Stereo system problems...

[BIG BAD JON]

I was hooking up a CD player that I picked up at WalMart and I noticed none of the speakers were working...so, I put my test lamp to it and found out that the grounds were bad on each one of them. So, I fix the Right Rear speaker...Sounds nice...then I try to fix the Left Rear speaker, and all of a sudden...no more music. I finish grounding the Rear Left speaker and it no longer works either. I look up front and the radio is still lit up and shows the sound bars as if the speakers were working. What happened!? :confused:

Could some one give me an idea of what I did wrong?

[mccullough_89_GW]

if i were you i'd take it back get another try again...
..before you hook them up....
buy new cable(speak) and run it....
WAG speaker wires basiclly suck.....
takes about a hour to run the new wire...that way you know what your hooking up..........

10 DOLLARS WORTH OF NEW WIRE IS WORTH THE EFFORT....

PLUS even if it does hook up and work...no telling how long a piece of its either been rubbed one to many tiimes or has been sitting in dampness corroding..........

new wire for a 10+ year old vehicle is in order...

plus when you do hook it up with the originals there is no way to know the polarity of each wire... other than cranking it up and listening to them on each post...(ie switching them around)..
+ and - individually...and seeing which way sounds better..

good luck....

[BIG BAD JON]

Where do the wires run?

[BigDogg]

did you buy the adaper kit for the wiring? or you splicing like crazy....the easist way is to buy a 4 channel amp amp kit and speaker wire....oh and good speakers. and the follow the directions, and keep some extra fuses for testing during the install
:cool:

[BIG BAD JON]

I just spliced the wires together since the I would have to order the adapter from a shop 20 miles from my house. I tested the wires running out of the stereo, I must have blown something due to leaving the stereo on while hooking up wires. Im going to run new hot wires for the speakers now. Where do they run from the rear quarter panels? Is it hard to replace those wires? Ive already got a sort of "umbilical" cord running to the amp, I guess Ill just add the wires that go to rear speakers to the bunch. Is there anything you can stick between the hot wires and the speaker wires to prevent from getting alternator noise? Or, whould I be lucky enough that FSJ's dont have that problem? :confused:

[PhilSine]

Speaker wires run through the body I think. But, I would keep em all interior when you do the new ones. Sounds like you may hav accidentally grounded a positive lead to the chasis and blown the amp in the stereo. It may have just shut down as some will do in an overcurrent situation. Either way, do as others have said, exchance it, and then run new wires everywhere. That would include power, clock, speakers, and ground. I'm a big fan of replacing it all when you have the luxury.

[BIG BAD JON]

So, just keep it bundled together with the rest of the "Umbilical Cord"? :confused:

[mccullough_89_GW]

Originally posted by BIG BAD JON:
I just spliced the wires together since the I would have to order the adapter from a shop 20 miles from my house. ........... Im going to run new hot wires for the speakers now........................ Where do they run from the rear quarter panels? :the speak wires actually run under the carpet....
[the floorpans]....but what do you mean by "hot wires"?.........

just go buy a roll of speaker wire...and run it under the door jam(edge of the cabin floor by the doors)...you'll need to take off the aluminum...pieces to lift the edge of the carpet....
and run all the way back to each speaker,,,
connect the + and - on the speakers to the corresponding speaker out put wires on the deck...

find the wire on your factory harness that has voltage when the key is on, and none when key is off and cut that one off the factory harness(leave some so it can be reconnected later if you like) and hook to the POWER ON(Switched) wire on the deck...
find the that always has power in the harness...should be one (but maybe not, if mnot just run iyt to battery(or any other always power circuit) and cut it and hook it to the battery wire on the deck...
the ground wire out of the deck connect to a new ground(find a screw in the steering column(or stering column bracing and loosen it an put the wire there.... tape remaining harness over (don't leave just dangling(prevents it from shorting later possibly...
ALSO BE SURE YOUR ANTENEA IS HOOKED UP..sopme decks will not work without that ground(the antenae is a ground of sorts)..

stereo should be functioning at this point....
verify that right/left/front/back all work and are all... right/left/front/back ....

put it in the dash ...put dash back together
should be rockin' & rollin' or 2 steppin' or boot stompin'''....whatever your musoical tastes may be....

really that is all there is to it.........3 wires and the speaker wires [4]......

[mccullough_89_GW]

.

[ June 29, 2002, 09:16 PM: Message edited by: mccullough_89_GW ]

[BIG BAD JON]

What I mean by hot wires are the + wires that go to each speaker. Im going to give each speaker a seperate ground hooked up to a screw running into the doors inner structure(or in the case of the rear speakers, the screws that mount the bracket that holds the speakers).

[mccullough_89_GW]

I wouldn't give each speaker a ground with a screw...let the stereo be the ground..also unless you have the - speaker outputs running to ground they won't work I believe...regardless...the speak - out of the deck are there for a reason...

I personally wouldn't grount the speaks...I've hooked up a ton of stereo's in my life and have never grounded the speaks to the body(purposely anyway)....
my 2 cents

[Shake N Bake]

By physically grounding the negative terminal of the speaker, you've probably damaged the head unit.

Back in the old days, that was the normal practice, but the newer head units have a +/- for each speaker for a reason. The negative is no longer 'just' a ground. I can't explain why, but I know almost all stereos I've installed, say in the instructions not to use a single ground, all speakers must be hooked to their individual -.

Andy

[BIG BAD JON]

Would 22Guage speaker wire work? Ive got a real crap load of this stuff.

[Oracle]

Shake is right. Current practice is to return all negs to the stereo head unit. Most custom installs also bring a wire straight from the battery and ground straight back. The principal reason for this is to avoid interference do to the sensitivity of the new units, i.e. keep all other electrical out of the loop. Run your wires under the carpet. pretty easy on my 88. you can fish them through hard parts with a bent coathanger. Depending on how much power you're going to push to the speakers, use thick wire. At high watts, wire too small chokes off your high frequencies. You can use one four speaker amp or two two speaker amps. In my case i decided to go with separate amps, the big one in the back to handle the replacement 6x9's and a smaller one to handle the front 5 /14s. Be sure and match your amps to your speakers. What you want is the RMS rating on your amps and speakers, all this other crap they advertise is just that.

[BIG BAD JON]

What Im asking is, would the 22guage wire work for the 5-1/4" speakers? Ive already got my wiring for my amp and sub(s). Wiring the stock 5-1/4" speakers was not in the original plan. :rolleyes: lol

[mccullough_89_GW]

yes 22 guage will work...out any head unit the power is usually rated at MAX. so generally it's only pushing around 20-30 watts at full volume peak volume is what the Box says....

you won't know the difference...between heavier guage/smaller gauge out of head unit generally...

[BIG BAD JON]

Thanks, Kel! :D