What is wrong with my radio?

35th T-bird SC

Registered User
I had no sound to the speakers but power to the radio so I bought a used stock cassette player. Installed that this morning now I can hear music to the speakers but it's so light I can barely hear it with the volume cranked too. What do I need to do to get music? I'm trying to keep the stock amp and sub in trunk intact and maybe at the most a new pioneer cd player.
 
it is possible that your amp aint turnin on,or possibly it blew up.one problem i had was the connectors themselves to the speakers i ended up pullin all speakers out just enough to replace the connectors with spade terminals,no matter what happens i would recomend you do that,just cut the plugs off and crimp on spades for the speaker terminals themselves,make sure you remember which is possitive n negative that is important.the other thing you should do is get yourself a schematic for the wireing the dealer or the junk yard should be able to provide you with copies of that for free.if the terminals aint the problem then bypass the amp and see if you got sound then if so then the amp is obvbiously bad n if not then probably the head unit or the terminals,probably not the head unit in your case.
 
If you buy a install wiring kit for your car, it shoudl come with a pigtail to bypass the amp all together. Needd for using aftermarket head units since they will put out more power than the amp can handle. Make sure you get the wiring adapters for a car with the stock JBL system so you get the bypass harness. Shouldn't be more than $15-$20
 
Where can I buy that? I don't see Wal mart carrying that. So your saying to buy an aftermarket cd player and bypass the amp? What about the sub. Will it sound good that way or can I put an aftermarket amp in the old amp's place and send all that to the stock speakers and sub?
 
If you bypass the factory amp, you also bypass the sub. Should be able to buy the adapter harness at Best Buy, or any other electronics store that carries car stereo's. Even a car stereo shop should have them and sell them at decent prices. This would tell you if it was the amp or the radio though. If you use an aftermarket head unit, you need to bypass the amp or it will sound like ****, and the factory sub really isn't designed for aftermarket amps either. The only way to use the factory amp/sub with aftermarket head unit is get one with low output power, like less than 10W
 
35th T-bird SC said:
Where do you bypass it with the harness. At the radio or back in the trunk somewhere?

The bypass harness for the amp goes in the trunk. You unplug the connectors from the amp, and the bypass harness goes in between the two connetors, so instead of the signals going through the amp, they go through the harness.
 
i have to say that a wire harness you can buy that bypasses the amp is news to me,(not to say thats not true)but i just cut the plugs off and wired them together,like i said you need a schematic.this obviously is done in the trunk.you should already have the harness for the head unit,so thats not an issue,anyway,you can still use the stock amp for the sub with an aftermarket radio,you just need to understand what wires are what,it is true that the other amp is tied in with the sub amp,but if you understand whats what then you caN still make it work,from what i remember the plug for the sub amp on the right side with the red n yellow wire is power n ground,i know fer sure the red wire is hot,anyway that leaves what you got on the left side which is gonna be a)=remote turn on)b=1 channel of speaker wires.the 2 that look the same are gonna be the 1 channell,now what you would have to do is,since your using all your channels on you head unit is make sure you have a head unit that has preamp outputs (rca jacks)run a patch cord to your trunk n put an inline converter that goes from rca jacks to speaker wire input,n hook that to you amp.you can also buy rca cords that have a remote turn on wire in them,n obviously the remote turn on wire on your head unit is the blue wire that might say either antena or remote.
 
The bypass harnes has been around for a while. And works better than cutting the wires in case you ever want to go back to stock, like when selling the car or what not. Comes as part of the adapter harness for new head units when you specify that you have the factory JBL system in the car. I have one on mine. Tried running through the amp first and sounded like shyte. Put the bypass harness on and sounded good. I also put in 2-12" subs in the truck with seperate amp, so ditched the factory sub and amps, and pulled out the amp rack in the back to make room for the 12" sub box. Have the ride control computers sitting on the fenderwell on side of trunk.
 
good deal what kinda subs n amp you got in there?also isnt there eec part of whats in the amp rack n assumin the other box is ride control?anyway these cars sound great as far as response with a sub the cab n trunk design is perfect for frequencies it gets from the subs,i would recomend it to anyone.i will say this though,the cab speakers cant keep up with the bass you should get from a couple of 12s,i even got an amp on my jbl interiors crossed over even n still woulnt keep up with 2 alpine r12s n 2 kenwood 600s,so i only got 1 in there now.does sound descent though for what it is.
 
belucky said:
good deal what kinda subs n amp you got in there?also isnt there eec part of whats in the amp rack n assumin the other box is ride control?anyway these cars sound great as far as response with a sub the cab n trunk design is perfect for frequencies it gets from the subs,i would recomend it to anyone.i will say this though,the cab speakers cant keep up with the bass you should get from a couple of 12s,i even got an amp on my jbl interiors crossed over even n still woulnt keep up with 2 alpine r12s n 2 kenwood 600s,so i only got 1 in there now.does sound descent though for what it is.

Nothing fancy. Have Legacy Audio 12" subs, a cheap $30 sub box, and a Sony Xplode 1000W amp(barely puts out 300W RMS) All bought form Ebay for under $250. Using a Pionerr head unit I bought for $140 off Ebay. Everything brand new. So under $400 total in the stereo. Just using the stock speakers, and it sonds okay.
 
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