94Classic

So this may belong in the electrical section, for years now I have had the radio playing and just going down the road my speakers would give out. Both on the passenger side and on the drivers side. The only way I have found to get them back on, with no guarantees by the way, is to put the passenger side window up and down multiple times in order for it to go back. I replaced the original head unit thinking that it was starting to go bad or something but the same problem still occurs. Does anyone have any insight to this at all?

broncojunkie

I'm guessing there is an exposed speaker wire in the passenger door that's shorting out. When it grounds out, it probably trips an internal breaker in the head unit. Just guessing here, of course, but sounds feasible. I'd remove the door panel and pull the speaker out of the door (or at least see if you can see where the wires go in the back of it, but I'd say you'll end up having to pull the speaker out...which isn't too difficult.) If you don't see any issues there, it could be a frayed wire where it goes through the door jam area and through the rubber conduit into the door. I've heard of people having issues with power window and door lock switches because of pinched or frayed wires where the harness is routed through the door jam.

fltdriver

That's exactly what's happening, it's not throwing a fuse just grounding out and letting the sound signal go straight to the body of the truck. My convertible was doing the same thing, no sound at all then would come on with a door shutting or going over a bump then would go out randomly. It was one of the speakers, had connected a hi-input line for an amp on the speaker wire (when it still had factory HU) and the connection had come loose and was touching the frame. More than likely the speaker wire going into the door is grounding somewhere or something is touching the terminal on the speaker.

AbbadonTD

I would disagree with this diagnosis. BOTH speakers should not go out on a bad connection, ONE speaker would. I have a couple follow ups:

Replaced head unit: how long ago. If you did not install the harness right, that s your problem. Also you could have swapped a wire or something. Did you install a harness or did you cut your deck lines and try to wire in dash?

Is the head unit high power, and did you replace the factory speakers? Factory speakers are usually around 35W RMS, so a good deck would be around 45, and you could just be shorting out.

Your window fixing the problem is in no way connected. What you are probably doing is just dropping the voltage on the system, which brings the bad connection back.

I do think this is the deck wires, in the dash. So, did you install it correctly, with a harness, or did you cut the lines. Either way, you need to check that RF+/- are correct. If you swaped, and had one speaker running RF+/LF-, and the other the reverse, this would do EXACTLY what you describe.

AbbadonTD

Another thought too - Where are you? In hot, sunny, climates the TAPE on wires usually fails. I have to rewire most of my systems every 2-3 years because of colorado sun. The dash gets hot, and the wires slip in their tape - even good tape.

broncojunkie

You could be right. Problem could be elsewhere, but I know for a fact, at least with some systems, crossing/grounding out one speaker wire can make all of them cut off. I've done that in an aftermarket head unit before...not sure about factory. I accidentally ran a screw through a speaker wire. I've also seen it happen on a home stereo system. I just figured there was an internal breaker that would trip.

fltdriver

One speaker grounding out will fault the HU and cause it not to produce sound. That's what it did on mine. Now a bad speaker won't cause the rest to not produce sound, it is the result of an unimpeded flow that will cause most aftermarket and factory HUs to stop sending a signal until the ground fault is fixed.

94Classic

I replaced the head unit about 4 years ago, but I had the exact same problem with the original head unit except I could raise and lower the volume to help with the issue as well. And when I installed the new head unit there were adapters. I just took the panels off and found out that these arent the factory speakers but Not sure why that would be an issue.

fltdriver

With the radio on try unhooking each door speaker, or even just pop the pins out of the connector in dash for the + on each speaker one at a time. This will allow you to narrow the wiring issue to a specific speaker. Could be something as simple as some one running a screw into the wire somewhere or it rubbed the insulation off and is making contact with the frame somewhere.

If that doesn't have any effect then you may need a multimeter and start testing the wires. Also, using two jumper wires, get a known working speaker and hook it up to the HU using each speaker port one at a time with the others completely disconnected. Don't know how you have gone this long with sketchy stereo, had a little S10 with no radio and dealt with the silence fine for a while, but after a few months I just had to put in all new wiring, literally ALL NEW. There wasn't anything in the dash wire wise except for the cluster and climate control. Everything in that truck electrical was run off of PO installed relays and switches.

AbbadonTD

Audio is far more simple than Engine electronics.

Crossing out one speaker will not make them all drop, unless your deck is equipped with a disconnect to do so. Most home audio has this feature, which is why that does happen at home. Car audio systems are so low voltage that I have had speakers wired backwards for years, and not noticed. Only a very expensive deck would drop all speakers, and if you spent that, I would hope you bought install.

you probably damaged a wire, but which wire is the question. Still think its behind your deck. Did you install a harness or did you cut the dash wires. I am almost sure that if the second was done (what we call a ghetto install) than that's your problem.

Even if you know your audio, the wire colors coming out of the dash are not standard. They are by around 2001, but in a 90's vehicle, they are most likely as individual as the years. Thats why I think you have a RF/LF swap. What will cause the drop out is when the music is heavily on one side of "stereo" [If you play mono music, does it drop? Do you have anything mono these days?].

It could be any of the lines, if the new deck has illumination, than swap the ILL and DIM lines. Its just a solution for old decks. The factory deck does have dimmer and illumination, but they work very differently, requiring resistance on the system. If its not right (because of a different deck) than you would see the radio run for a bit, but randomly turn off. This was a real problem on anything 90's and american made.