OK I have a slight problem I'm putting a system in my daily driver and I can't figure out, on the back speakers, what wires are positive and what's negative. It's an '87 Mazda 323.

The back right wires from the car are blue w/ yellow stripe and blue w/ red stripe.

The back left wires from the car are solid blue and blue w/ white stripe.

I squeezed the speakers' wires to the cars wires and I get sound outta the speakers either way I try. I just wanna make sure I got it right before I start soldering. The fronts were easy cuz I followed the wires to the radio harness but I can't follow the backs. Anybody know a way to figure it out? Thanks.

Mike

 

Take a square 9 volt battery. Put one wire on the positive and one on the negitive. When positive is positive and negitive is negitive the speaker will push out. Do not do this for long or you will fry the speaker. Its best if you do this with a friend. This trick also works if you have a bunch of wires together and you did not label them. The speaker will make a poping sound identifying the speaker for you. P.S. this will not work if you have an inline x-over!!!

My 2 Cents

John

 

Ditto

 

ditto with john

and please more pics of the girl in your sig man!!!

 

The battery is a great way and works well in most cases. Note that the battery technique is useless on a tweeter because you can't see the diaphragm move.

Often times factory or cheap speakers are not marked with symbols but a dot. If you see a dot next to a terminal that is the positive one.

 

thanks for all the responses guys! the battery trick worked like a charm. but not i face an even bigger problem. my stereo was working perfectly fine for about an hour right. then i suddenly stopped hearing any sound what so ever. the head unit is still lit up, makes beeps when i press the buttons, etc. i tried both a cd and the radio but i can't even get static. any ideas? btw, when i turn the radio on i hear a little click sound coming from the speakers but that's it.

it's an alpine cda 9833 head unit, alpine sps 100a 4" front speakers, and alpine sps 170a 6.5" rear speakers. thanks again for all your help.

 

I have the Alpine 9833, you might have turned off the internal amp, double check that!!!! I'm glade I could help.

John

 

how do u do that?

 

Read the instructions!

 

Sorry, just had to bust chops.
Press Menu
Press the side arrow until you get power-IC
Turn the rotary **** until it says on. If it already says on-you have a problem
Then press Menu

John

 

yeah it was already on. i tried turning it off then back on again and i heard that little pop sound in the speakers but nothing else. so am i screwed or what?

 

So you get no sound at all? The radio is less then a year old, so it should still be under warrenty. Let someone bench test it!

 

since you didn't know how to turn the power ic on and off then you may have missed the need for a larger power and ground wires. the alpine 60w x 4 headunits really need the larger wire to operate properly. you may have burned out the ic chip or you may have a shorted speaker or speaker wire. unhook all speaker wires and hook up one at a time to see if they play by themselves.

read the freak'n book. set your crossovers too. slope 24 db

 

Roger calm down. You need to read the book. It is only a 26w rms head unit. The only place that says you need a heavier gauge wire is Crutchfield, the Alpine book does not even mention it pg 38 & 39. If it needed that heavy of a hook up, why is the factory wire only 16 gauge????
I do think he needs to recheck his wiring, but just pull the headunit and get it checked for $20.

Call Alpine and talk to the Tech's, they are awesome and will give you all the time correction info and slopes to set up.
1-800-257-4631

 

yeah dude take a ****** chill pill. if i was a car audio expert then i wouldn't be posting here would i? but anyway i'm gona call alpine during the week and see what the deal is. btw where's a good place to get it checked it out? thanks.