Here's a new one--I have an aftermarket radio w/an adapter harness-plugged it into my 89--everything works but no sound-when i plug the factory radio in a only get sound out of 1 rear and 1 front speaker--opposite sides. Everything is hooked up like it should be. The aftermarket radio does work-for the hell of it I tried a different aftermarket w/the same results--no sound but the display worked! Anyone have any ideas? It's driving me crazy!!
BTW--The car had the subwoofer option, but it's disabled now(switch)-but I'm still using the rear speaker setup for it-in place of the 6x9's.

[This message has been edited by Tonyrodz (edited July 21, 2001).]

 

Almost every aftermarket radio is designed to go into protection mode if any of its 8 speaker wires are shorted out to each other, or if any of them are touching a ground someplace. On the other hand, many factory radios will still somewhat work under these conditions, as you have discovered.

So, either your factory speaker wiring has a problem somewhere, one or more of your speakers themselves are at fault, or you made a wiring error when bypassing your factory subwoofer amp.

If you have a multimeter, pull your radio out and unplug it. Put your meter across each pair of speaker wires; the DC resistance should be somewhere roughly between 3 and 10 ohms. Next, hook one leg of your meter to a good ground, and probe all 8 speaker wires with the other end of your meter. If any of those wires gives you a 0 ohm reading, or anything even remotely close, then that wire is shorted to ground.

If you find that one of the wires is shorted to ground, you could opt to simply run a new wire. But first, remove the speaker and check for any problems there.

If you're checking a pair of speaker wires and you get something close to 0 ohms, the problem could be in the wire, but it's more likely at the speaker location itself.

Inspect the tinsel leads on the speaker; the silver wires that run from the plug up to the paper cone. Sometimes the tinsel lead will droop and make contact with the metal speaker frame...and on most cars, the metal frame gets screwed down to a ground, causing a short.

This is really a lot less complicated than I'm making it out to be. If you have a meter, or can borrow one, test behind the radio to try to determine which speaker/wire is giving you trouble, which should save you a lot of time.

 

OK, I guess I have to get myself a multimeter. As for the factory amp I pulled it out so that shouldn't be a problem.
I'll definitely check that out!!
Thanks.

 

For tracking speaker wires for installations I have found my best friend is a 9 volt battery!

Take your ground and positive wire for whatever speaker you are testing and tap the leads onto the battery. If you have the right wires you will get a quick audible thump from the speaker. If not, you either have the wrong wires or the wires are shorted.

 

Excellent idea SilentBOB! I'll have to check it that way!