so the story is i get sick of the stock stereo, so i get a dash kit and my deck out of my corvette to play some CDs. sadly the deck is an AWIA. and the "stock stereo" that was in it was out of a 92-bird. which they decided to cut the wires to put the harness for the 92 in. (i hate it when people slice stuff up)
anyway, i install the new stereo with scotch locks (the little blue splicers) and everything is working great. then one day the stereo just decides to quit. it looks like its working (has a little left and right channel moving display) so after defeating lazyness, i rip open the console and take out the dash kit and i cant see a damn thing wrong. so i re-wire the harness for the deck and it still dosent work. so i try a diffrent harness. its one i know for sure works. nothin doin. then screwing arround i find that at a very exact angle and depth of the plug being pluged into the deck, the music comes through the speakers. so the wiring to the speakers is fine. the power connections are fine. no fuses blown. i tried 2 diffrent wiring harnesses and both do the same thing. two diffrent decks (the other a sony) that use the same harness and they do the same thing. im perplexed. i really dont want to run all new wires everywhere. thanks in advance.

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1979 L-82 Beefed up Corvette. Bright-orange with orange pearl.
end of summer: NOS!! im thinkin 250 shot. (already have a full race engine.)
god i love this car.

1985 WS6 Trans AM T-tops
bone stock sloth of an engine on its last leg(LG4 w/ 172,000mi)
T-5 tranny. thank god, i couldnt stand an LG4 auto.
Plans for an LT1,
dual exaust,
& a pounding stereo.

[This message has been edited by 85ws6TA (edited June 09, 2001).]

 

nobody know huh?

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1979 L-82 Beefed up Corvette. Bright-orange with orange pearl.
end of summer: NOS!! im thinkin 250 shot. (already have a full race engine.)
god i love this car.

1985 WS6 Trans AM T-tops
bone stock sloth of an engine on its last leg(LG4 w/ 172,000mi)
T-5 tranny. thank god, i couldnt stand an LG4 auto.
Plans for an LT1,
dual exaust,
& a pounding stereo.

 

heres an idea, dont run new wires all over the place, just get a little speaker out from somewhere and run it right there by ur console just to see if it plays, thats whati would do...

 

i dont think that would help any because i already know the wiring to the speakers is good. i kinda still think its the harnesses but i think im just gonna break out my volt/ohm meter and test all the wires. if that shows nothing, then i guess ill take it to a sound shop to see what they can do. damn its gonna be a PIA to check every connection on the car. Jim, any advice?

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1979 L-82 Beefed up Corvette. Bright-orange with orange pearl.
end of summer: NOS!! im thinkin 250 shot. (already have a full race engine.)
god i love this car.

1985 WS6 Trans AM T-tops
bone stock sloth of an engine on its last leg(LG4 w/ 172,000mi)
T-5 tranny. thank god, i couldnt stand an LG4 auto.
Plans for an LT1,
dual exaust,
& a pounding stereo.

 

If you are saying when you insert the harness plug to a certain point and everything plays fine, yet when you push it in all the way, it cuts off on you...I would lean towards a problem with the harness connection inside the plug. Something is definately not making contact when you push the plug in all the way.

What exact harness is this? Is this wiring harness directly into the radio, or aftermarket interface to the factory wiring harness (i.e. Metra or the like)?


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Carl
CarAudio Resources

 

see that what i was thinkin, but its the same with 2 diffrent harnesses. its the harnesses that came with the stereos. but im gonna take it to a sound shop on my day off and see if they have a deck and harness i can try out. but 1st ill use the voltmeter to check the harness im not using. anyone else have any ideas?

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1979 L-82 Beefed up Corvette. Bright-orange with orange pearl.
end of summer: NOS!! im thinkin 250 shot. (already have a full race engine.)
god i love this car.

1985 WS6 Trans AM T-tops
bone stock sloth of an engine on its last leg(LG4 w/ 172,000mi)
T-5 tranny. thank god, i couldnt stand an LG4 auto.
Plans for an LT1,
dual exaust,
& a pounding stereo.

 

damn, im kinda surprised. out of some 8000 members, it looks like im the only one to have this problem. i feel kinda special

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1979 L-82 Beefed up Corvette. Bright-orange with orange pearl.
end of summer: NOS!! im thinkin 250 shot. (already have a full race engine.)
god i love this car.

1985 WS6 Trans AM T-tops
bone stock sloth of an engine on its last leg(LG4 w/ 172,000mi)
T-5 tranny. thank god, i couldnt stand an LG4 auto.
Plans for an LT1,
dual exaust,
& a pounding stereo.

 

Actually I was waiting because you said you were taking it to the shop to try and chase it down...wanted to hear where you ended up so maybe we could go from there...



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Carl
CarAudio Resources

 

funny story. on my way to the shop to see, i had to work. damn long work week., well ill probably go today seening as how i have money, and im working a day shift. so ill keep everyone posted. i kinda have a feeling that they arent going to find anything wrong, and im gonna go home and plug in the stereo and it will work. that would **** me off more than if something is wrong, cuz then i would still have no idea.

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1979 L-82 Beefed up Corvette. Bright-orange with orange pearl.
end of summer: NOS!! im thinkin 250 shot. (already have a full race engine.)
god i love this car.

1985 WS6 Trans AM T-tops
bone stock sloth of an engine on its last leg(LG4 w/ 172,000mi)
T-5 tranny. thank god, i couldnt stand an LG4 auto.
Plans for an LT1,
dual exaust,
& a pounding stereo.

 

Out of all 8 speaker wires...if even one of them is shorted to ground, or shorted to another speaker wire...the whole deck will go into protection mode and not make any sound.

It's possible that with the plug halfway out, you are only connecting some of the speaker wires, allowing the unit to still work.

The best thing to do is bench test the unit first, then troubleshoot the car.

If you don't have a 12-volt power supply at home, do this: Connect the power wires to some source in your car...either at the radio location, or under the hood to the battery...whatever. Next, get a junk speaker and make sure it makes sound.

If it works there, start testing your car. With your multimeter, check the DC resistance on each set of speaker wires. It should be somewhere between 3 and 5 ohms for each speaker. Next, ground one side of your meter, and touch the other end to all 8 speaker wires, one at a time. If the meter gives you a reading, then that wire is shorted out to ground somewhere.

 

YAAAAAAY!! it was exaclty that. the speaker wire was grounded to the body. i re wired that speaker, and wile i was at it, did 4gauge from the battery-fuse--------4fuseblock($50 )----amp/eq
and i even drilled a hole by the antenna hole and installed all the wires like a pro, instead of like best buy or soundtrack.

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1979 L-82 Beefed up Corvette. Bright-orange with orange pearl.
end of summer: NOS!! im thinkin 250 shot. (already have a full race engine.)
god i love this car.

1985 WS6 Trans AM T-tops
bone stock sloth of an engine on its last leg(LG4 w/ 175,000mi)
T-5 tranny. thank god, i couldnt stand an LG4 auto.
Plans for an LT1,
dual exaust,
& a pounding stereo.