Speaker fader and wiring questions

[ewalt98]

Pulled the center consul and stereo out last night to replace it with a modern deck, and found a bit of a mess with the wiring, as I expected.
The stereo was a replacement that was installed by a shop about 16 years ago when the original was stolen. After I acquired the car, I could tell that the shop didn't do a very good job as the sound was terrible, especially when you turned the volume up. Also, the factory fader seemed to work, but the stereo fader only worked when set to the front speakers; rear speakers didn't work on this setting.

Here's what I found: the replacement Alpine unit has 6 speaker wires, two fronts, two rears, and two just labeled as "right and left". The installer had hooked up the two front and the left and right wires to the factory harness which feeds into the fader. From reading previous posts on stereo installations, it appears that the factory harness has two sets of brown and brown/red wires (+ and -), one for left and one for right sides, and the fader switch adjusts front to back.

All this brings up two questions.
First, did the original stereo in 1985 have only two speaker outs, left and right?
Second, how did I get any sound out of the replacement deck when the two fronts and the left and rights were hooked up to the left and right + and - factory wires?? Or, would the Alpine "left" and "right" wires be the negatives for the four front/back and left/right wires?

Regardless of all that, I'm following the path of others and bypassing the factory fader so that I can run the new deck directly to the speakers. Does anyone know where I can get a good clear wiring diagram for the 1985.5?

Thanks!
Eric

[flash968]

remember that stripe is NEGATIVE - most shops want to wire it backwards because that is how other cars are wired - this results in the speakers being out of phase and will sound wrong

[Cocacolakidd]

A good clear wiring diagram can be found in the Workshop Manuals.

In 1985 the Stereo was only two channels left and right. In 1989 The sound system was up-graded to four channels, and on some cars a 10 Speaker option was available also.

[89-944NA]

PM sent

[jcommin]

Originally Posted by Cocacolakidd

A good clear wiring diagram can be found in the Workshop Manuals.

In 1985 the Stereo was only two channels left and right. In 1989 The sound system was up-graded to four channels, and on some cars a 10 Speaker option was available also.

Very true. If you use the fader, it is only for 2 channels. A four channel system requires some re-wiring: eliminate the fader and seperate the speaker wires to for each channel.

In the existing 2 channel system, the brown (negative) wires are ganged together for the left and right side. Would have been nice if the used different colors.

[89-944NA]

88 also had the 10 speaker option. When I installed my aftermarket stereo and cd changer, I grafted into the original harness, thereby preserving the original stereo plugs....everything works "as advertised", including the 2 additional bass speaker I added in the rear storage area.

[ewalt98]

Just found a pdf of most, if not all, 944 wiring diagrams on the web.
That will help tremendously. Just need to translate the color codes to english.

Anyone know where I can get a new plug to bypass the fader? I don't want to cut up the existing plug, but I will if I have too.

[Cocacolakidd]

SW = Black , WS = White, RT = Red, GN = Green, GE = Yellow, GR = Gray, BR = Brown, BL = Blue, LI = Violet CL = Clear

[ewalt98]

Thanks! I'll buy you a coke for that!!

[Cocacolakidd]

Are we having pfun yet ??

[ewalt98]

Thanks for all the help, got the speakers wired up last night.
Now on to the next project!