candymancan

My moms Jeep has a casset player in it, and i want put a CD player in there.. I was wondering how hard is it to take out the old head unit and put a new one in ?

Also do they sell things to fill in the gap that will be under the cd player ? Like the Casset player is about 3 inchs tall, the CD players are all around 1-2 inchs, so i would have like a gap under it where i could stick my hand.

CodeXJ

Sounds like she has a 1.5 DIN Head Unit, and no, it's not hard to do. You can either buy another 1.5 DIN unit or pick up any 1 DIN unit with an adapter kit that will allow it to be mounted properly without gaps.

You'll then need the wiring harness adapter, at that point it's just plug and play once you wire the adapter into the new head unit's pigtail (which is all nicely labeled).

The 1-DIN adapter should be about $20 and the wiring harness $15-20. Please use the wiring harness, because otherwise you have to start hacking up the wiring and then later you'll never figure out why the left rear speaker doesn't work. Honestly as much as I hate to suggest it, Best Buy will have the adapter kit and wiring harness kits.

Bubbasgoped

The adapter for a ZJ is 3" with th 1.5 cut out in the center. You can get them anywhere.

And it is super simple to install. These ZJ have about the easiest dash to pull apart ever!

candymancan

Ok i took apart the dashboard, and it was pretty easy like you said, i got worried about taking the actuall grey dashboard that goes from the casset player to the left of the steering wheel. It was like wedged in there pretty good was afraid i was gonna snap the plastic.

Anyway i took the casset player out and there are 2 wire plugs, with a bunch of wires on them. There is also some kind of round metalic looking cable that i couldnt unplug from the thing. Do you have idea what this is ? The wire adapter for the CD player will just plug into the old wires right ? I wont have to cut cables and solder them will I ? Can i just pick any CDp layer ? Cause on bestbuys website pretty all of them say they dont fit my Jeep only the overpriced expensive ones do...

CodeXJ

For the dash you are going to need something like THIS to put in a 1-din aftermarket stereo. You'll just want to find the one that's most specific for your year/model for the best fit.

The two wiring harnesses you unplugged will plug directly into the proper-year adapter harness you can get at Best Buy. However the adapter harness will need to be wired into the new stereo you buy, but it's not hard to do as everything is labeled. You didn't say what year GC you are working on, but you need something like THIS for the correct year.

I recommend using something called a 'butt connector', any autoparts store will have them and they come in packs of 10-20 for like $3. Much better than soldering or tape.

The round looking cable is likely the antenna cable. Most aftermarket radios have a short lead off the back of them that this connector plugs into. There might be some sort of funky release for it, on my old BMW you had to stick a paperclip in to release it. Usually they just pull out.

candymancan

Its a 98 GC, can i just buy any CD player ? They have a JVC one for like $80 in bestbuy, however now that im looking on there website it says like only 4 will fit my Jeep and all of them are like $200...

Man bestbuys website is taking a dump... its slow as hell

Bubbasgoped

Any 1.5 CD player will work.

MurderedXJ

What i found to work the cheapest is go to walmart and get the wire adapters then go to best buy for the dash kit. the walmart dash kit is crap. Then you just plug in the adapters and then wire them to the cd player wiring kit that comes with it. once you get the dash kit any normal cd player will pop right in. theres a million results when you google how to wire a cd player up. good luck and take pictures with anything you get confused about and you can get more pinpoint responses.

Bubbasgoped

Soldering and heatshrink is the way to do.