yabadaba

Hi Guys, I'm new to these forums so hello to everyone. By way of a brief introduction, I'm from the London, UK and have recently imported a 2001 Z28 from Japan. I'm loving it!

Hoping someone here can help me out with some trouble I'm having with the stereo and CD Changer though.

When it arrived it was fitted with a Monsoon tape head unit and a CD Changer in the back. Don't think the changer is standard fit though - it's a Panasonic DP801 8 Disc Changer - but it all worked fine. To get the CD Changer to play I had to switch to FM2 (if changer wasn't on then FM2 would just play radio stations as normal).

However, I wasn't happy with the head unit as I wanted a CD instead of tape and because it was on the Japanese FM band I could only pick up 2 stations! So, I bought a 2nd hand Monsoon CD head unit that someone on here was selling. Fitted it a few days ago and the head unit itself works fine, however it won't work with the CD Changer. Switching to FM2 doesn't work.....it just plays whatever station is on FM2! I've tried hitting Aux/CD but that does nothing either.

Checked the connections and they are fine, switched back to the original unit and that still works with the CD changer so all I can think is that the original unit must have been internally modified in some way to switch to the CD Changer once FM2 was selected. The connections on the back of both units are the same and I guess the internals must be pretty similar, so I'm guessing it must be possible to get it to work with the CD changer like the original one did.

Anyone got any suggestions as to how I can get this working?

Cheers guys.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

The factory Monsoon system will not work with any CD changer except the factory one (which was made by Pioneer). The fact that you were using FM2 to listen to the changer suggests that it is using an FM modulator to send signal to the head unit. FM modulators are not band-specific but rather they are frequency-specific. In other words, it's not that you were switching to FM2 that made it work but that FM2 happened to be set to default to the frequency that matched the changer. You could tune to the same frequency on the FM1 band and it would work just as well. So, the question becomes what frequency is it using and can you tune that frequency on the new head unit (i.e. was it a frequency only in the Japanese FM band)? If you still have the original radio, you should be able to plug it in and determine the frequency to use. If it's a frequency you can't use, there's usually a switch (or set of DIP switches) on the changer to change the frequency.

The other possiblity is that the original head unit was modified for the changer. That modification might be difficult to repeat without documentation.

yabadaba

Okay thanks.

I think you may be right about the FM modulator because I've just googled these things and seen a few images. Most appear to be smallish grey boxes and I've noticed that in the cavity behind the Monsoon is a similar looking grey box, which one of my friends said looked like something aftermarket. I guess this may well be the modulator. I'll take a look and see if there are any switches on it to adjust the frequency.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

And check that it's connected. It sounds like a wired FM modulator (as opposed to the wireless ones that are built into satellite radios). They have to connected inline in the antenna cable and they can be quite effective for producing decent sound - unlike the wireless ones.