Speaker wiring questions
 

I am installing a Sony stereo in my W123. I read from another post how to power it up, and am OK with that. I am hooking up the speakers. The sony has four sets of two wires, but I only have four wires coming out of my dash. They are two solid blacks, one black/red stripe, and black/green stripe.

I have the solid blacks mated with two different Sony solid colors, and the stripes with the corresponding solid colors that have black stripes. I hear both channels of sound.

However, when I set the balance on the stereo head to far left, all the sound goes away. If I set the balance all the way to the right, it is the same as when the balance is set in the middle. My fader thumbwheel on the console seems to work OK.

My question - do I have the wires hooked up right? Also - the back of the stereo unit gets very hot to the touch within minutes, even at low volume. Is this normal?

thanks,

It sounds like you have the wires from the speakers connected to the right side outputs. Double check the colors, and make sure you have one pair connected to the right side output, and the other to the left.

With Sony (and most other car stereo manufacturers) you have four speaker outputs:

White == Left Front +
White/Black == Left Front -
Gray == Right Front +
Gray/Black == Right Front -
Green == Left Rear +
Green/Black == Left Rear -
Purple == Right Rear +
Purple/Black == Right Rear -

You need to figure out what wires go to the left side speakers and what wires go to the right, then connect the left pair to the green and green/black wires, and the right pair to the purple and purple/black pair.

To help figure out which wires go to which speaker, get a 9V battery (one of the little ones) and try lightly touching the speaker wires to the terminals. The little batteries can't put out enough current to do any damage, but you will hear scratching noises from the speaker once you've made contact.