hey, finally got my empeg. doing the install myself on my 99 civc. first time for everything... might as well be this one. i had a deck professionally installed before, so i just cutting 5 wires and recrimping.

i need help though. which of the metal tabs on the mounting bay should i bend to secure it, and in what way? i ask because i have a very flimsy mounting bay that is barely hanging on to the DIN installation kit for my car. everytime i pull out the empeg, the bay goes with it for a bit (1/2inch) before i get it out, and then i have to push it back in. nothing i'm too proud of..

please help

I've never opened the dashboard of a civic so I can't really give you car specific advice, but... I've got a '01 prelude, and the double din mounting unit actualy unscrews and then screws back in. At the moment, mine is unscrewed because I havn't finished everything back there yet, so whenever I pull the empeg out it does what you describe.

Apperently there is something you can do with a strap and the back of the docking bay to secure it, but havn't done any of that because I've got both DINs filled so there isn't my room for stuff to slide around.

Matthew

I had to use an installation kit because my stock was 1.5din. it looks like this.

searching the forums also leads me to believe that i need to put a backing somehow on my rio.

So you've cut away the pieces intended for use with old style (dual axle) radios.
Slide in the empeg bay and press out the tabs closest to the opening but that still go down behind the panel, so that the panel is caught between the lips at the front of the empeg cradle and the bent out tabs.

A backstrap tends to help stabilize the rear of the cradle from moving up/down, but shouldn't really be needed to prevent the cradle from sliding out if the adaptor is solidly mounted in the dash. In my Polo there's a hole at the rear of the DIN slots into which a rubber plug mounted on a stud screwed into the hole at the rear of the cradle fits - only stabilizing things up/down & left/right but not in/out.

The threaded hole at the rear of the cradle is M4 thread if you want to go with a backstrap.

/Michael

ok... i still dont know which tabs to bend (i'm assuming 2 of the top, and 2 of the bottom... but not anything on the side) and how to bend them ( 90degrees to what they used to be? ). also.. is the right way to do this is put the bay in is to do this?

1) put it in the din adapter
2) bend tabs whichever way
3) put whole thing into car

i did this first.. and i couldnt get step#3 to happen, because the metal tabs were blocking something... so... i did this

1) put adapter in car
2) put bay in adapter
3) bend tabs from the outside in....

i think this is the error... and thats why i need to know HOW to bend them correctly.

jr

Bend the tabs on top upwards, the tabs at the bottom downwards. Can't see a reason why you couldn't use the side tabs too - I'm assuming that the cradle fits snugly into the the opening in the panel?

No need to go to 90 degrees, it's enough to get them down enough so that they rest against the backside of the panel. My tabs are probably only bent between 30 and 45 degrees.

You should be able to see, through the cut-outs around the tabs, where the back edge of the panel is, and get the best placed tabs down so that the press against the back of the panel.

Quick and crude drawing attached. Left part is cradle and plastic (black) seen from above/below and right part is bottom of cradle seen from the side

Edit: I also bent the tabs after inserting the cradle (only way possible unless you dismantle the entire dash)

HTH,

/Michael

The tabs are meant to be kind of "random" I guess would be one way to describe it.

You bend whatever tabs you need to bend, and you bend them in whatever way it takes to get the thing secured. The whole point is that they're different shapes and sizes so that they fit into different kinds of cars.

You have to use your best judgement, and a little bit of "mechanical know-how" to look at how the mounting frame is shaped and decide what/how to bend.

The idea is that the tabs will grip the sled to the mounting frame.

If you don't -HAVE- a mounting frame, then that's your problem.

As far as I can see, the empeg cradle should mount without problems to the adapter in his image above. If that thing in itself doesn't mount securely to the dash - shame on the maker of the adapter.

/Michael

ok, i see what you guys are talking about. i actually picked farther tabs, and attempted to bend it forward a bit. also... is the bay supposed to be sitting on top of the bottom black part, or is it suppoesed to be suspended in the air?

Suspended in the air. The tabs are supposed to clamp the sled against the mounting frame so tightly that the backside doesn't droop.