Hey all - I'm new here, and I've searched high and low for some help, and it looks like I've come to the right place.
Here's the situation:
I just bought a used car, a 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider - it's a 2 seater convertible. It had two Alpine amps under the seats and a subwoofer enclosure behind the seats. There were tweeters in the doors and the rest of the speakers were the 4 stock 5.25 4 ohms. Everything was blown except the subs and tweeters.
So, on the advice of a friend, and not wanting the heavy system, I took it out think that I could just use the head unit and replace the 4 stock speakers. Now I'm hooking up the speakers and getting no sound.
I have no idea where or how this thing is wired or how to even go about fixing it. I'd like to give it a shot myself as I'm pretty knowledgeable about this stuff. I'm not getting a sound out of any of my speakers - I want to find the wiring harness that was going to the amps, bypass it so I can get back to a stock sounding system.
I'm using the Sony CD head unit which looks to be a year or two old. If I went to a shop, how much do you think they would charge me?
Thanks!
Replies (3)
ttocs on 10/8/2004 01:25:08
huh, never worked on one of those before... Where are you at now? What have you removed, what remains in wiring and such?
As for what a shop charges that will depend on where you are, and how much they want to work on an alfa.. Give us/me a chance 1rst. I have been installing for a while now and can probably get you through it along with the others here....
UKinstaller on 10/8/2004 09:48:50
ttocs, does it sound like he possibly has a speaker grounding out somewhere?? whenever you get absolutely no sound at off ALL of your speakers, they aren't usually blown, it's usually a problem with one of the speakers grounding out.
ocduff, try this out. pull out your radio, and disconnect all of the speaker wires from the radio to whatever wiring you are hooked up to, whether it be, though unlikely, a wiring harness, or a hardwire. the colors are white, white/black stripe, gray, gray/black stripe, purple, purple/black stripe, and green, green/black stripe. the striped ones are going to be your negative. anyway....
hook up each speaker one by one and see if you get any sound. test the radio after you hook up each speaker. if you do, a speaker is grounding out, meaning the speaker wire is touching metal somwhere. perhaps a terminal came off of one of the speakers and is touching metal. if you don't get any sound, it could be something else.
try that out and see what happens. if you still get nothing, we'll see if you can "pop" your speakers to see if they work or not.
-UK
swez on 10/8/2004 11:13:28
Right on... start with identifying what does work and move through the diagnostics tree untill the situation is resolved.
1. Find the speaker wires off the amp(s) that feed each speaker
2. Test the speakers with a 9 volt battery attached to each line set off the amp(s) (you should hear a slight popping/static noise at each speaker while performing this test)
3. Once you have identied each speaker line to its respective speaker location, mark them with masking tape flags (LF, RF, LR, RR) Note the polarity of the + wire on the amp too.
4. Once all this is done, you will have to extend these wires back up to the dash where the HU is located and attach the proper wire sets to the proper speaker locations.
This process will take patience and careful observation of polarity on each wire set. Use a red Sharpie marker to ID each + wire to each speaker.
With luck, your HU amps are still operational. If needed, a bench test of the HU can be done using a 12 volt power supply (battery charger or car BAT) and 1 good speaker. This will help you ID which wire sets off the HU drive a given speaker location. Knowing the speaker wiring codes would be most helpful. But if not known, then wiring the speaker up to each set and using the balance/fade functions on the HU will tell you which color set drive which speaker location. Record the color codes as you test. Then you will know which colors are correct for each speaker location.
Swez
PS The team here can help you do this on your own. To have it done by a shop, will not be cheap. Yes, there are other ways to do this operatation too. You may run new speaker wires from the HU speaker harness out to each speaker location too. But the method noted above saves time by not having to fish new wires into the car or removing door panels again.
Here's the situation:
I just bought a used car, a 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider - it's a 2 seater convertible. It had two Alpine amps under the seats and a subwoofer enclosure behind the seats. There were tweeters in the doors and the rest of the speakers were the 4 stock 5.25 4 ohms. Everything was blown except the subs and tweeters.
So, on the advice of a friend, and not wanting the heavy system, I took it out think that I could just use the head unit and replace the 4 stock speakers. Now I'm hooking up the speakers and getting no sound.
I have no idea where or how this thing is wired or how to even go about fixing it. I'd like to give it a shot myself as I'm pretty knowledgeable about this stuff. I'm not getting a sound out of any of my speakers - I want to find the wiring harness that was going to the amps, bypass it so I can get back to a stock sounding system.
I'm using the Sony CD head unit which looks to be a year or two old. If I went to a shop, how much do you think they would charge me?
Thanks!
Replies (3)
ttocs on 10/8/2004 01:25:08
huh, never worked on one of those before... Where are you at now? What have you removed, what remains in wiring and such?
As for what a shop charges that will depend on where you are, and how much they want to work on an alfa.. Give us/me a chance 1rst. I have been installing for a while now and can probably get you through it along with the others here....
UKinstaller on 10/8/2004 09:48:50
ttocs, does it sound like he possibly has a speaker grounding out somewhere?? whenever you get absolutely no sound at off ALL of your speakers, they aren't usually blown, it's usually a problem with one of the speakers grounding out.
ocduff, try this out. pull out your radio, and disconnect all of the speaker wires from the radio to whatever wiring you are hooked up to, whether it be, though unlikely, a wiring harness, or a hardwire. the colors are white, white/black stripe, gray, gray/black stripe, purple, purple/black stripe, and green, green/black stripe. the striped ones are going to be your negative. anyway....
hook up each speaker one by one and see if you get any sound. test the radio after you hook up each speaker. if you do, a speaker is grounding out, meaning the speaker wire is touching metal somwhere. perhaps a terminal came off of one of the speakers and is touching metal. if you don't get any sound, it could be something else.
try that out and see what happens. if you still get nothing, we'll see if you can "pop" your speakers to see if they work or not.
-UK
swez on 10/8/2004 11:13:28
Right on... start with identifying what does work and move through the diagnostics tree untill the situation is resolved.
1. Find the speaker wires off the amp(s) that feed each speaker
2. Test the speakers with a 9 volt battery attached to each line set off the amp(s) (you should hear a slight popping/static noise at each speaker while performing this test)
3. Once you have identied each speaker line to its respective speaker location, mark them with masking tape flags (LF, RF, LR, RR) Note the polarity of the + wire on the amp too.
4. Once all this is done, you will have to extend these wires back up to the dash where the HU is located and attach the proper wire sets to the proper speaker locations.
This process will take patience and careful observation of polarity on each wire set. Use a red Sharpie marker to ID each + wire to each speaker.
With luck, your HU amps are still operational. If needed, a bench test of the HU can be done using a 12 volt power supply (battery charger or car BAT) and 1 good speaker. This will help you ID which wire sets off the HU drive a given speaker location. Knowing the speaker wiring codes would be most helpful. But if not known, then wiring the speaker up to each set and using the balance/fade functions on the HU will tell you which color set drive which speaker location. Record the color codes as you test. Then you will know which colors are correct for each speaker location.
Swez
PS The team here can help you do this on your own. To have it done by a shop, will not be cheap. Yes, there are other ways to do this operatation too. You may run new speaker wires from the HU speaker harness out to each speaker location too. But the method noted above saves time by not having to fish new wires into the car or removing door panels again.
Copyright ClubKnowledge 2009 * All Rights Reserved
