Radio Installation

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Cobra 75wxst Radio

I purchased the unit online from Bills 2-Way, along with a 4' Firestik antenna. Total cost on it delivered was only $134. Quite reasonable as a local shop wanted $170 just for the radio! The radio is completely integrated into the handset, with just a small box (about 1"x2"x4") acting as a hub to attach power, antenna and radio. It also provides a place to attach an external speaker, but I haven't tried that yet.

Tool Required / Used

Short tool list for this job:
Drill Press with 1/2" and 3/16" drill bits
Small Vise and Hammer
Phillips and slot head screwdrivers
10, 13, 15 and 17mm wrench/socket
Wire cutter/stripper
Electrical Tape

Installation

Installation went fairly easily once I decided how I wanted to do it. For the installation, I went to Radio Shack, and purchased 20 feet of type 58 coaxial cable, two screw-on connectors for the cable, and an antenna mount adaptor. I decided I wanted to run the antenna wire through the hole in the tailgate where the E.T. wires go, then through the rubber flexy into the drivers rear quarter panel. After that, under the center of the carpet up to the console, then across to the passenger side and up to the front behind the ashtray. With much fear, I started disassembling my vehicle.

The panels in back just pop apart, with the exception being the rear storage compartment on the drivers side that has 2 screws in it. With a little patience and some care, you can bend the panels until the tabs pop out. Too much force will break something, so be careful. If you need a little help, you can use a flat head screwdriver to help pry out the tabs. I only had to disassemble the very end of the quarter panel to get into where the flexy connects the body to the tailgate. The cover on the tailgate is even easier. Just some gentle pressure, and the tabs pop out. There is a weather seal under the cover, so that needed to be resealed. Also, the grommet where the E.T. wires come out is wrapped with electrical tape to weatherproof it, and needed to be re-wrapped after the coax was run.

On the floor, I had to unscrew the carpet cover under the tailgate and remove the edge strip. Just a couple of phillips screws there and then ran the wire under the carpet down the center to the rear seat. There is a seam in the carpet under the rear seat, and it is held together with those funky plastic pop-buttons. DON'T try and pull them out to release the carpet, they are just buttons. The carpet with some care, will slip off. I removed my rear seat to make installation easier, only 4 screws hold it in, but it was a bit of a pain to reinstall. We had to take this apart to make the sharp turn at the foot of the seat, but there is another seam under the passenger seat and it makes it quite easy to run wires once you get that far.

I fabricated a custom bracket to hold the antenna, not wanting to drill a hole in my spare mount, and it seems to work fairly well. The bracket was made with a 2" x 48" piece of flat iron purchased from Home Depot. I first built a prototype out of very thin (1/16) galvanized to test the bends, then went to work on the thicker flat iron. Specifications can be found on the bends/angles here. There is a small threaded hole on the spare mount, and I used that as my anchor, with one of the tire bolts as another. When finished, the whole mount is farily flexy (that's why I went with thicker metal) and will probably fatigue some day. At around $3 for the flat iron, and an hour to drill and bend, if the mount lasts 4 years, its well worth the price. There have been some issues raised about grounding the spare tire mount (not electrical ground, but RF ground) for better performance. I tested my mount with a multi-meter and it shows that it is grounded, but YMMV. Testing with a SWR meter showed a 1.4 on channel 1 and 1.2 on channel 40 so performance seems quite nice for me.

With the coax run and the mount built, I focused on installing the master box for the radio. Start by removing the ashtray and the screw, then gentle pressure will pop the frame off around the radio. There is just enough room behind the ashtray to shove the master box in there. It is a tight fit, and mine never rattles even though it isn't bolted in. Power is a bit of a problem. Nothing under the dash has power when the key is off, so if you want a constant on, you need to run your own wire to the battery. I just spliced into the hot for the cigarette lighter. For ground, I used one of the mount screws that holds the factory radio in. I ran the radio connector out under the drivers side next to the gas pedal and mounted the radio clip on the side of the dash. Some creative wrapping with electrical tape and the whole thing looks very clean and professional.

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