Calling Car Radio Experts ! Clarion Finish Line 540 1996

[awemawson]

The radio cassette player in my 1996 JCB 3CX is kapput and has been since I bought it. No, a radio isn't essential but it would be nice to get it working. It plugs into a housing that takes the power & audio on an ISO connector, and also the aerial is held in the same housing. This housing is by the look of things pretty hard to remove..
I suppose the easiest thing is to find a physically compatible radio and swap them over, but I'm not at all sure how 'standard' this housing is.

So any advice would be appreciated as acess to the console that it's built into is a nightmare.

(Apparently this radio was original equipment in a Mazda MX5 Mk1)

 

[voipio]

Could it be ISO 10487?

Connectors for car audio - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Ubique]

Connectors look fairly standard for the era, I'm sure it's the same as some Ford-branded stuff - shouldn't be too difficult to get the cage out, we used to pinch them into the middle on the long edges, you could still refit them as long as you didn't put a crease in the metal. Obviously, first things to check are permanent 12v, switched 12v and ground on the connector at the back of the cage.

ETA - this looks the same to me https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313746325296 Oh, don't forget to check the 5A fuse next to the connector, if you haven't already.

 

[ajlelectronics]

Remove the cage, buy a new single DIN radio and you should be sorted. If the connectors have to be cut off, you can buy ISO plugs to bare ends to make it compatible.

 

[awemawson]

Connectors look fairly standard for the era, I'm sure it's the same as some Ford-branded stuff - shouldn't be too difficult to get the cage out, we used to pinch them into the middle on the long edges, you could still refit them as long as you didn't put a crease in the metal. Obviously, first things to check are permanent 12v, switched 12v and ground on the connector at the back of the cage.

ETA - this looks the same to me https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313746325296 Oh, don't forget to check the 5A fuse next to the connector, if you haven't already.

Almost except the aerial is in a different place

 

[awemawson]

Remove the cage, buy a new single DIN radio and you should be sorted. If the connectors have to be cut off, you can buy ISO plugs to bare ends to make it compatible.

Getting at the cables, which are all in the vehicle loom and tight requires the dash to come out. I had to remove the dash panel to replace the instrument glass and it was an unbelievably painful exercise as it is trapped by the rest of the gubbins. In the end using putty knives and stripping knives I had to ease the plastic behind the metalwork and 'just about' got away with it. Not sure a second go wouldn't end up breaking the 25 year old plastic.

 

[bricol]

It does look to be a non-original fit if those red crimp connectors behind the cage are related to it - in which case, pulling the cage will probably show a useable length of the cable hding there to be able to reconnect a new radio?

 

[dobbslc]

The radio cage will come out by bending some tabs, it looks like a load of bullet connectors behind it so might have been replaced before? There should be enough slack on the wires to pull it free to work on.

 

[dobbslc]

What he said

 

[bricol]

I just went to have a rummage - I thought I had one of those Clarions in my spare radio pile - different connectors in the cage though. Other pull out radio I have is a Pye, also with different connectors.

 

[bricol]

What he said

A very similar radio was a bit loose in it's cage in my first Lancia integrale . . . most traffic lights required a hand ready to catch the radio as it stayed where it was relative to the earth, and the rest of the car accelerated away under it A good few turns of duct tape around it and rammed back in sorted that!

 

[awemawson]

It does look to be a non-original fit if those red crimp connectors behind the cage are related to it - in which case, pulling the cage will probably show a useable length of the cable hding there to be able to reconnect a new radio?

I don't think they are but not absolutely sure. If you look at this image I took when I had the instrument cluster out, you'll see a whole bunch of yellow wires that appear to go straight to the back of is ISO connection (The round Sumitomo connector is for the instrument panel)

 

[Parm]

Remove the cage, buy a new single DIN radio and you should be sorted. If the connectors have to be cut off, you can buy ISO plugs to bare ends to make it compatible.

This is the best advice

 

[mike os]

Or buy a short adapter loom … if you can find the right one

 

[keithski122]

Clarion was factory(dealer) fit to all mazda cars of that era. Could quiet easily have come from any of their range.Red crimps would not have been factory.There originally would probably have been a conversion loom between car loom and radio loom.

 

[500e]

Cage is easy remove squeeze as suggested or pull up the fold down tags in triangular holes, wires will usually be just long enough to be fiddly

 

[no idea]

A new head unit will come with a cage so take the old one out and replace with the new one. You'll probably find the ISO connector on the old one unclips from the cage so that should plug into the new radio too. Same with the antenna connector. The cage you have in there is designed to allow the clarion unit to be a pull unit so you won't get a direct replacement head unit.