I just got the factory radio hooked back up in my 78 camaro and I ran into a problem when I turned the radio on. I got a little bit of music with some crackle at full volume. I tryed adjusting the radio station and sticking a tap in there neather helped. I left it on for a little bit and all of a sudden the music started playing threw the speakers clear and loud (was at full volume at the time). I went to leave were I was hooking all this up at and the kicked out agine. Same problem I had before they worked for a bit. So I'm at a loss as to what to do here. There are 5 connections on the factory "harnes" for the radio.
Red (I hooked this to +12v)
Green (I hooked this to gound)
Grey (+ for both speakers I'm guessing?)
Black (- for one speaker?)
Black (- for the other speaker?)
If any one has any information or lives around here and has a radio I could hook the speakers to to see if its the speakers or the radio. I'm realing hoping it is neather but some thing tells me it is the speakers
Do you have a stereo anywhere that you could hook up the speakers to? Or you could do the 9V test. It sounds like a wireing issue to me though, the speakers are probably fine.
Here is what you could do... take out the speakers, hook up a 9V battery to them. The speaker will either go in or out. Then, put them back in the car, and connect the 9V battery to the Grey and Black wires to see if they respond the same or not. Just an idea.
Matt
Never heard of that before. I can give it a shot as I don't have a spare radio laying around any more (sold it last week as a matter of fact lol). I do have a in house radio I could hook it up to I guess I would just need to be easy on the volume? Dose it realy matter which wire gose to which poll so long as its the same way on both speakers. What I meen is there a + and a - on a 6x9 or is it up to the user to decide which is + and - ?
Doesnt matter for testing, and just as long as all speakers are the same, it doesnt matter for listening. It isnt necessarily "up to the user" to derermine what + and - is, but in reality, it doesnt matter. And yeah, no use putting a lot of power to the speakers, but those 6x9s are made to operate in a free-air enviornment, so you probably wont blow them (unless you give them 25 watts or more)Originally Posted by hcker2000
I really think it is the wireing that is bad, a speaker normally doesnt just cut in and out, but a broken wire does.
Matt
Actually the + and - does matter. Generally keep everything the way the manufacturer has it marked, because you may shoot yourself in the foot if you decide to add speakers later. It is important that you wire your speakers consistantly, that means, decide which is + and do that for ALL speakers. If you do not, then your speakers will be "out of phase". This means that while one speaker is "Pushing" the other is "pulling". This means that while one speaker is creating rarefactions, the other is creating compressions and vice versa. The waves will end up canceling each other out (not completely, but enough for it to be vital).
Oh, and be careful while hooking your speakers up to your home system. Most home systems are rated at 8ohm and most car speakers are 4ohm. If this is the case, simple wire two speakers in series and attach it to one channel on the amp.
(AMP+) ----- (+Speaker-) ------ (+Speaker-) ----- (AMP-)
Yea thats why I am a little relectant to hook them up to my home system. I just ran new speaker wire to the speakers. Only thing I could think that might be bad is where i cromped the wire together with one of those butt joints (tube with metal inside). Either that or the little round factory harness isnt connecting well. Come to think of it I didnt cut off the copper wire that was exposed before I crimped the wire on the harness. I bet it oxidized and isn't making a good connection. I'll jiggle the wires around before I go to work and see if any thing changes.
At low volumes, it really doesnt matter if you run a 4 ohm speaker when the amp wants an 8 ohm load... if you wanted to, you could connect a wire from the + to - and it would be alright at its lowest setting. Not saying this is a good idea, but I have ran 4 ohm speakers with my reciever (the reciever was expecting 8) before with no problems. Only time I had an issue is when I blew the speaker (was running a 80w max "subwoofer" at 100w open air...). All that happened was that the amp went into protect, and it smelled of burnt voice coil in my room. But still, you do have a point, it would be safer to put them in series. I just dont think it would be necessary, because he is just testing them, so the extra heat wouldnt make any difference over such a short time.
As for the + and - business, it really doesnt matter just as long as you keep them consistant. you say that if you wanted to add speakers later, that it could cause you a problem, but really, you should test each speaker, because some speakers go in when you do the 9V test + to +, and some speakers go out, depending on the brand. I am sure that their is supposed to be a standard, but if you are really concerned with the cancelation, you should definately check. Plus, I bet you could never really tell in that car if they were out of phase
Good luck with the rewireing or whatever you do, and nothing to be afraid of, they are just speakers!
Matt
Yeah, its nothing to worry about, not if you are only testing for a short amount of time. But if you happen to know they aren't matched, there isn't any reason not to do them both at once.
Thanks for the input about testing them in the house. As for making sure they are match yes each one of the speakers + conections are on the biger of the two connections on each one of the 6x9's.
The realy weird part is I got in my car tonight to come to work (shortly after my other post) and started the car and I had left the radio on when i got out of the car last time so it came on and low and be hold it was playing music correctly. I was like ok this is great maby it will stay this time. Of corse I had to push my luck and check. I tryed to find another good station and as i was doing that it cut out like it did before. It is so random it almost has to be a bad connection some place. I'm going to see if it works when I get in the car to leave work in a few hours. Eather way if it dosn't I'm going to give the wires up front a jigle and maby a light tug and see if any thing changes (lets hope so). If not I will have to wate tell this week end tell I can pull one down from the rear deck as they are a pain in the butt to put back up (I had to lay in my trunk to bolt them in).
Back home now from work. No luck with the radio. I jjigled the wires and gave them a little tug and nothing changed. So I guess the next step is to eather do the 9V thing or pull one of them and try it in the house.
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