Batboard

Anyone done any work on a Pontiac Trans Sport? I got my next challenge sitting in the driveway, just bought her tonight, and planning the install on paper.

I got the console, radios, antenna, all planned out for the most part. But if anyone cares to share where they mounted the radio drawers, if you used more than dash mount mobiles, or even better care to share a location to put the power feed through to the battery give me a shout! I only had a few moments to peek around under the hood before it got too dark outside tonight, so i haven't a clue yet where to run the 4awg out to the battery. The biggest issue is the location of the battery on these, passenger side and buried. At least the top positive terminal of the battery is accessible without having to remove much. Thank goodness the previous owner put in a dual top and side mount battery when they replaced it, now i can just put a marine terminal on the positive top post and connect up.

This install will re-use the equipment from my previous mobile install. The "Van" as i liked to call it is being retired from daily use. 217,000 miles and still running strong but it's time for a younger van to take it's place.

All three X9000's are going back in, lowband, VHF, UHF, and they will feed a Comet Triplexer, CFX-514, which will in turn feed a Comet SB15 triband antenna, 6 meter, 2 meter and 440 MHz mobile antenna. It's a 1/4w on 6 meters providing 2.15 dB gain and a 5/8w on 2 meters providing 4.5 dB gain and a 3 5/8w on 440 MHz providing 7.2 dB gain. VSWR 1.5:1 or less. This antenna can handle up to 120 watts. This antenna will go on one of there fully adjustable trunk lip mounts which will be placed on the edge of the rear hatch on the top drivers side corner. I read nothing but great reviews online about this antenna, looks like a good performer, and easy to tilt over to get through the car wash and into garages. A major benefit over my old setup.

GPS and laptop is planned for reinstall later this month, working on getting a small touchscreen instead to remote the laptop and docking station. Got tired of having the laptop and mounting pole up front and sitting over the radios when i had a passenger, aka my wife.. lol

The radios will get a spot in the back corner of the van behind the last row of seats. I am working on the design of an open frame shelf that all three radios will go into, the mounting plates for the drawers will get bolted to this metal frame and then the radios can be slid in and out for maintenance or servicing. Unfortunately in this Pontiac there is no room to hide radios under the seats, all the seats are the folding type that sit low to the floor. But all in all i think having the radios more in the open in the back will make it easier to make programming changes and repairs. There is also a rear power port near the radio location for plugging in the programming laptop.

As i get some stuff installed i will get some pictures taken. So far i haven't done much, preliminary planning, pulled the equipment from the old van, and test fit the console between the front seats.

Scott - dont know much about the Pontiac Trans Sport but you made a good choice on the triband ant. I also run an SB-15 and its just as good as any of the monobanders I have ever used on each band. I use mine with an IC-900A with all band modules(10mtr,6mtr,2mtr,220,440 & 23cm).
...dan n2aym

Heh-heh you got one of them there DustBuster vans! Good stuff!!

You may have some issues with tuning the low-band gear because the door skins and side panels are polymer. I have two Saturns and have the same issue.

I'm hoping with the Comet SB15 i won't have much trouble on 6m, which is all i use the lowband X9K for. We shall see! As soon as i get the antenna here i will put it on and connect the antenna analyzer for the full report..

Seems like a lot of people like the SB15!

I like the SB15 too but it doesn't come in NMO flavour.

va3wxm wrote:I like the SB15 too but it doesn't come in NMO flavour.

You can use an adaptor like I do. Comet sells them for SO-239 & N to NMO. I think the N to NMO adaptor is an AD-10N and not sure what the model number is for the SO-239. They are good quality adpators....

AD-15M is the NMO to SO-239 adapter, $17.99 from AES. I didn't see it listed over at Universal Radio which i mostly use these days, cheaper than AES.

I got the console mounting plate and the console transplanted into the new van. It was super fast and slick!! I love how Pontiac put the seat bolts through from the bottom and they are welded to the floor so the nuts are up top. On the Caravan i had to crawl under the van and remove the seat bolt nuts, which of course were nearly welded on from road exposure, a few days of soaking with PB Blaster got em off when i did that install.

I just pulled both front seats and while i had em out i figured i would make the wife happy and thoroughly vacuum the floor under everything. Then i just dropped the mounting plate over the seat bolts, put the seats back on the bolts, bolted the console to the plate to get everything aligned and sitting straight and bolted it all up. Tomorrow i start the wiring!

I found a BEAUTIFUL spot to get the power cable out to the battery, on the passenger side about where your right foot sits is the HUGE main grommet that has a lot of the vehicle wiring going through it. Feeds most of the accessories and dash electronics since all the fuses are under hood. Yeah, i thought that was weird, there is no inside fuse panel? I can't find one and all the fuses for the radio and so forth are in the under hood fuse box that sits over the battery. There is a rubber seal block with a slot in it that sits in that main rubber pass through, pull that out and then there is the accordion like rubber boot with a band and some tape sealing the end, all i have to do is remove the tape and band and add my wire through.

I don't have an owners or service manual yet, so i don't have a wiring schematic. But i think the stereo's ignition switched power is in this harness from the fuse in the under hood panel. So once i get a service manual i can just find the right color coded wire and tap in for the relays in the console which turns on and off the ignition sense to the radios. Back to the way i had it before thankfully!

I will probably have all the radio gear in before the antenna and triplexer even gets here at this rate of ease. I just have to figure out where to run the control cables back, since it has sliding doors on both sides i can't just tuck the wiring to one side like i did with the old van. Probably under the carpet somehow. Any suggestions there??

Some preliminary pics..

The new "Van"



The console transplanted and ready for wiring up.



The large grommet after removing the rubber block that closes it up.



The rubber block that goes into the back of that large grommet.

Your lucky u have one of the newer ones. I'm assuning that this one has a metal roof? My GF has a '94? as a back up vehicle and it doesnt have a metal roof, so my antennas are mounted to the luggage racks, and I have 2 ground wires going into the windows. I also couldnt find any gromets for any wiring, but it looks like you have a better year.

This is a 97 and all of the body panels are metal, except the gray trim is plastic.

I thought about a luggage rack mount myself but decided to go with the comet lip mount instead, mainly because the radios will be in the back and the antenna will go on the back to keep the routing of the coax down the back corner simple.

I'll be sure to post some more pictures as the project moves along. Right now i have everything but the antenna, mount, and triplexer. They are all on the way and should be here next week. And i'm still playing around with the radio mounting, it's either going to be steel or a setup made from wood and either painted gray or covered with gray automotive carpet to blend it in.

Oh you have the Pontiac "Montana". My apologies. I thought it was the DustBuster version.

Yeah, metal roof and body panels will work well as a counterpoise.

Install looks good so far!

Yep, thankfully all metal!

I'm cleaning up the control cables today and getting ready to route them through to the back. Unfortunately i am dealing with some rain delay too, no garage to work in right now.

According to what others told me there is supposed to be an internal fuse panel on the right end of the dash, passengers side end. I will have to check that out.

I pulled off the removable panel on the drivers side end of the dash the other day and there was nothing but an empty space where something could be mounted. I'll check the other side later today, would make sense since the main wiring harness comes in on the passenger side as well. Lots to learn when you buy a newer vehicle and it doesn't come with the owners manual... argghh..

There is a fuse panel on the right end of the dash btw.. Dang, i need to find an owners manual for this 97, too much new car stuff to learn!

Here is the latest work done. I did this today in the wind and cold, would have been a nice day if not for the wind!

Under both front seats there was an opening cut in the carpet, an X, i assume for an option this vehicle doesn't have. I think the ones with heated seats has the wiring exiting through that hole. Made it easy for me! I forgot to snap a shot before putting the seat back in, so here it is with the seat back in there. I didn't have large enough split loom tubing on hand to go around three control cables and three runs of 8awg wire so i put some wire wrap on it for now, i will redress it later when the weather is better and i have some loom on hand.



I went under the carpet just behind the seat to the left side, i had to remove the seat belt bolt and trim from the pillar, then the trim from the door opening. Here it is after pulling all the wire to the back.



And as it gets organized and cleaned up. I put the power wires through the factory wire tunnel and the control cables fit perfectly side by side to the inside edge. I also had to remove the trim from the one seat latch pin hole closest to the door to make the carpet loose enough to work with, it just pops in with a couple retainers you pry up.





And the finished product before putting the trim back on.



The horrific site of everything torn apart in the back end! I thought i took a snap shot of the wiring organized before putting the panel back on but can't find it. The control cables and power wires were routed up and around the wheel well with the factory wiring already in place. There was plenty of room to add my wiring without causing any problems with the fit of the panel.



And here is the final result with the control cables and power wires coming out under the panel, it's loose enough to allow them to pass and shouldn't cause any trouble. I plan on dressing it all up with loom once i get another roll. The grounds are still not connected, didn't have any ring terminals to fit the location i plan on using so that will come later. Plus by this time i was thoroughly chilled from the darn wind.



The radios are going to be mounted on a small custom built shelf unit so that they slide out to the rear, making it easy to program and maintain them from the back door. The left hand compartment also has a power port for the RSS laptop! No more dragging stuff around to program the radios.

About all i have left to complete is the battery feed to the console fuse panel. I got everything up front pulled apart but didn't get it done due to rain the day after. I have to keep the vehicle in service while also working on it a bit every day, and not having a garage to work in puts me in a further time pinch!

I also have to get the triplexer and antenna installed as they arrive, i should have everything else installed and powered up and tested with a mag mount before the new antenna arrives around the end of next week. And a family (wife) trade off, once i get the install done i have to get the carpet and seats cleaned. Planning on having everything professionally cleaned, the carpet is a bit dirty in it, that's what happens with kids, not mine in this case but the previous owners.

Also to arrive within the next week is an in car navigation system from Horizon Navigation. http://www.horizonnav.com I have seen their systems in Mopar vehicles as a dealer option, they are really slick, a display unit is remotely connected to the main unit which has a cd drive in it. What's nice is you just pop in a cd for the region your traveling, one cd gives me the entire Midwest!

More to follow as the install progresses!

Looks good so far. I'm looking forward to seeing the end result.

So am i... lol

I'm waiting on some parts right now. The underhood circuit breaker is on order from Waytek, so the most i can do with the battery feed right now is run it out under the hood and leave it tied up out of the way so i can finish putting the passenger side dash and toe kick panels back together.

Also once the battery feed is routed out from the console i can finish up the wiring in the console and install the control heads. It's just tinkering on whatever i can while i wait for parts now.

hey scott looks awsome so far.....is the triplexer "n" conectors?. what size cable are ya usinf rg-58u?........ if so i have n-males and n females for rg-58u you can have if ya need a few

good luck......keep up the good work

otto

If the X9000's had "N" connectors i would have gone that route. But the CFX-514 has three leads with PL-259's to match the radios, and a SO-239 for the antenna connection.

The Comet mount has RG-58 with a short section of RG-188 to go out the door weatherstripping. My mounting situation will only use four feet max of cable from the mount to the triplexer.

Come on scott give us an update, the suspense is killing me

There isn't a whole lot to update yet. Waiting for UPS and FedEx to drop off the rest of the goodies. I got the antenna mount and coax installed this afternoon, and a little bit of tinking done on the wiring in the console, but that's about it so far. Just doing what i can as parts come in and i have time to work on it.

By the end of the week i should have the radios installed and powered up. Tomorrow i am building the shelf unit that the radios will mount to, i will get some more pictures up once i get that built, painted, and put in the van with the radios mounted to it.

Weds i will finish up the battery connection to the console with a new breaker under the hood and the tapa-fuse in the fuse panel for the ignition sense relay's. The navigation system is still in limbo.. I haven't got a shipping notice yet so i don't know if it will make it here before the weekend to get installed. That might not be here until next week.

Either way i will have the radios done by this weekend and get some more pictures up.

Finally, an update!

The wiring is now officially done, except for maybe a bit of split loom tubing on the wiring in the back when i get some more on hand. The Triplexer and antenna are still on the way, should be here in the next couple days. So for now i just have the VHF hooked up to a temporary antenna i had on hand. I'll get some pictures taken of the antenna and triplexer when they are here and installed.

The Tapa-Fuse in the passenger side fuse panel, plugged into the stereo fuse position. In case your not familiar with one of these you just pull the fuse of the circuit you want to tap and plug this in, then put the original fuse in to protect the original circuit and a new fuse to supply the added circuit which is powered through a lead with a preinstalled butt connector. This powers the relays in the console which provide ignition sense to the radios from the console fuse panel. I'm drawing less than an amp from the vehicle's stereo circuit, which turns on and off with the key, and also off while engine cranking.



Here is the 60 amp manual reset and trip breaker underhood which supplies power to the console fuse panel. I just made a simple bracket out of sheet stock aluminum and attached that to the cross bar above the battery. I got lucky since the previous owner put a new battery in with both top posts and side terminals. So i just put a Marine grade terminal on the top battery post to add my power feed.



And finally the radios! I just built a simple Plywood shelf unit, the back end is open so the finned portion of the radio hangs out. The Triplexer will be added to the left side of this unit once it gets here. For right now this is not bolted down because i need to pull it over to attach the triplexer later this week, then the entire unit will get bolted down using some exising bolt holes through the floor.





And finally the console is all wired, organized, and the heads are installed! I still have a few minor details to take care of. A cup holder will go on the front end of the console, not here yet, and then the navigation system will get installed under the front edge of the console mounting plate. More on that later, it will be easier to understand when you see it.





The Triplexer and Antenna should be here by Thursday and i will get them installed and take some pictures. Navigation system is scheduled to be here the end of the week, so possibly i can get that done this weekend.

More to follow....

Now thats what im talking about. Very nice and neat. Im interested to see what you do with the antenna. Also i only see 2 mics?

Antenna pics will be up soon, well as soon as it gets here.

Yes, two mics. The top mic is connected directly to the VHF, center head, the bottom mic is shared between the top head for the lowband radio and the bottom head for the UHF. I know the picture of the console turned out a bit dark, it got cloudy and sprinkled a bit about the time i was getting done, but if you look closely you will see a black knob below the two toggle switches. It's a eight pole eight position rotary switch with weatherproof wafers, sealed against moisture and corrosion. It has a movable stop so i set it for two positions, left is the lowband radio to mic 2, right is the UHF to mic 2. Also it's wired so that when you have one position selected the other radios HUB line is still grounded so that it can keep scanning or monitoring a channel with PL if programmed as such.

Works great and eliminates having another mic hanging on the console.

kb0nly wrote:Yes, two mics. The top mic is connected directly to the VHF, center head, the bottom mic is shared between the top head for the lowband radio and the bottom head for the UHF. I know the picture of the console turned out a bit dark, it got cloudy and sprinkled a bit about the time i was getting done, but if you look closely you will see a black knob below the two toggle switches. It's a eight pole eight position rotary switch with weatherproof wafers, sealed against moisture and corrosion. It has a movable stop so i set it for two positions, left is the lowband radio to mic 2, right is the UHF to mic 2. Also it's wired so that when you have one position selected the other radios HUB line is still grounded so that it can keep scanning or monitoring a channel with PL if programmed as such.

Works great and eliminates having another mic hanging on the console.

nicely done.

[jots]

just solved a problem for me.

With the switch i had i could have even gone down to one mic and had the switch go between all three, but i already had two radios and two mics when i added the lowband radio so i just kept them as is.

Of course another question i get is how i'm using the MCS2000 mics on the X9000, obviously it's easy to imagine after seeing the pictures. Just a panel mount eight pin mic connector with a X9000 mic cable coming off the back to the control head. I did record the mic wiring in my notes in case anyone wants to know how to use these mics with the X. Also works for the Maxtrac mics, DTMF models as well.

It's been a while back now and i don't even remember myself without digging out the paperwork.

Looks great. Nice work.

Thanks!

I just can't wait to get the triband antenna on there and all three radios going again.

Should be fun learning the new navigation system when that gets here also.

I even bought a portable DVD player to occupy the kids in the back on long trips! LOL

Just curious why you didn't decide to mount the antenna on the roof?

Couple of reasons, first of all was the car wash. It was a serious PITA to remove all the antennas from the old van to run it through the wash. Second of all was when we go up north to visit family, in Duluth there parking garages for almost everything down town, there was barely 6-7 inches of clearance from the roof and the cement beams in the garage, i had to pull over on the street, remove antennas, then go in and park.

With the setup i have now i can just unscrew the one antenna from the mount where it is accesible on the back corner and put the rain cap on the mount and i'm good to go. I can also quickly pull it off and store it if i'm not parking in a secure location to avoid theft. Most everything lost to theft around here is kids that see an opportunity to grab something fast, rather than break into vehicles.

With the mount i used i can also loosen it and tilt it down, but it's just as quick to remove the antenna anyway. I had also thought about a roof rack mount, but i thought the lip mount just had an overall cleaner appearance to it.

I have yet to drill a single hole in this entire install!!

Just to let anyone know watching this i will have the final installation pictures up on Tuesday. Got delayed with some other stuff but the GPS navigation system is here and partly installed, the GPS antenna and wiring is complete, the antenna and triplexer install is done and all the radios are up and running!

Tuesday UPS will be dropping of the vehicle specific mounting hardware for the GPS display and i can finish everything up and test. I will get some pictures of everything powered up posted.

Got it done a day early! I guess i get lucky now and then... lol

The new tri band antenna and lip mount on the back hatch.





The GPS antenna mounted to the roof rack. Still need to do a little work on the coax routing into the passenger side between the doors. Maybe an adhesive cable clip or something simple to hold the cable there. It doesn't move around much though and doesn't cause any problems with the doors movement.





The triplexer connected to the radios. I don't have everything finished back there just yet. I still need to fasten the triplexer to the left side of the radio box and finish routing the antenna coax down under the trim and cut it to length, that should be done sometime this week when i get the spare moment to do it.



And a cupholder!! I know, it sounds trivial, but the stock cupholder had to removed from the inside edge of the passenger side seat to make room for the console so i needed to put in a replacement. This cupholder is a really sweet unit that holds the biggest of cups!



The navigation systems main unit, the computer as they call it, mounted to the bottom side of the console mounting plate with plenty of access to change the CD in it if needed. The upper midwest CD in it now covers an area larger than i normally roam anyway, so its not a big deal to take a minute to change it if necessary. I made the mounting brackets with some aluminum sheet, the stock brackets were made to floor mount it or hang it under the seats or dash and just wouldn't work right for my mounting location. A little black paint and they blend in nicely, despite my rough fabrication technique.. lol



The display unit mounted on a bracket from ProFit International, took only a few minutes to assemble and install.



The main navigation menu.



The current location shown on the map.



And that's about it except for a few minor details, cleaning, a little cable management, etc. I thought about making a change to the front control head cable routing, putting a hole through the plate it sits on perhaps, but for now it doesn't interfere with anything, including the cupholder, though it does look to be in the way it sits just behind the left holder. I think i will just leave it that way and keep it simple.

Again Scott, you out do yourself! That is one of the nicest installs I've seen lately....

Whats the make/model of the console?

Extremely well done. Nice work!

Thanks for the comments guys!

The make/model of the console is "who knows".. LOL

Seriously, that's the reply i got when i asked. The console and mounting plate came out of a retired CHP unit and there was a guy selling something like 20+ of them on eBay a while back. I asked who made them and he answered with "who knows", evidently whoever the CHP contracted with to make them. They are well built though, the console is a solid thick aluminum panel that was cut then bent into a three sided box then the front and back end was welded on by someone that really knows how to weld aluminum and make it look nice. The mounting plate is all one piece with nuts welded onto the bottom for bolting on the console and various other items, just bent to shape and slightly tweaked by myself to fit the spacing of the van, i only had to spread it out about 1/2 inch from the original size to fit over the seat bolts.

The radio face plates were designed by me, i made a pattern out of card stock and took it to the local welding shop and had him make them out of steel since he didn't have much for aluminum on hand.

The install is all wrapped up. Put the final touches on it today. I didn't know that the coax connector on these Comet cable assemblies was re-usable, turns out they are easy to remove and reinstall. So since i didn't have to go get a connector i finished it up today. The coax is now routed out of the way and the triplexer is mounted to the left side of the box with a large patch of velcro. I had assumed the triplexer would have mounting holes in it like my Comet diplexer, nope, so i went with adhesive backed velcro instead.

It's all up on my website now as well.

http://frontiernet.net/~kb0nly/mobile.htm