Valentine 1 - 430 hardwire DIY

I search a bunch up here for more info on a Valentine 1 radar hard ware into a 430. Saw some good ideas, but nothing with too much specificity. I've done a few of these the RS's, and the turbo, and my tundra, so i figured it would be a pretty simple DIY. and it was.

first, you have to get a hardwire kit from valentine. its basically a 2port modular plug into which the RJ11 power cord is connected. the modular plug is about the size of a 1/2 a roll of dimes, and you have to make thi sa bit smaller since that size wont easily snug into the dome light area when done. i used a screw driver to crack the casing in 1/2 and then used electrical tape to 'seal' all the electrical connections. u use the screwdriver and pry the casing apart which splits right down the middle. it makes the thing 1/ the size. i tape over the 'accessory port' which valentine uses for their remote display since i dont use a remote display in the 430.
so now you have amodified, cut-in-half modular plug, with the power RJ11 port open.
take a cable cutter and cut the red (power) and black (ground) calbes that are afixed to the modular plug(hardwire kit you just hackedup). you probably only need about 8 inches at most maybe less. dont cut it too much, but lesser cable is less clutter up there when you're done.
cut the red and black and strip the ends leaving about 1cm of bare, noninsulated cable.

now turn to the car. use a small flathead screwdriver and pop out the overhead light assembl, the translucent plastic. you pop it off from the right side. you pry out the right side and it will come out easily.
once that is out of the way, the dome light plastic assembly is still afixed to the roof/frame of the car. if ou look inside there are two bolt heads. they are 4mm bolts. they were really tight with loctite in my 430 but a nice bit of torque and they came loose. unscrew , remove those two bolts .
the dome light is now fully able to come off.
unlike dthe tundra which is technologically far more advanced, there is very little up there.
you can take the dome light plastic cover off.
there are two sets of cables up there. a 4wire set that goes to the passenger airbag/seatbelt warming lite. adn the other 4set of wires goes into the plastic dome light area assembly.
there is a white cable, two blue cable and a black. both blue cables are hot. the black is ground.

use a cable splitter and expose about 1mm of cable on each.
take the red cable from the valentine modular plug and wrap it around the exposed cable on the blue wire. wrap the black ground wire around the exposed wire on the black.
you could consider soldering the cables, but i just wrapped it tight and used a plyer to really afix it. id' rather not soldier stuff in the car.

then use electric tape and cover all connections so nothing touches other raw cable and shorts it out.
plug the valentine 1 radar into the modular port. it should work. if so, disconnect. now we just have to get everthing back in there.

now i have a telephone cable crimper and extra telephone RJ11 plugs, so i cut off the end of one of the telephone cables (thes are what valentine uses for extension cables).
i fed thisthru the dome light area and out to the windshield. then, looking at the plug on the wire i just cut (which is to be discarded) i recrimp on an rj11 end with the cables in the same orientation as the original plug that is to be discarded.

test it again to make sur eyou got the crimping of the rj11 plug right. works? fine ,move on.

basically now just get as much wire into the liner area, out of the way and just reaffix the dome light, and you're done.

its actually very easy. the key is in figuring out how to a) remove the dome light lighting assembly (pry off on right side lightly)..b) how to remove the dome light housing plastic. (2 x 4mm bolts you can easily see once you pop off the lighting assembly) and c) which is hot, which is gound. blue is hot, black is ground.

UNFORTUNATELY, the power is not switched which means you still have to turn off your v1 when you're home else you'll drain the battery (not sure of the 430 or 360s have power saving auto-battery turn off. ) but this hot wire looked full time hot all the time. its tied into the dome light which you can flip on at any time.
its better than using a cigarette lighter hookup which is unsightly and wiggles/resets the v1 a ton.

this is clean, easy, a 20 minute DIY, just simply requiring that you turn off V1 when you're done driving.

any questions let me know. wish i had a camera, i would have photo'd it.

regards,
sg