Early 944 Speaker Wiring

[wdodge]

Anybody know the color codes for the audio system on an early 944 ? I will be replacing the Monterey with a new Casablanca this weekend and have not been able to find a color coded diagram.

[Kingsspot1]

If you find out, let me know. My stereo speakers seems to have a few shorts in it- I would really like to fix them!!!!

[todd951]

When I put a new receiver in my 85 944, I decided to take advantage of the new receiver's four channel output and do some rewiring to bypass the fader in the console. I used the wiring diagram in the Haynes manual as a guide, and everything came out just fine except I had front and rear switched (adjusting fade on the receiver toward front actually moved toward the back) which wasn't a big deal. It also helps to have a multimeter handy so you can be sure which wires are which. Some people also say you can use a AA alkaline cell to figure out which speaker wires go to which speaker -- just connect a pair of speaker wires across the cell for a moment, and the speaker that those wires go to will pop. I've never tried that, but lots of people say it works well.

[mike944]

I have the dashboard out of my '84, so i went down and looked at the wires. Now my car has has the stereo replaced 3 times (one was forcably removed, i.e. stolen) so some of the wires may have been replaced, but i'll tell you which ones i am unsure of.

You should remove the center console from the car, it's not that difficult, and it makes finding and hooking up the wires much easier.

Red w/ blue stripe is the switched power lead. (it's a farily thin wire)

The solid brown wire that comes out of the same tube as the red w/ blue stripe is the ground. (this wire is thicker)

I ran my own constant-hot wire from the fuse panel. I used a 1/4" spade connector, and plugged it into one of the unused relay socket holes in the relay panel, which was always hot.

The power antenna wire is white, and it is in it's own tube. (this one i am not too sure about, someone replaced the power antenna with an aftermarket antenna on my car, and i don't know if they replaced the wiring for it or not)

Brown & Brown w/ red stripe are speaker wires. These are hooked up to the fader knob, which you should definetely remove. you will need to trace the wires back into their harness tubes, and cut the ground wires where they are joined together. Here is a diagram of what i am talking about. I hope it's not too confusing.



The wires for all 4 speakers are the same 2 colors for each pair. You will need to use trial and error or the AA battery method to tell which one is which. I like the AA battery method. The voltage is to low to damage anything, and it's the easiest way of telling which speaker is which. just hook up one end of the battery to one of the brown wires, and touch the corresponding brown w/ red wire to the other side of the battery. You will hear a popping out of one of the speakers. Label that pair, and move on to the next pair.


Good luck
Mike