Radio cuts off

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dtom4

Member - Posts: 9

Joined: February 28, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: July 02, 2004 at 12:28 PM / IP Logged

ok-this is really getting me annoyed. I replaced the oem stereo on my old 87 Saab 900 with an Alpine head unit, 4 Audiobahn speakers, and a Bazooka amplified 8" bass tube. I cut the oem radio wire harness so I could splice the new HU to it and not have to cut the cars wires. Everything works fine except for no apparent reason the radio arbitrarily cuts off. The bass tube is still working but nothing comes out the speakers. All I get is the thumping from the sub. Normal radio operation returns whenever. Sometimes in a few minutes, sometimes in days. I thought maybe it was the HU but I replaced it with a brand new Kenwood and it still does the same thing. Then I thought maybe it was the ground so I spliced another ground into the harness which didn't help. I just installed an MSD 6A ignition today and noticed I'm getting static through the speakers that sometimes varies with engine speed even when the HU is off. Any help/advise would be appreciated. TIA

Dave T.

90 4Runner

93 Civic DX

86 TransAm

87 Saab 900

93 Lumina Z34

81 280 ZX

Alpine Guy

Platinum - Posts: 2,478

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Joined: October 18, 2003

Location: Canada

Posted: July 02, 2004 at 7:01 PM / IP Logged

Sounds like you shouldn't have gone cheep and bought a aftermarket harness adaptor!

But seriously, umm, how did you attach the wires together?, try soldering and tapeing if you haven't already, match your wires up with the diagram below.

Constant 12V+	Gray
Switched 12V+	Red
Ground	Black
Illumination	WHITE/ Blue
Dimmer	n/a
Antenna Trigger	Green
Antenna	Left Rear
Front Speakers	4" Dash
Left Front (+)	Brown
Left Front (-)	Green
Right Front (+)	Red
Right Front (-)	Blue
Rear Speakers	4" x 10" Side Shelves
Left Rear (+)	WHITE/ Brown
Left Rear (-)	WHITE/ Green
Right Rear (+)	WHITE/ Red
Right Rear (-)	WHITE/ Blue

2003 Chevy Avalanche,Eclipse CD7000,Morel Elate 5,Adire Extremis,Alpine PDX-4.150, 15" TC-3000, 2 Alpine PDX-1.1000, 470Amp HO Alt.

dtom4

Member - Posts: 9

Joined: February 28, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: July 02, 2004 at 11:17 PM / IP Logged

Jason:

Thanks for the response. Yeah maybe I should have bought an aftermarket harness but I figure it shouldn't make a difference as long as its wired correctly. I soldered all the connections and shrink wrapped them so I know they are good and solid. I wired everything according to the same wiring scheme you provided. Maybe I should go for a new harness. Even when I don't get sound though everything powers up fine, display works just like it should but no sound. Thanks again

Dave T.

90 4Runner

93 Civic DX

86 TransAm

87 Saab 900

93 Lumina Z34

81 280 ZX

sparkie

Platinum - Posts: 2,061

Joined: November 06, 2003

Location: Canada

Posted: July 04, 2004 at 1:01 PM / IP Logged

It is possible that one or more or your speakers is bad or a speaker wire is shorted to ground. If you used the RCA outputs to drive your sub tube and the built in amp in the deck to drive the four speakers this may be why. If one or more of the speaker's connections are shorted then you will loose all audio except from the RCA output from the deck. Pull the radio out of the dash when the problem occurs. Use a digital volt meter set on a DC scale. Put one probe to a good ground and measure each speaker wire for voltage one at a time. You should get a reading of around 6 volts if everything is fine. If you get a reading above 8 volts or below 4 volts then this wire or speaker has a problem. The next step would be to disconnect the affected speaker and recheck. Repair it accordingly, either by replacing the speaker or it's wire. Make sure that the speaker's connections aren't shorting out to the car's chassis because of the way they are mounted. It happens!

sparky

dtom4

Member - Posts: 9

Joined: February 28, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: July 04, 2004 at 4:43 PM / IP Logged

You guys are good. Sparky-you hit it right on the nose! I cut off the radio harness plug that goes to the car harness and attached female connectors on each individual wire. I plugged in one speaker at a time to the car harness. Each speaker was working fine until I got to the LF when all the speakers cut off when I attached the negative. I pulled the speaker out of the dash and found that one of the speaker wire tabs had kinked and the wire was touching a speaker rivet right at the tiny exposed part of the wire at the connector. It was a tight fit for the speaker and apparently when I stuffed it in the tab got caught on something and kinked. Straightened it out and now all is good. Thanks for the help. Really appreciate it.

Dave T.

90 4Runner

93 Civic DX

86 TransAm

87 Saab 900

93 Lumina Z34

81 280 ZX

sparkie

Platinum - Posts: 2,061

Joined: November 06, 2003

Location: Canada

Posted: July 05, 2004 at 3:12 PM / IP Logged

Glad to help. Enjoy the new stereo.

sparky

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Radio cuts off

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