Stereo & Electronics - Axxess ASWC Install Walk-Through: 2001 Trans Am Steering Wheel Controls

For those that might have found this task a little intimidating at first like me, given all the wires that are available; here's a little walk-through that should simplify things quite a bit.

Again, this install was in a 2001 Pontiac Trans Am WS6 with the 10 speaker Monsoon system. I installed an aftermarket JVC head unit. Things are slightly different towards the end depending on what brand of head unit you’re installing, but it's only small differences depending on the brand.

I highly recommend disconnecting your battery before doing this.

This is what it looked like at the start:
http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr338/lionel_luthor/IMAG0387.jpg

So, first I located the “steering wheel controls” input wire on the OEM harness, for me it was pin #14 and a dark blue color (red arrow pointing to it):
http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr338/lionel_luthor/IMAG0388.jpg
http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr338/lionel_luthor/IMAG0389.jpg

Next, on the harness that comes with the Axxess system there are a ton of different wires. I only needed to use 3. Red, black and the orange wire with a green stripe (all the other wires on the harness that came with the Axxess unit can be taped off).

I posi-tapped the dark blue wire on the OEM harness with the orange/green stripe wire from the harness that came with the Axxess unit:
http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr338/lionel_luthor/IMAG0390.jpg
http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr338/lionel_luthor/IMAG0391.jpg

Next I tapped the red & black wires off of the main wiring harness and connected those to the red & black wires on the harness that came with the Axxess unit (it doesn't matter if you use the red/black on the OEM harness side or on the aftermarket harness adapter side):
http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr338/lionel_luthor/IMAG0393.jpg

Next I located the steering wheel wire on the aftermarket head unit's plug, mine was blue with a yellow stripe (I think that's standard) and I spliced that up with the solid brown wire of the small female 3.5mm connector that came with the Axxess unit (just tape off the brown/white stripe wire):
http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr338/lionel_luthor/IMAG0394.jpg
http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr338/lionel_luthor/IMAG0395.jpg

Finally I connected the male 3.5mm jack that's attached to the wire harness that came with the Axxess unit to the female 3.5mm connector I just spliced:
http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr338/lionel_luthor/IMAG0396.jpg

Yeah, it looks like a mess, but after all of it was hooked up and working properly some zip ties neatened things up quite a bit.

After that it was a simple matter of just reconnecting my battery and then turning the ignition on. Right away the Axxess unit began to blink and from there all I had to do was press & hold the volume up button on the steering wheel for a few seconds and then the Axxess unit did everything else on its own. It worked like a charm.

Good job with the pics.

Another thing you can do, on your wiring harness adapter for your head unit your Pin 14 space is going to be empty. You can crimp a new wire and use a pin pusher to put it into the place where Pin 14 would go. Then theres no tapping the factory harness. I did this and its very clean.

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af98/jon-n-kel/stereo/DSC00253.jpg

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af98/jon-n-kel/stereo/DSC00267.jpg

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af98/jon-n-kel/stereo/DSC00266.jpg

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af98/jon-n-kel/stereo/DSC00262.jpg

Good job with the pics.

Another thing you can do, on your wiring harness adapter for your head unit your Pin 14 space is going to be empty. You can crimp a new wire and use a pin pusher to put it into the place where Pin 14 would go. Then theres no tapping the factory harness. I did this and its very clean.

Do you have any more info on how you did this? Is there a tutorial with pic's?

Do you have any more info on how you did this? Is there a tutorial with pic's?

I didn't take pics, but it was pretty simple. You need two wiring harness adapters to do it. It uses the 88-05 GM harness adapter which is super cheap (<$10) and can be found readily even at places like WalMart.

When you get the wiring harness adapters, they'll be the male side of the factory radio harness connectors (the side with the pins) with a bunch of loose wires coming off them.

One of these we're going to cannibalize for pins, and one of them we're going to actually use to install the radio.

Step 1) You extract a wire (of suitable color) with its attached pin from the donor harness. To do this I cut open the donor harness connector with a wire cutter. Its just plastic, so its not difficult. You can use a tiny flat bladed screwdriver to help push the pin through from the other side. If you mess up, you can always just choose a different pin and start over.

Step 2) Once you extract a wire with its attached pin, you insert it into the new harness in the proper space (For the steering wheel stuff, Pin 14, see the diagrams). I did this with a small flat bladed screwdriver. There are purpose-made tools for this, but I just used a tiny flat bladed screwdriver to catch the edge of the crimped part and pushed it in.

Step 3) You now have a harness adapter with an additional pin and wire that you will connect to your ASWC. Just connect it up and install.

Just got mine working with a Kenwood KDC-BT852HD HU. I ordered them from Amazon so it didn't come with specific instructions. I followed the generic guide (and a pic above) and connected the pink wire (Pin 1) from the ASWC to the blue (pin 14) of the harness. That didn't work.

I went to the site and it said "orange/green" (pin 3) for my car. Turns out that it looks more yellow/green than orange/green, but when I hooked it up to Pin 14 on the harness it worked fine. I had to manually program, but it's all working now.

So at least for my car - USE THE ORANGE/GREEN (PIN 3) from the ASWC, NOT the PINK wire (PIN 1). :cool: