Yet another CB install

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A lot of people have already done this install already over the years. So there's nothing really new. But I remembered to take a few pictures during parts of the install showing things that other modders didn't. I thought I'd share.

Some the the threads I worked off of are:
CB installation - no holes - no drills
CB antenna - single or dual stick
CB installed... for real


Parts:
Midland 75-822 all-in-one handheld with the car adapter atached,
Firestik SS-J4 Jeep fender mount
3-foot Firestik Firefly antenna
9-foot Firestick MU8R9 coax
Valor 203EZ foldover mount

[ree]

A lot of people have already done this install already over the years. So there's nothing really new. But I remembered to take a few pictures during parts of the install showing things that other modders didn't. I thought I'd share.

Some the the threads I worked off of are:
CB installation - no holes - no drills
CB antenna - single or dual stick
CB installed... for real


Parts:
Midland 75-822 all-in-one handheld with the car adapter atached,
Firestik SS-J4 Jeep fender mount
3-foot Firestik Firefly antenna
9-foot Firestick MU8R9 coax
Valor 203EZ foldover mount

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This is where I mounted it right over the driver window on the roofrack rail

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Mounting plate secured. Scraped under lip of rails to get good ground with chassis. I opted to put the bold head down and have the bolt threads pop up simply because it was easier fiddling with the washer, plate, lock nuts, nuts, etc this way given the size of my box wrench.

Note to readers. Don't tighten it down now. You'll need a little play in order to add the antenna mounting stud.

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From an angle where you can see the order of the hardware.

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Open up the marker light by removing the screw at the rear and pulling rear edge up and sliding from out of slot. See the tunnel toward the right edge of the plastic; the coax will go through here.

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Pull the gasket out.

Next I punctured this and ran the coax through and sealed up with black gasket sealant in the end (but forgot to take a picture).

Underneath this hole is a second larger hole in the roof that you can feed the coax through. As is mentioned in other threads, if you remove the door trim (which just sticks on) and pull down on the headliner you can see in there well enough to pull the end of the coax through with a needlenose.

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To get the handle off work out the plugs in the handles. These aren't covers for screws. They're just the caps on the clips that hold the pull handle on. As others describe in the references threads, work around the edges carefully with a small flatblade screwdriver. Once they're out enough, give them a firm pull and then they look like this:

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Then pull the handle firmly

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For the curious, this is what the handle looks like once it's removed.

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I didn't get pictures in between the headliner and the roof since it was too hard to get the light in there, hold it open and take the picture.

But once the coax is through the roof and pulled over to the sides, then it can be routed behind the pillar trim by pulling it out.

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If you keep routing it down, it comes out of a hole in the upper left part if the driver fuse box.

From that point, I routed it behind the dash, ziptied it along the rail that runs right behind the lower edge of the dash trim over toward the center console.

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Back up top, I liberally allied sealant to the gasket where the coax went through, reseated it and screwed the marker light back on.

Then I mounted the stud to the mounting plate and the firering connector to the stud. This is it from straight above.

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Because of the way I oriented the bolts for the mounting plate, I found some nut caps I had lying around that just happened to cover the threaded end of the bolts to reduce the liklihood of snags.

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Because the antenna is three feet long, it angled up quite a bit lying down on the front roof rack crossbar. So I slid them back.

Here it is with the antenna down.

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And with the antenna up.

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Now for mounting the handset. I didn't the get Cobra compact that a lot of others did. I got this Midland unit that can be used on batteries as a belt-hung handheld, off a AC adapter, or from a car adapter that hooks it directly to the antenna coax and get's power through an accessory power jack.

It didn't come with any provision to mount it on the dash.

So let's get a little white trashy.

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I wanted a secure stud without having to remove the belt clip. I didn't like the adhesive ones since they never stay on. So I took a small angle bracket and hammered it flat.

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The I cut it where the fold was, drilled a hole right near the bottom and attached a small pull I found in a junk box with a small bolt and nut.

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Next I removed the belt clip from the handset, layered this makeshift stud bracket under it and screwed it back together.