Dashboard Diary, Chapter 4
03-31-2003, 04:58 PM
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Dashboard Diary, Chapter 4
Having now finished the basic wiring connections for the BulldogSecurity RS-102 remote starter inside the dashboard, and installed the VATS bypass box to bypass the car'* security interlock on the ignition switch, we now have to make connections for the trunk release, alarm shutdown and power locks.
Although the wiring for all is accessible, sort of, behind the dashboard, it'* much easier to identify the right ones inside the driver'* door, and we'll run extension leads from the door into the dashboard, where they will connect to the 18-wire harness for the remote-starter controller box.
Door disassembly goes all right once the correct sequence of steps for unscrewing, prying and so on is figured out. (The TechInfo area should have separate instructions for this in detail.) All goes well right up to the point of actually lifting the interior panel off the door, then disaster strikes.
You're supposed to release the top edge of the panel along the top of the door, where it meets the window glass. The black rubber/plastic strip is actually two pieces snapped together. The outermost part, the rubber that contacts the glass, is the upper seal strip, which attaches by pressing straight down onto the top of the inner door sheet metal, and is supposed to remain permanently attached (crimped on) to the top edge of the interior door sheet metal. The inner strip that you can see, with the thin smooth top surface, is actually attached to the interior panel.
The upper seal strip (the outer piece) has a horizontal channel facing into the car, which the inner strip (the black, plastic top edge of the door panel) snaps down into along its length. Officially, you're supposed to be able to remove the door panel by pulling it up and off the door (i.e. towards you), I guess by prying apart the two strips of top molding, starting at the outer, upper corner of the door and working your way across. In practice, the whole $%@&* assembly starts to rip apart, tearing off both the top of the door _and_ the interior panel, with all kinds of ugly staples exposed, etc. Finally the whole panel, and upper seal, is yanked off the door, taken into the house and tossed onto the dining table for later repair.
Decided that to run four new leads (trunk release, alarm shutdown, Lock and Unlock), I will use two lengths of household lamp cord, each holding two conductors of 12- or 14-gauge stranded copper wires in beefy flexible plastic insulation, which should hold up well to the constant flexing every time the door opens. The existing accordion-pleated flexible rubber boot through which the wiring passes to jump the gap from door to dashboard has plenty of extra room for more wires, and it'* easy to snake a rigid wire through the boot from the door side into the dash, and use it to pull the new flexible wires through the harness.
Connections for the Lock and Unlock wires are straightforward: one new lead from the dashboard is connected to the light-blue wire at the lock switch, and one new lead is connected to the black wire (which is _not_ a ground) at the lock switch. The other end of each lead is soldered to the right controller harness wire under the dash.
The trunk release is a bit more complicated, since the circuit is actually dead while the car is off, so our new connection will be injecting its own 12 volts via a relay. The new lead is soldered into the output wire from the trunk release pushbutton switch in the door. Under the dash, the other end of the new lead goes to the main output of a new relay, which the controller will close whenever Button #3 is pressed on the remote starter keyring transmitter.
Finally we have what BulldogSecurity calls the Factory Alarm Shutdown (FASD) wire, a connection that signals the car'* own alarm system to switch itself off when the user opens the car with the key. In the Bonneville, it'* a light green wire connected to the key lock cylinder in the door. (There is also a yellow wire to the key lock cylinder to signal the system that you are _locking_ the car with a car; this will arm the car'* security system.) The instructions tell us to tap into the light green wire and connect that to a lead on the controller under the dash which will ground the circuit when the remote starter activates, so that the car'* alarm is not triggered.
Some testing shows that it does more than that. In fact, grounding the light green wire on the Bonneville not only cancels the alarm but also unlocks the entire car, as a convenience. This will become more significant, much later.
After the wiring connections are finished, the door panel and weatherstripping must be untangled, straightened out, re-stapled to the inside top of the door panel, glued with silicone sealer, clamped with 36 clothespins, and eventually reassembled. Big long agonized posting to Bonnevilleclub.com forum covers this process; we will not whine about it all over again here. Let'* just say that the door was finally put back together successfully, and now we have to run circuits from the dashboard out under the hood for the interlock shutdown and tach connections. Tune in to our next chapter, Real Soon Now...
Although the wiring for all is accessible, sort of, behind the dashboard, it'* much easier to identify the right ones inside the driver'* door, and we'll run extension leads from the door into the dashboard, where they will connect to the 18-wire harness for the remote-starter controller box.
Door disassembly goes all right once the correct sequence of steps for unscrewing, prying and so on is figured out. (The TechInfo area should have separate instructions for this in detail.) All goes well right up to the point of actually lifting the interior panel off the door, then disaster strikes.
You're supposed to release the top edge of the panel along the top of the door, where it meets the window glass. The black rubber/plastic strip is actually two pieces snapped together. The outermost part, the rubber that contacts the glass, is the upper seal strip, which attaches by pressing straight down onto the top of the inner door sheet metal, and is supposed to remain permanently attached (crimped on) to the top edge of the interior door sheet metal. The inner strip that you can see, with the thin smooth top surface, is actually attached to the interior panel.
The upper seal strip (the outer piece) has a horizontal channel facing into the car, which the inner strip (the black, plastic top edge of the door panel) snaps down into along its length. Officially, you're supposed to be able to remove the door panel by pulling it up and off the door (i.e. towards you), I guess by prying apart the two strips of top molding, starting at the outer, upper corner of the door and working your way across. In practice, the whole $%@&* assembly starts to rip apart, tearing off both the top of the door _and_ the interior panel, with all kinds of ugly staples exposed, etc. Finally the whole panel, and upper seal, is yanked off the door, taken into the house and tossed onto the dining table for later repair.
Decided that to run four new leads (trunk release, alarm shutdown, Lock and Unlock), I will use two lengths of household lamp cord, each holding two conductors of 12- or 14-gauge stranded copper wires in beefy flexible plastic insulation, which should hold up well to the constant flexing every time the door opens. The existing accordion-pleated flexible rubber boot through which the wiring passes to jump the gap from door to dashboard has plenty of extra room for more wires, and it'* easy to snake a rigid wire through the boot from the door side into the dash, and use it to pull the new flexible wires through the harness.
Connections for the Lock and Unlock wires are straightforward: one new lead from the dashboard is connected to the light-blue wire at the lock switch, and one new lead is connected to the black wire (which is _not_ a ground) at the lock switch. The other end of each lead is soldered to the right controller harness wire under the dash.
The trunk release is a bit more complicated, since the circuit is actually dead while the car is off, so our new connection will be injecting its own 12 volts via a relay. The new lead is soldered into the output wire from the trunk release pushbutton switch in the door. Under the dash, the other end of the new lead goes to the main output of a new relay, which the controller will close whenever Button #3 is pressed on the remote starter keyring transmitter.
Finally we have what BulldogSecurity calls the Factory Alarm Shutdown (FASD) wire, a connection that signals the car'* own alarm system to switch itself off when the user opens the car with the key. In the Bonneville, it'* a light green wire connected to the key lock cylinder in the door. (There is also a yellow wire to the key lock cylinder to signal the system that you are _locking_ the car with a car; this will arm the car'* security system.) The instructions tell us to tap into the light green wire and connect that to a lead on the controller under the dash which will ground the circuit when the remote starter activates, so that the car'* alarm is not triggered.
Some testing shows that it does more than that. In fact, grounding the light green wire on the Bonneville not only cancels the alarm but also unlocks the entire car, as a convenience. This will become more significant, much later.
After the wiring connections are finished, the door panel and weatherstripping must be untangled, straightened out, re-stapled to the inside top of the door panel, glued with silicone sealer, clamped with 36 clothespins, and eventually reassembled. Big long agonized posting to Bonnevilleclub.com forum covers this process; we will not whine about it all over again here. Let'* just say that the door was finally put back together successfully, and now we have to run circuits from the dashboard out under the hood for the interlock shutdown and tach connections. Tune in to our next chapter, Real Soon Now...
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