1994 escort lx anti theft.

Hey everyone, My topic has probably been covered before, but I don't know of many people that put security systems on a Ford Escort... Besides me... Either way, Here's the skinny on my problem at hand, and if anyone has any pointers or tips, please don't hesitate to rattle my cage and let me know what you think -

Have a nameless alarm setup in my car. Previous owner installed it (he had 12 MA 12's in the back, pretty good reason for security), ANYWAYS, I've inspected the entire harness, and from what I can tell, it has a good ground, and is connected to a good B+ constant hot. My issue is... When I got the car out from around the back of the house after sitting for nearly a year, I put a hot battery on it, and the alarm automatically started blaring. Me being the act-now-think-later type, I just snipped the - and + at the horn/alarm itself. I made it a point to tape the leads off so that there would be no short to hot, or short to ground. Didn't want any fires, and didn't want to replace any fuses.

At any rate, NOW, when I hook it up, it automatically starts buzzing, going through the 4 or 5 different alarm tones. Alarm armed or not. Also, the sound is VERY faint, in comparison.

I was quite puzzled by this, so I decided to stick the alarm loudspeaker on a 12V source to test the component itself. Welp, after making every dog in the neighborhood start howling, and after changing my drawers, I can verify the loudspeaker is DEFINITELY working.

I can make a video of it attached to the harness, and hooked up to the 12V source, if requested.

I checked the harness itself, and it appears to have a good ground, and is also well connected to the constant hot-wire. Still no dice.

SIDE NOTE - Relevant or not: The harness has two inline fuses, neither seem to be blown, but I can check with my test light tomorrow. ALSO - (be it relevant or not): When I have the horn/loudspeaker connected to the actual harness, and I try to test it with my Test-light, it automatically cuts off on contact.

Didn't know if the sidenotes would prove to be relevant or not, but hopefully with all of your help, I can figure this out and prevent my nearly 700.00 subwoofer from getting stolen :(

Thanks!

-J

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DJ Jack Ripper, Car audio noob (sort of)

Here is what I've determined thus far - It's a ScyTek Astra A10 or some variant of it. No part numbers ANYWHERE, no nothing. Did some research based on a friends hunch, and for the mechanical side of things, he suggested a bad ground. The entire alarm system works well except for the siren. The lights flash when armed, LED works, and the alarm is triggered when the shock sensor is... shocked... Everything works but the Siren.

Based on the information I've given, I've probably already solved my own issue. My question, which I'll find out tomorrow, is if I can bypass the ground for the siren onto a good chassis ground, leave the B+ connected, and see if it works. Based on my troubleshooting with the test light and the continuous barely audible siren until I touched my test light to the B+ wire. Also... The test light did not illuminate when I checked the hot.

That's what I have for you guys to contemplate on. Maybe this will make it easier for a diag.

Thanks!

- J

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DJ Jack Ripper, Car audio noob (sort of)

You CAN do this with a test light but nowhere near as accurate, use a DMM to test the voltage between 12V+ and NEG- at the alarm brain to check the voltage, anything under 12.2 is unacceptable, then check continuity between the alarm brain's grounding point and the battery ground, should be 2 ohms or less, ditto between the siren ground and the battery ground, last on triggering the alarm check the voltage at the hot siren lead. Last my guess is a bad ground on the siren brain.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

ditto to the bad ground on the siren

Ok, so I had clipped the wiring so there's about a foot coming off the siren itself. I did the DMM test and it read a steady 12.63 the entire 30 seconds, so I'm assuming it's got the power, but a bad ground. The only place it's grounded is on the side of the dash bracing. Better ground perhaps? On the inside of the firewall behind the fuse box would be my best guess. I gotta get my wire brush or some 180 grit ahold of a spot to ground it to.

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DJ Jack Ripper, Car audio noob (sort of)

No, don't drill a hole and use a self tapper or taptite, they work loose. Use an existing grounding bolt to say a kick panel and scrape the paint off.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

That is what I was planning on doing. I won't use self-tapping screws. It's on a piece of what seems to be 'rusted' metal. I'll relocate it somewhere it's going to complete the circuit. Thanks! I'm gonna try it, and see what it does to help.

J

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DJ Jack Ripper, Car audio noob (sort of)