Just wondering if anyone during a stereo install has incountered a fader & balance issue after installing a aftermarket radio. I installed one in my old 93 and had this problem and never looked into further and know just bought a 95 which has the same problem. On my 93 I even used the Smart cables from Circuit City which makes it totally plug & play so no opportunity for error there.
Was wondering if there is a factory amp and if so that is intefering with the aftermarket headunits. If there is a factory amp where is it located and I will eliminate it. Think I remeber doing this on my 87 Escort GT back in high school but not sure.

 

I've heard of more than occasion where the Smart cables from Circuit City (and other audio stores) don't always jive up with the factory wiring harness. The problems I've heard of have all dealt with problems with the speaker wires matching up correctly. This is mostly recognized when using the fade and balance functions. The fade and balance function is strictly limited to controlling which speakers are playing and can be a problem if the right front wire from the stereo is incorrectly connected to the left rear. I just eliminate the problem by splicing the wire harness that comes with the stereo directly to the factory wiring. Takes a bit more time, but I know it's hooked up right and can save the $30 it'll cost to get the smart harness.

 

I had this problem in my 87. It's been quite a while, but best I can remember, the problem ended up being the ground wires were switched on the front (only have front) speakers. I switched those pin locations in the adapter harness and all is well. You can test which wires go where by using a AA battery and touching the positive and negative speaker wires to the battery. The speaker that clicks when you connect or disconnect the AA battery will tell you which wires to go which speakers.

Even having to alter the quick harness is much easier and a much better solution than hacking up the stock wiring to splice in the aftermarket radio harness. Saves headaches down the road.

 

^^^ Ditto on what Eric said concerning polarity. When I got my unit from Crutchfeild, it came with a notice about this issue & described the test he did. There are "premium" systems in our trucks with factory amps, but few & far between.

 

If you don't entirely know what you're doing and are just cutting wires and taping them together, I completely agree. But if you take the time and ensure your contacts are solid and well insulated (using heat shrink tubing, not electrical tape), splicing into the factory wiring will not give you headaches down the road. I've found most aftermarket plug and play harness adapters to be cheaply made and only present another place for the connection to fail - especially when you start altering the wire. A professionally done splice into the factory wiring eliminates this problem.

It's just my opinion. I guess it's worth what you paid for it.

 

Another thing you can do but costs a bit more... Scrap the wires to each speaker that run for your deck. Buy a 4 channel Amp and run your speakers off of that and just run RCA's from your deck to your amp. It will sound way clearer/louder. the only draw back is you have to run new wires to your speakers from your amp and i would also swap out the stock speakers for a set of good components... Thats what I did, it was simple but time consumeing, but it was worth it....

 

May not give you any problem, but if I ever decide to sell a vehicle and I want to take the aftermarket deck with me, it's way easier to just unplug-replug than to splice a second time. Or if you decide to get a new deck that may be a different brand you will have to re-splice again. Not to mention, I find it easier splice wires on a work bench without the confines of the dash. Hey, if it works for you, I'm not gonna try to convince you otherwise, nor do I want you to change your ways. I'm really putting this stuff here for others to weigh the benefits/drawbacks of splicing into factory wiring vs. using an adapter harness that plugs right in.

I just moved the pins around in the adapter harness to match the factory wiring (didn't have to cut or splice anything further) and it was fine until I added an amp and ran new speaker wire.

 

I have a 95 and when I bought it came with a pioneer cd player that skipped when you would hit a bump so I went to crutchfield and bought another pioneer out of their outlet and they gave me a new harness and everything so when I put the new deck in I used the new harness but I still have the one that was in it from before if you want it you can have the harness and the instructions just pay for the shipping. I don't see anything about switching the wires around front to back in the instructions but it does say some fords reverse the the positive and negative wires on the front speakers, also it says an extra adapter is needed if you have a factory jbl or premium sound amplifier.

 

Hello all and thanks for the info. I definetly will never cut a factory wiring because do change headunits often and am also not particulary interested in working inside a dash anymore than I have to. Personally never had any problems with the aftermarket plugs and swear by them in most cases. I always solder everything since that us to be my job back in my college days so it comes as second nature to me. Even having that in my packet I still prefer a connector.
Anyway will have to check the polarity as described and see what I got going on. Just remember going through something similar on the old Escort back in 91 and tore out the factory amp (Which still have) and made a huge difference.
Thanks For all your help!

 

on my 94, had it since new, came with the premium system. I removed the external 4 ch amp that was about 2 inches above the gas pedal and about 4 inches to the right. Crutchfield sent me an extra harness to make the connection from the harness on the OUT side of the oem amp. the crutchfield harness then gave you a couple of feet of wire to reach up to the head unit where you could splice together with the harness that came with your aftermarket unit. So you get 2 harnesses from Crutchfield. one to tie into the power harness near the head unit and longer one to get down to the speaker wires down near the gas pedal.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Delray Dobbins

 

I never had this problem with my truck Mine wasn't a plug and play deal, we had to strip all the wires and wire them together. But the whole stereo didn't work until we plugged up the " Amp" wire. How to show my dad that one. Some where there is a wire crossed, possibly in that connector.

 

As am I. I guess my opinion of aftermarket harnesses is skewed by problems I had with two of them back in high school (early 90s). Two harnesses, two failures. It's likely they've gotten a lot better. For me it's easier just to pull the factory wires and splice them to the stereo harness and know that everything is going to match up. For me it's about the same amount of time and effort as plugging up an adapter harness, testing it, finding the problems (if any), and the adapting the adapter to fix the problems. I'll admit there's not always a problem and it is easier just to plug and play. Unless you have a problem

I keep the factory harness in the glove box and put it back on should I sell the vehicle. At the end of the day we're talking an extra 20 minutes to splice the harness over using the adapter.

I'll clarify myself a bit. I'm not recommending your splice the factory harness over the adapter. In fact, I don't recommend it at all if you're not sure what you're doing and don't have the skill and tools to do it correctly. I'm just putting it out there as a possible solution to eliminating the problems you can come across with a harness.

To each his own. Either are solid solutions for fixing the problem described.

 

Hello Spiermonkey,
Thank you that is exaclty what I was looking for know just have to look and see if this truck had it and go from there.
Thank you,