Dead Speakers?
 

I cleaned the contacts on the fader and the sound coming out of the left speakers (front and rear) sound fine. The crackle that was coming out of the right speakers (front and rear) is gone. Actually, there is NO sound coming out of those speakers. Could the crackling have come from dead speakers while the fader had dirty contacts? Thanks!

1987 w124 300e

I pulled the right front speaker...
 

and found that it was a 4" JBL. I disconnected it and attached the speaker wires to a spare speaker I had and got silence. I checked continuity between the two front speaker wires (someone had spliced in a line to lengthen the wires, they appear to be fine) and heard a soft crackle in the rear right speaker.

:confused:Any ideas?

I finally pulled the head unit...
 

and found that sound is only coming out of the left connecter. I tried the * bass and treble controls, but apparently that only works on 88 and later Beckers (780's and later). I'm assuming that the right amp is toast, so I'll be getting an after-market stereo.

Are you sure the fader switch did not become disconnected after cleaning and replacing panel?

I checked the fader socket...
 

without the fader (using a multi-meter) and it showed almost no output coming out of the left side.

So you have found that the problem is before the fader switch? I was going to suggest taking the speaker out and hooking it up to your stereo in the garage, room, etc. and seeing if it was in fact the speaker...

Yep, actually...
 

I took out the right front speaker and plugged in a good one, no juice. It was only a day or two later that I actually tested the wiring harness that the fader plugs into. I appreciate all the help that I've gotten from this forum!

The fader feeds the rear power amps on my 560SEL. amps are behind the rear seatsone left one right. Can't se how youwould fry an amp just cleaning the fader. the amps take a normal speaker signal of 8 ohms. I had to replace my becker witha blue dot miami a few weeks ago.

The amps are not low signal input. I had to feed left and right speaker signal right into the fader. The fader is about 500 ohms and allows the front and rear split, so the right amp is two amps: one for front and one for rear.

Point is two: 1 throught the fader you can feed it with lots of power, mine is 4x25watt out of the radio. 2 just get a used amp. Gotta be cheap, who wants them? ** to by pass fader and the amps, you'll have to run new wire to the output of the two amps and splice into the speaker wires there. Its a lot easier pulling the back seat and testing the amp. try jumpering the good side to the no sound side at the fader. maybe you just hurt the fader.

And the signal to the fader should drive a speaker for testing the radio output. I can only think that:
some how you shorted the right channel radio output, so there is no radio output. test that with your spare speaker.

*** Most Likely*** you have radio output but the fader is damaged, maybe just bent wipers, but the signal is into the fader but not out. Again use your spare speaker to see if there is right f & r signal out of the fader.

If output from the fader, pull the rear seat and use you spare at the amp for input. Right speaker input from the fader is red wire #8 pin front, and yellow # 4 rear. (on mine.)

just for anyones info if the wires somehow get grounded you will lose the audio of that channel.