Radio / Speaker Question

[Rolson]

straycat

I'm driving it everywhere now. I've put about 600-700 miles on it I think. Just got the speedo working on Friday. I'm only on my second tank of fuel.

Feels nice and smooth going down the road. I need to get the IP timing adjusted and maybe rebuild the injectors. I get a lot of smoke at an idle, but clean and clear going down the road once the turbo spools up.

I found a good MB diesel mechanic downstate that will help me get it timed right on, I just need to get time to get it down to him.

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement, and appreciation.

Rick

 

[--weezl--]

make a build thread, this is def one that will gain a lot of interest

 

[Andy D]

cool build. The radio in the Ranger came to me missing the face plate. Turns out it was a "premium package" radio with an amp stuck down behind the radio. The speaker wires go to it before the radio. Something in the amp shorted out the speakers. Once I figured that out, I got perfect sound out of the 70$ Dual I bought from Crutchfield. I searched here for the wiring diagram and eventually found the right one.

 

[Rolson]

Andy D

Thanks for the heads up on the amp. This truck has the premium sound system also. When I looked up from under the dash, I noticed what I thought might be an amp and wondered if that might be my problem, but I wasn't even sure it was an amp.

I will try to get at it tomorrow and get the radio out of the dash too.

Thanks.

Rick

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

speakers require a voltage to move, but it's more the frequency that makes you hear noise... honestly, i don't think you have 4 blown speakers, it's unlikely, and typically even with a blown speaker, you still get some noise out of it... when i bought my mustang, the (i think it was the mustang) there was a wire shorted out in one of the doors, which made none of the speakers work...

i see this more being your issue, though it shouldn't give you 3vac if it's shorted out...

It isn't common, but it certainly is possible. I went through that with my F-150. Speakers worked when I first got it. Half the time I don't have the radio on though. So one night I turn it on and I hear the music start then immediately POP... Crinkle-crinkle-crinkle.... crack-crinkle and silence. Lost all four speakers.

But that's ok....

I now have four Rockford Fosgate speakers in there and a better am/fm/cd/Ipod/usb player by Pioneer. And since I had done that sort of upgrade, I ran some 18ga quality speaker wire. (ok, so despite the fact that I don't turn it on all that much, I was big into building stereos and playing with subs, so I'm a lil bit of a car audio junkie, lol)

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Thanks for the heads up on the amp. This truck has the premium sound system also. When I looked up from under the dash, I noticed what I thought might be an amp and wondered if that might be my problem, but I wasn't even sure it was an amp.

I will try to get at it tomorrow and get the radio out of the dash too.

Thanks.

Rick

Ahh yes, I nearly forgot about the premium sound package....

 

[Rolson]

Ok guys,
Today I finally got the radio out of the dash and followed the wiring. It does not have an amp. I guess it's not the "premium" system I read about.

Anyway, the plugs on the back of the radio actually had a description of which colored wire went to what. The gray plug was the power, chassis ground, clock, and illumination of the display.

The black plug has 8 wires and they are a feed and ground for each speaker. I decided to check the voltage on each pair of wires going to the speakers from the back of the radio. 3 of them registered 0 volts, and the other pair registered only 0.39 volts, both ac and dc it read the same on my multimeter.

From this I think I am safe to assume that the radio output is dead. I will pick up a new radio tonight and put it in tomorrow.

Cheers,
Rick

 

[Rolson]

End of the radio saga

Picked up a $50 Dual radio at WM last night.

Installed it today with the help of the wiring diagram I found on this site. A big THANK YOU to whoever put it here.

All 4 speakers work fine. It was definitely the output of the original radio that did not work.

Thank you also to everyone who read and answered my questions. Hopefully I can do the same for someone else someday.

Rick