Another question....where did Ford locate the speakers for the trucks that had a four channel stereo? Of course they would have used the doors for two channes, but where would they have put the other two. I'd love to see pictures of this if anyone can post them.

 

Well, according to the other poster and the diagrams, they never had 4 speakers in a truck. But of course they are never supposed to have the center channel speaker hooked up either?

This is a good thread on something that has never been talked about or known about these trucks.

It sounds like they have the center speaker on the rear channel. If you could do one more experiment, we will have it nailed down how they have it wired. Move the fader to make the front speaker work only. Then move the balance from right to left and see what happens.

There are two ways they could have wire the center speaker. One way is to just stick it on the left or right channel. This would not hurt the stereo effect for the driver if they hooked it to the right channel, since the speaker is still to the right of the driver, though it would ruin it for the passenger.

Another way they could have wired it would be to hook both positive left and right wires onto the speaker, with no signal return or ground on the speaker. I have tried this before, and it gives a strange spacial affect to the sound, because the speaker with the two positive wires only reproduces the difference between the left and right channels. So if you flipped the radio to mono, the center speaker would not play at all, but in stereo, the channels have different info and the center speaker would produce this difference.

 

Franklin, thanks for helping me out here fella. As for the stereo experiment, I won't be able to address that. I've pulled the unit and all the speakers. Moreover, I damaged both the door speakers when I was pulling them out. However, the unit has a wiring diagram on it and if fits with what I see when I look at the unit. What's screwy here is that it shows it being a 4 channel. Coming out of the unit is an orange wire labeled (RR, right rear), white (RF), Blue (LF), and yellow (LR). There is also a black which is the ground. All these go into the back of the factory plug. There are eight slots in the back of this plug where the above mentioned wires go in. Then they have 3 black wires that seem to be jumpered across the back of the plug such that all eight slots are full. Three of those slots have two black wires in each slot. Not sure if this tells you anything but that's how it is. This is factory...not jimmied stuff.

Crutchfield shows my truck having either an analog stereo with two door speakers or a digital with four speakers. So, the thing about my truck having three speakers conflicts with their information too. But, it looks like it could have come with four speakers. If so, I'd really like to know where those other two speakers were located.

Thanks,

John

 

Correct. 4 speakers in the trucks didn't start untill the 1992 era trucks. Although they had four channel factory stereo radios since 1980. (As explained earlier.

Agreed. A very good thread. I'm wondering how many of these trucks have three speakers in them, without the Factory CB radio, but with the factory stereo.

Mine does not have a dash speaker. Only two door speakers. And is wired exactly as the diagrams state.

Perhaps a poll would help?

 

Are you sure this is a factory radio? It could be a factory replica, installed by a dealership. The colors do not match the factory radio wiring diagrams.

SPEAKER WIRE COLORS:

Circut #804: Orange/Light green dash - Left Front Channel
Circut #805: White/Light Green dash - Right Front Channel
Circut #806: Pink/Light Blue - Right Rear Channel
Circut #807: Pink/Light Green - Left Rear Channel
Circut #207: Black/white hash - Speaker Ground

POWER WIRE COLORS:
Circut #137: Yellow/Black hash wire. 12v power, ignition switched.
Circut #54: Light Green/Yellow. 12v Power radio memory.


The thing is, the Replicas made at this time by aftermarket dealers, for auto Dealers to install, look almost identical to the Factory Radio. Is there anything on the radio on who it was made by?

Ford? Clarion? Panasonic?


From the information from the Ford Diagrams, and other Ford documents, the 1980-1986 trucks never had four speakers. Just two, or one. Or three with the CB Radio, FM Stereo. etc...


Keep the information coming, we will figure this out.

 

81, I think you're correct in the unit being a factory replica and dealer install. I don't see Ford on it anywhere, rather I find on a decal stuck to the unit with some information and the wiring diagram. At the top of the decal it says "Custom Series" FSP 45, ARA Manufacturing Co. Grand Prairie, Texas.

Another thing that leads me to think this may be a dealer install now is the jacked up way they ran the speaker wires. Instead of running the wires through a grommet in the door (factory like), it looks like someone took a long punch from inside the door and punched the hole through the edge where the wires would run. In fact, the wire was abraided and shorting out on the door. Used to really **** me off as the sound would cut in and out. I noted this when I took the truck apart for repaint. I took the doors off and drilled the punched out hole and installed a flipp'in groumet.

Good catch fella............

 

I think we finally got this figured out.

The Factory Radio would have Ford Written all over it. Stamped into the metal housing, on the front faceplate, or radio dial, as well as the Part Number stickers etc..

The Door wires would have a rubber conduit to protect the wires as well that go from the cab to the doors. Yours is missing that, it sounds.

And that would explain the in dash third speaker as well. The Original Factory Radio was a mono radio, and the dealer installed a "factory Replica", installed door speakers, and hooked up all three speakers, like they shouldn't have done.

Sounds like a poor install. No offence.


For those of you that haven't seen a "Factory Replica" Radio before, then take a look at the following picture.

The circa 1980-1982 Factory Ford AM/FM Stereo Radio is on top, while the circa 1980-1982, "Replica", Clarion "Spec II" AM/FM Stereo Radio is on the bottom.

 

yeh see i have a speaker in the dash board as well. but i havent checked bout the doors yet. all i know is they didnt have any wires ran to them when i switched to a modern radio. and the dash speaker looks weird. does anyone have a pic of it so i can see if mine is the same. and if so has anyone pulled the old one out and replaced it?

 

I don't understand what all the hubbub is about this. Just install what you want to run.

Personally I have an Alpine CDE-9872 into a 200 watt 2 channel amp, which currently goes to some crappy 6x9's in boxes behind the seat. Door speakers are blown which is why I presume the previous owner did the 6x9 thing. I am waiting on a pair of Alpine Type R 6.5" speakers for the door and then I should be set. I'll probably pick up a cheap 6x9 to put in the dash for my CB (integrated speaker stinks) whenever I get around to that install (haven't decided where to mount, probably cab roof).

If you're using decent equipment (i.e. NOT Sony, Pioneer, etc.) you should be running new wire anyhow so factory color coding is irrelevant. In a truck wiring is relatively quick and easy since cabs are small. I run Alpine stuff but in the truck I use their cheaper stuff since it is a truck that get wheeled so don't want to get expensive audio parts wet or dirty/dusty.

 

No Hubbub. Just interesting. It's like a mystery. Which was solved pretty satisfactory too.


The Factory wiring in this thread was relevant only into finding out if his original system was Factory. Which it wasn't. Also, some people here are restorationists, and actually want to put in factory radios. So the information to them would not be irrelevant.

I agree however that if you run a new system the wiring should be replaced, but it's only really necessery if the gauge for the new radio wires are larger (numericly smaller number) than what the factory wiring is.

 

I'm curious....are you saying that Sony and Pioneer are junk? If so, what do you base that on?

 

I would say Sony and Pioneer are the Ford and Chevrolet's of in dash radios. Perform well and get the job done for 99% of persons who use them. Alpine and the other high end brands are the Cadillac and BMW's of stereos. Someone who wants a little bit more in features and sound quality.

For a noisy dirty truck that is used as a tool(that's how I use my truck), I like the factory radios because they pull in stations well, even though the sound quality is not that great. 2nd choice is some off brand radio.