

I was talking to someone at church on Sunday and the following quotes on experience came up. First, "Experience is the hardest kind of teacher because it gives you the lesson after you take the test." Second, "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want." Today's experience taught me a few things:

1. It's okay to try new things, even if things don't turn out the way you think they should.
2. Look carefully at all the parts before disassembling anything.
3. When you're describing your situation to an expert, don't hold back on the details. Tell them everything, even if you're afraid they might think you're clueless.
4. Don't be afraid to ask stupid questions. It's easier than fixing stupid mistakes.
5. Things go wrong with any project. Try not to let it get you down.
6. There are things in life worse than a car with no radio.

Mind you, I've not given up on this. Once this is posted, I'm going online to see if I can find the right wire harness, now that I know what to look for....