Where is the passage into the trunk?

Need to run a CB cable from trunk to car interior preferably without drilling a hole. Does any such wire passage exist?

No *but* take out the trunk liner and rear seat (takes a little time but is not difficult at all) and you will have choices. You can run them next to a wire bundle that already runs under the rear seat. You can then take out the right or left front seat and interior trim panels on that same side and run the lines through the rockers. Get into the rockers behind the trim panels under the rear quarter windows.

It's best if you have a factory service manual for this - The RIv interior , it's not difficult to disassemble but each wrong move is usually rewarded by a generous shower of shattered plastic. The FSM generally shows where the fasteners are and what they look like so you don't bust up too much stuff with wrong moves.



Albertj

If you find you need to drill a hole somewhere to accommodate your cables it's no big deal. Just use a grommet for the hole and if you want after all cables are run through you can seal the remainder of the grommet and wires with RTV or some other pliable sealant.
You can find various size grommets at the hardware store if you don't already have some.
Also, if you crack or break a tab of some sort while removing interior panels I recommend using Loctite 7 min. plastic epoxy. I had to try it a couple of days ago on my center armrest / console cover. I broke the latch off somehow and the epoxy did a great job. First time I have ever used it. I'm going to try and fix a couple of thing on my door panels with it, now that i know it works. The body shop goon did a number on my door panel.
Even though it says 7 minutes, you want to let it totally cure for 24 hours to ensure a great bond.

Hey Albert J, I notice there is the radio antenna lead ins running along the passenger side, do you suppose I could sneak the cable thru there?

Thanks for your time in answering

I ran my amp and audio cables up from under the back seat, along the passenger side edge of the car, and into the trunk area. It was not hard and no holes to drill.

I thought the cardinal rule was not to run audio, power and any other shielded cable in parallel due to EMF and RFI.

Rick, I understand that rule and figured if I needed to move the cables I would move them. Not a trace of crossover that I can detect.

That's good. It would have been a real PITA to route them down different sides of the car.
That's the way I did my last install. Have yet to transfer equipment to this car yet.
But with the battery being where it is it will make the amp install a breeze.

Straighteight wrote:

Hey Albert J, I notice there is the radio antenna lead ins running along the passenger side, do you suppose I could sneak the cable thru there?

Thanks for your time in answering

You're welcome for the time answering.

My answer is, I don't know.

It's up to you and your standards for wiring.

If it was me and I had to put in a CB for some reason, I'd use a one-hand (mic and channel readout/changer in one) CB, I'd take out the seats and center console, attach the transceiver box to the hump, under and fore of the ashtray (there actually is a lot of open real estate under there). I'd run the CB antenna wire under the carpet at the top of the hump, turn it left or right and put it under the rear seat in one of the corners - OR - put it into one of the rear quarters and run it past a wheel well into the trunk, bringing the wire out behind the trunk liner. I'd put in plastic clips under the rear shelf (behind the rear seatback) to hold the antenna when not in use, and make a cloth pouch out of headliner or trunkliner material to hold the (magnetic) base when not in use, and attach that onto the existing trunkliner. THen I could wither connect the CB handset under the console and bring the wire out on the floor by the ehat ducts under the dash, or connect it up by passing the wire thru the storage cubby under the center armrest - leaving the handset in that center cubby. I might cut or melt a notch somewhere to pass the wire out of the cubby under the lid when I was using the CB.

'cause if you are not using a one-hand CB I have no idea where you're putting the radio so you can read the face and flip the switches.

So once again it depends on you and what you want. Again, I don't know if you can sneak the cable along the antenna lead in. My guess is that if your cable is already terminated with a PL-259 connector, I'd say probably not. If the cable is bare and you can swage on a connector, I'd guess you could sneak it thru just about anywhere under the rear seatback.

a quick and dirty way to do it is to fish the wire under the rear seat back, using a fish tape or straightened wire coathanger. Then you can get at it anywhere you want to make it appear between the seatback and cushion.

It's kind of up to you.

I guess my point is that CB antenna cables use big connectors. I wold rather not piddle around trying to fish a fat connector thru a thin blind hole when it's so easy to pull the interior parts and route the wire intelligently. Think about pulling the interior as a way to get good information about where the wire can be run, not so much as a PITA you have to do in order to run the wire at all.

Albertj