[Swic]

One of the previous owners did quite a bit of stuff, from what I can tell the front speakers were replaced with 5.25" speakers and the rears were tossed along with the panel. I found two pairs of wire that should be for those rear speakers.

However, I bought a component speaker system to replace them and I seemingly can't get anything to make a noise. I heard a slight murmur when I put one of the pairs of wires right on the woofer, but it was very weak (maybe I was imagining things...). I checked the fade setting on the stereo and everything seems to still be connected in the back of the head unit. Was I wrong to get component instead of coaxial? Why else would I not get any power to the speakers?

 

[LostPawn]

I’m far from an audio expert but most of my stereo installs seem to work. Does the unit power up? Are all the wires connected to the head unit? If you just connected the previous wiring harness, double check that the prior owner didn’t alter those wires. Do your new component speakers connect directly to the head unit or is there something in-between? Make sure volume is up, make sure fad is adjusted, same with treble and bass, the components might be set to a small audio range and this needs adjusted.

 

[Swic]

I’m far from an audio expert but most of my stereo installs seem to work. Does the unit power up? Are all the wires connected to the head unit? If you just connected the previous wiring harness, double check that the prior owner didn’t alter those wires. Do your new component speakers connect directly to the head unit or is there something in-between? Make sure volume is up, make sure fad is adjusted, same with treble and bass, the components might be set to a small audio range and this needs adjusted.

The component speakers go through a crossover that looks like this:

2 screws for the input, 2 for the tweeter, 2 for the woofer. Coaxial just connects to the speaker, maybe what I'm trying to do isn't kosher. Played with the fader a bit, fronts respond correctly but I get nothing from the rears. I pulled out the head unit and everything seemed to be in place. Everything had a splice on it, as though the whole bunch of wires were cut right by the head unit and then spliced back together. Looks nicely done though, not sure if that's how it is stock.

 

[jds62f]

suggest pulling one of the front speakers and using the wires going to it as a test. leave your components free air and the volume nominal and see if they play any better. If they do, then you know it is something about the wires in the rear.

Why get components for the rear in the first place? Seems like an odd choice, but not necessarily a cause of your problem. Are you using an amplifier of some kind? While not always true, when I think of component speakers I also think 'requires external amp', but you should hear something even without one.

 

[Swic]

suggest pulling one of the front speakers and using the wires going to it as a test.

Why get components for the rear in the first place?

This test was definitely the smartest thing to do first, so I did that and all the speakers worked fine. Incidentally I discovered that my front speakers are screwed into the jim clayton adaptors, but are otherwise totally loose. One bad rear end collision and I will get a speaker in the FACE!

In any case I eventually discovered the solution. Not sure if it will be useful to anyone but I will document it anyway. I looked more closely at the halved wires spliced in the back of the head unit, saw that the red halves were spliced into the yellow halves. I switched them up so everything matches up, and after playing with some settings everything seems to work! I have a feeling everything is a bit underpowered since every speaker is now bigger, but an amp will have to wait. I'm so impatient I just velcroed everything into place while I wait for a free evening to make a panel for it all:

Looks ghetto as hell, I know... :facepalm Check out the tweeters up at head level rotfl
Why components? Component speakers produce much superior sound, and my main objective was to get some more bass/mid-bass. I needed a woofer unhindered by a hanging tweeter. Everything sounds great, the system has some real teeth in it now.