First smoke, now no speakers?

Discussion in 'General Car Audio Discussions' started by justin_92_92, Apr 20, 2010.

  1. justin_92_92

    justin_92_92 Member

    Hello,

    I have a 1995 ford mustang. Its the wife's car. Well a while back I put in a cd player for her and a amp. First time doing it and it worked but wasnt done correct. I know that now. The issue was the amp was getting its power from the same wire as the receiver was. I just spliced it. But that's then.

    My issue is this, I was messing with the speaker outs on the amp that I had going to a sub. I wanted to see how they would make a 6x9 sound. well It was a while ago but I remember the deck started to smoke a bit. I quickly stopped doing what I was doing and made sure there was no more smoke. It all stopped but since then I get no sound from the speakers. UNLESS I use the amplifier through the RCA jacks and then run off the amp to the speakers.

    So I figured the speaker outputs were fried on the deck. I bought a new one and still no sound out the normal speaker outputs. I know the speakers work...so whats left? the wires that run from the whip to the speakers? Is there any fuses or anything else I should check...I already pulled all the fuses under the dash.
     
  2. eviling

    eviling Full Member

    i didnt completly follow, but the deck smoked, than no sound, replaced deck (first thing i thought to do) still no sound, you checked wires for physical dmg nothing... so, some cheap amps have fusing inside for what ever reason, also there SHOULD be some fusing on the amp, and in line fusing for the power to the amp, i'd check all of these, you didnt mention if the amp had any lights on. I'd check the fuses next, than the wires for physical damage, check contanuity if at all posible with a multi meter, to make sure theres no micro burns that burnt out the wires. but thats really only an extra step, if the fusing is good, its only safe to assume the amp is blown, the speakers shoudlnt effect your deck, or your amp, but if your running it for a period of time at the wrong ohm rating, such as 2 ohm speakers on your amp when its not rated for it even fi you have 2 4 ohm speakers..if you connect them at the same time you're going to create a 2 ohm load, as far as i know, that sounds most likely what happnd to me.
     
  3. justin_92_92

    justin_92_92 Member

    Sorry if it is confusing LOL. Im a bit new to this stuff really.

    I completly took the amp out of the picture to try solving this. So what I have is the factory speaker outs (something like gray,white,purple,cant think of last one) hooked up to the patching color on the harness that plugs into the oem car plug.

    I assume that those wire go directly to the speakers? Am I wrong? I guess thats what Im trying to find out. Because I know the speakers work...and I know the deck works...must be the link between the two. Now if there is a fuse for the speakers not on the deck...that could be...but I dont think there is a such thing.

    Thanks for the reply, Ill go out and try checking a couple of the things you suggested about the wires.
     
  4. eviling

    eviling Full Member

    well you know the deck works its new, and you know the old wire harnest works, doing all that is quite usless, especily if it's not even wired into the new wires that were ran for your new speakers, asuming you ran new wires for those. i perosnaly took my old ones out, but thats me, some like to keep the option there, anyhow, waste of time..your most likly looing at a dead amp , like i said you probobly had the 2 speakers hooked up at once, or the one you were testing was rated at 2 ohms and your amp wasnt...thats the best guess i could come, or it could just be a complete fluke blown amp, they can blow at any moment, its the nature of electronics, they sometimes have nano cratures in soder joints, or in the solid state devices, just stuff like that.
     
  5. justin_92_92

    justin_92_92 Member

    so there is an amp in the car somewhere? Because Im not using my amp that I tested to make sure the speakers worked. I pulled that out. I just wired them to the harness like normal. If there is a factory amp in the car...where would it be?
     
  6. eviling

    eviling Full Member

    o_O
    whoa your confused lol

    alright, you told me you had an amp in the car, 4 channel i assumed, and an after market deck...than you said one of the things you were doing to trouble shoot was put the factory speakers in and wiring them back to the deck directly, am i wrong?
     
  7. cccullen

    cccullen Full Member

    One question... did your mustang come with the mach 460 system in it? If you do or you are not sure, check under the rear deck near the speakers and see if anything is there.

    report back to us what you see.
     
  8. justin_92_92

    justin_92_92 Member

    all I see is the two speakers. Nothing else.

    I completely took the amp out of the equation until I figure this out. So if no factory amp, and its direct connected via harness wires...could it be that my lines ALL burned up between the harness and the speakers?
     
  9. cccullen

    cccullen Full Member

    that could be a possibility. try this. from your HU just run speaker wires to a speaker to see if it will work that way, if it does then you know there something wrong with the stock wires. then just run new wires.
     
  10. eviling

    eviling Full Member

    thats why i told you to check the continuity in the lines, you should be able to reach the end behind the head unit and the line on your doors no problem, the back seat might be a little hard to check might need to splice a line. it's highly unlikly they all fried to an extent that you had no fuzz or noise though, but if your running stock lines..it could happen, they usialy aren't the best wires. the ones in my car are garbage.
     
  11. Ranger SVO

    Ranger SVO Full Member

    Need to check it out with a volt meter. If a radio has a short on any speaker wire it will shut down all audio to protect itself.

    Set the VOM (volt meter, NOT a test light.) to volts, place the black lead to ground, probe the speaker wires with the red lead. Here is what you should see. If there is no short, all the speaker wires will read about 1/2 of battery voltage. All the speaker wires (the radio is on) will have around 6-volts on them. All speaker wire voltages will be within a 1/10 of a volt to each other.

    A shorted speaker wire will read near 0-volts. A bad radio will show seriously varing voltages. For example if a speaker wire reads 4 volts and another reads 6 then the output is bad.

    Time to quit guessing and figure this thing out
     
  12. justin_92_92

    justin_92_92 Member

    thanks guys, I will do as you have suggested. I need to charge the battery now though LOL. I guess I forgot to shut off the car and killed the battery...which wasnt too hot to begin with. Its only a summer car and I didnt unplug it this winter. So I will be able to try this out sunday and see how it goes.


    Thanks for the help so far guys!
     
  13. justin_92_92

    justin_92_92 Member

    after a bunch of testing, I found the issue to be in a short whip. Im not sure what it is yet but I know where it is.

    Off the back of the factory radio is 2 whips...One for the power and crap, the other for the speakers. The one for speakers goes about a foot and plugs into another harness. I found the speaker wires worked from this second harness all the way to each speaker. SO I know the issue is in the 1 foot harness. Im gonna try not to cut it all up because I want to use the old plug ins but we will see.
     
  14. justin_92_92

    justin_92_92 Member

    Well I guess there was a factory amp...Under the radio compartment. It was fried! Got a used one one the way.