F-body Stereo Brainteaser

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

I just bought a used stereo replacement for my '99 Z28. It's from a '98 S10 or Blazer. The front plate is identical to the one in my car except it says "Delco Electronics" instead of "Monsoon". On the back there's also a little fan for cooling, where as my Monsoon has no fan at all. Does anyone know anything about the differences between these two units? They both function identically.

One difference I've heard is that the Blazer of that year had an auxilliary tape deck that the CD/Aux switch would switch to. On '98 F-bodies, if you wanted the CD changer, you had to get the tape deck. If you have a '98 or '99 CD deck, than your Aux button doesn't function. This is confirmed in the '98 and '99 brochure.

My '99 radio is wired for a CD changer and manufactured in '99, so it must've changed sometime during that model year. In 2000 you could order the CD changer for both radios.

Here are some pic's of the 98 Blazer radio:

[jdm]

Joe,

I can only speak of the '98 Blazer side. That year DID come with an external mounted cassette deck, that was down on the front side of the center console, below the dash mounted deck. The fan mounted in the back was to cool the larger power supply that was necessary to drive the tape deck.

Since I am a new f-body owner, I don't know much yet about them.

Jim

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

Thanks for confirming that. I'm getting an auxilliary input adapter so I can plug in my MP3 player (GM9-AUX for these radios). I wanted to make sure it would work with my radio. Looks like it would work for both in my case.

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

Well, I got a GM9-Aux box, but it seems the aux doesn't work on either radio.

Back to the drawing boards, I suppose. Next attempt will be an FM modulator if I can find one.