I bought my 83 ZX in January and have been restoring it. Put in rebuilt engine from my wrecked parts car, which was my daily driver in restoration until a lady pulled out in front of me and bent my frame. I have replaced carpet, reupholstered seats, etc. The body was in good shape, so it is in the paint bay now, getting ready for ZDAYZ i hope. Then next are new tires, shocks and springs. But my project is the talking lady. I know it aggravates some folks, but i am trying to bring it back to stock, with everything working.
I found a record from the dealer where the first owner had declined to repair the talking lady in 1987. I found the box behind the strut tower, it looks like two boxes hooked together, if that is the right box. I also located a silver box about 6-8 inches long 3-4 inches wide and about 1 inch thick, under the glove box. is that the other part of the talking lady? The repair sheet says "voice warning unit bad". Where do i start? Am i looking at the right parts? I see the same parts in my parts car and it didn't work either. I have read that the center speaker is the one that the voice plays through, and it works in my car, but is very crappy. Is there a way to test the two parts of the unit to determine which one is bad, without swapping them out of one car to the other? Maybe listen for humming noise, vibration or whatever? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for the help.

 

I would start with that... The voice warning box in the spare tire compartment. The box behind the glovebox is for the dash warning display (tho some wires might be combined). So... find a working voice warning box from ebay / junk yard / fellow Z'er & start w/ that.

 

The box under the glove box should be the amplifier for the talking lady. If you get real close to the speaker and can barely hear the talking lady that would be your problem. If you can't hear her at all then its the box in the back. Good luck with her. These things go out often.

 

My speaker will play the radio, even though it is doing a sorry job of it, so i guess that it is not that the wiring is messed up. I'll have to find a new box, if that is it. Thanks!

 

Did you get yours to work? I bought an 82 2+2 and I am trying to do like yourself and return it to stock outside of the dvd system I have installed. I can hear mine trying to talk but no sound is coming from the speaker. Is there an amplifier somewhere or can you run it through the stereo system?

Thanks

 

Well, yes and no ! I got back on the forum bragging that it was working. But you know what they say about the pride that comes before the fall, I bragged and it quit playing. I put the one in from my parts car and it worked for a little while this weekend. But it works only every now and then. when it doesn't work it sounds like a record playing between songs in skip mode, like it is trying to get to the next song on the record, or playing but cutting in and out and sounding muffled. The only thing i have heard is "lights are on". It hasn't warned me about the e-brake being on or anything else.
I read somewhere that there is a wire that goes to the speaker in the center of the dash, which is the speaker the warning plays out of. And usually people forget to wire this one wire back into a speaker when they remove the stock radio. That sounds like what you have done, if you hear the click from the voice module in the tire well, but nothing up front, check the wire that ran to the center dash speaker.I am considering using a IPOD with a fm converter instead of putting a new system in. If you can barely hear her speakor there is a buzz in the speaker, then the amp may be bad or speaker is bad. From what I understand the amp is a silver box under or behind the glovebox. someone said it was and some have said it was not ( see what you can find on search for talking lady. If you have a parts car find that part under the glovebox and exchange it out. I was told that if it was weak, it was the amp under the glovebox and if it didn't work at all, it is the part behind the tire well strut in the spare tire well. If you find out any new info, post it here. Mine is working but not perfectly.

 

I thought that it might be the location of the amp. I can hear the voice in the back if you get close to it. I have ohmed out the entire system and everything leads to the amp being bad. I am going to build my own 20 watt amp and give that a try. I will let you know if I have any luck.

Thanks again for your help.

Mike

My parts car is my 79 2 seater which I am in the process of painting. SO I am a little on the short side for a parts car...

Thanks