Pontiac Repair: Pontiac montana sv6 2009 wiring, power taps, pontiac montana

Question

Montana 2009   QUESTION: Hi. My question is about tapping a harness for connecting extra eqpt. I want to connect a GPS, a Satellite recvr and backup camera.
The GPS and Sat. should work like the radio, on accessory and ON key positions but the backup cam should only work on ON. My mechanic marked 2 VERY thin wires on the harness under the steering wheel. A pink one is supposed to be the ON and a brown or charcoal one is supposed to be accessory. When I connect the devices they don't work. The voltage on them is only 11 volts compared to 12v from the lighter where the devices work fine.

ANSWER: Hey Neil:

Do not tap into the wires there! use the fuse box and find battery power and accessory power there. To many bad things happen when you tap into power at the base of the steering column just use a test light and tap into a fusse that has a constant battery power and one that is powered up when when the key is in accy and run. You will be better off that way! you can use the fuse box on the right side of the dash behind the glove box. they make power taps that warp around the base of a fuse and you can tap off them that way just make sure you tap into load side of the fuse and not the feed side. Becarefule when you press it in because it's easy to overstread the terminal after it has one of those power taps around it It already stresses the connector out but the more you wiggle and jiggle it you will wind up with a bad connection. good luck :)


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: where can I find a wiring diagram for the van and a shop manual too?
I want to remove the console below the radio to get access to do a clean install and hide all the wiring but I can't figure out how to remove it. The wiring diagram is so when I use your suggestion I don't use something I should avoid.

Answer
being that the van is so new I doubt you will find a service manula for that year van. they started making it in 2005 so look for an older manual and in 2005 the old style Montana was built as well. so me sure it's for an sv6. Look for a Chilton or Motor manual at your local parts store. stay away from Haynes! you can try your local library as well. At the dealer we no longer have paper service manuls all of our service info is on a secure GM website. You may ne able to buy a paper GM manual from a company called HELM they were the company the provided service manuls to us back in the day and I belive they still produce the owners manuals for our cars.