I pulled the head unit out of my SEC on Saturday, thinking Iwould run new speaker wire to it in an effort to get sound out of the driver's side speakers. Whoa! There was an antenna wire (I think) and the rest were all running through a wire harness. I was hoping the back of the unit would be a little more straightforward than that.

Any suggestions on how to sort out what's what? What do current head units look like on the back? I was hoping there would be individual inputs that were labeled as to what went into each one. Am I just dreaming?

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

Are you trying to run new speaker wire from a headunit to the speakers (or using a factory headunit)? '87s still have that stupid center fader but luckily no amps to bypass.

Once I know more I can further advise.

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I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 245k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 326k

Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford.

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty.[/IMG]

here is the pic of a modern headunit. All those color wires are the power and speaker wires. Now my headunit has alot more wires because it has alot of features but the basic is there. The black plastic connector with light blue electrical is the antenna wire. The wiring harness plugs in the back and has about 6 inches of wire coming off of that. You solder the power and speaker wires to those wires and then you are done.

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http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...titled-1-3.jpg
1981 300d

Yeah... I've rewired more than a few stereos in cars

__________________
I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 245k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 326k

Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford.

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty.[/IMG]

perhaps this would help you...It's the diagram for a 1987 560SL, I can't imagine yours to be too different

Attached Thumbnails

 

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

Is it stock of aftermarket?



I only have 5 wires actually plugged in on the rear of my headunit...


Antenna, Constant 12, Switched 12, Ground, Remote.


All my signal goes through RCAs.

__________________
-Justin

91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd
01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd
07 MB ML320 CDI - dd
16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd

it's automatic.

My HU is an after market, a Panasonic. There is a wiring harness that everything feeds into and which plugs into the back of the HU. It is currently wired into the console fader, but I was hoping to bypass that. I ran speaker cables fron the read deck to the dashboard area, but haven't connected them on either end yet.

I didn't want to start fiddling around with that nest of wires without knowing exactly what I was doing.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

Whomever put this HU in appears to have used some kind of funky-looking wire nuts to make the connections. That probably explains why I'm not getting any sound out of one side.

I was hoping to find the connections labeled on the back of the HU, but I guess that would have been too easy.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

Okay.

Do you have any factory wiring left for power/ground/dimmer? Utilize that to flip the hu on and off.

From there, I'd just run new, quality 16awg speaker wire to all new speakers. Just leave that fader and nonsense there. The wiring is very thin to begin with and it's a big hassle to mess with. Trace what colors are for what channels... purple, green, grey, etc. and hook up accordingly. Colors on the new headunit are standard

IMO, I'd just install a small amplifier (25-40x4) which will totally blow away the sound quality of any headunit and can be done for sub $100 easily. I scored a killer Kicker ZX460 (35x4 from memory) for $80 recently. 0.02% THD at full power, full range.

I have purchased old Precision Power Sedona also for $50 for 4 channel units. All they need are a basic amp install kit... 8awg power wire is fine from the battery... PLUS you're still stringing a few sets of wires anyway.



Just a few more options for you

__________________
I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 245k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 326k

Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford.

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty.[/IMG]

I don't understand what you're saying, Hit Man X.

How would I know what was for power/ground/dimmer? I did look at the color of the wires as the come to the speakers, but some of them looked so close in color to others that I didn't think I could tell them apart.

I think the factory wiring is something like 20-22 gauge. I ran some 12 gauge Monster cable from the rear speakers just because I had some left over from another project.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

Switched, constant, ground, dimmer are in one plug.

Speakers were only the two channels, yellow and green I think. Disregard all that factory junk.

__________________
I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 245k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 326k

Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford.

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty.[/IMG]

I believe some of my factory speaker wires are brown and red. What color would the switched, constant, ground, dimmer wire be? Is it always the same color?

Thanks for your help.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

Tom, look at this problem like trying to find out what spark plug is bad.
Do you have any sound coming out of the 'bad' speaker? That would make this challenge a bit easier. But no biggie.

This is what I did to start. With stereo on, I disconnected one wire at a time to see what stopped working. Then labeled that wire as such. If you disconnect a wire and find no change, chances are it's the 'bad' speaker wire.

Locating the common ground was my first task. After that, I started disconnecting the wires. You say you may be running new wires anyway, so cut away.

__________________


Selling used Mercedes parts on Ebay...always changing...
cdplayer51 take a look!
____________

Okay. I'll try that, CD. Thanks.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

I agree run the new wire from the speakers back to the head unit or amp. Leave the other crap in place. Then get your 12v tester light (hook it to good ground, I always use a long lead from the battery) and start testing the leads for the switched power(unless you want a constant) finding a ground is usually cake starting with the all brown wires check it in reverse with the tester again.

__________________
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47,000mi

04 VW TDI Passat 80,000mi
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