The Oldsmobile Connection

dblack3000 · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:30 am Post subject: Speaker Wiring

I'm trying to add a pair of Pyle 6x9s and a pair of 3.5"speakers in my car. I had to change the wiring because the speakers do not have the "clip" connection like the factory speakers did. So I tried to splice (actually I cut away some of the old wire) and tried to connect the new wire from the speaker to the wire that runs into the trunk, but I was unable to get any sound from the speaker. Did I make a mistake by removing some of the wiring or is the wire not functioning. I hope I explained this good enough for someone to help me with this. I'm just hoping that I (or someone else) doesn't have to remove a whole bunch of dead speaker wire!!!

Brando · Joined: 06 Jun 2003 Posts: 3051 Location: Michigan, USA

Do you have a multimeter?
Set it to AC voltage and check the wire leads with the stereo on (playing music).
And of course make sure the fader is set to play sound in the rear.

TOC Admin
Brando

dblack3000 · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:51 am Post subject: Re: Speaker Wiring

Brando wrote: Do you have a multimeter?
Set it to AC voltage and check the wire leads with the stereo on (playing music).
And of course make sure the fader is set to play sound in the rear.

TOC Admin
Brando

How much are one of those multimeters?

Brando · Joined: 06 Jun 2003 Posts: 3051 Location: Michigan, USA

ah....not that expensive...walmart had one that I have, like $15 I think....it's nothing special but it's digital and it works.

TOC Admin
Brando

dblack3000 · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 11:13 am Post subject: Re: Speaker Wiring

I'm gonna pick one up today; hopefully the line won't be dead. If it is, where do I go from there? Could it be a bad ground (my radio/speakers sometimes fade out and/or makes a clicking sound when I hit the brakes)? Or that after almost 20 years it's high time for a new wiring job?

Brando · Joined: 06 Jun 2003 Posts: 3051 Location: Michigan, USA

If the line is dead in the trunk, then check the wires coming directly out of the head unit. If that's dead...well, I think you know what that means. If you find that it's showing power, than you know it's somewhere inbetween and it would be best to just run some new wires from the head unit to the trunk.

BTW, they have an adapter for those speaker harnesses in the rear...too late now, I did the same thing on my delta... :lol:

TOC Admin
Brando

dblack3000 · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 2:44 pm Post subject: Re: Speaker Wiring

Brando wrote: If the line is dead in the trunk, then check the wires coming directly out of the head unit. If that's dead...well, I think you know what that means. If you find that it's showing power, than you know it's somewhere inbetween and it would be best to just run some new wires from the head unit to the trunk.

BTW, they have an adapter for those speaker harnesses in the rear...too late now, I did the same thing on my delta... :lol:

TOC Admin
Brando

Hell, I should just as well start from scratch and put a new stereo in and run some fresh wiring as well. I'm probably gonna have to start a new thread for people like me--stereo installation for idiots!!! Thanks for your help, Brando!!!

87Delta · Joined: 15 May 2005 Posts: 678 Location: Mississippi

Do you know the speakers even work? Sometimes they come bunk from factory.

And running new speaker wire throughout is easy. Go to wally-world and spend about $15 on a 100ft roll. Took about an hour for me to do, and that was having to run speaker wire through the doors, so you will have an easier time then me. It won't necessarily sound better, but new wiring > old wiring from 1989. :lol:

GraveReaper0 · Joined: 10 Sep 2004 Posts: 423 Location: Windy Chicago

Dude running wires is easy. You can even hook it up yourself without a wire harness. All units works on the same principle. To power your radio all you need is three wires.
#1. Power. This wire is a constant 12 volts.
#2. Ground. If you don't know what ground is, go to Best Buy and have them install it.
#3. Ignition. 99% of the time its red, And there's no power UNTIL you turn your key.

Then you got 4 pairs of wires, each running to a speaker. You'll see that they're all colored different. Now I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that the purple and green pair of wires is for the rear, and the white and grey pairs are for the fronts. And make sure you don't cross your positives with your negatives on the speakers.

And if you're going with a new everything, you should run some amps, maybe even a small sub?

dblack3000 · Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:08 am Post subject: Re: Speaker Wiring

87Delta wrote: Do you know the speakers even work? Sometimes they come bunk from factory.

And running new speaker wire throughout is easy. Go to wally-world and spend about $15 on a 100ft roll. Took about an hour for me to do, and that was having to run speaker wire through the doors, so you will have an easier time then me. It won't necessarily sound better, but new wiring > old wiring from 1989. :lol:

I didn't even think about that!!! I'll check the same speaker from the left side and see if I get something out of that.