no noise from front speakers

[1lonlyranger]

i bought a 1991 ford ranger almost a year ago. i noticed the front speakers never worked i thought there was just bad speakers after replacing them there is still no sound. i check the conections behind deck and everything seemed to be good...om going to re wire them this week but if there is nothing afet what should i do?

 

[RonD]

You can check the wire with an OHM meter, the two wires to one speaker should show 6 to 7 ohms, this is not a true impedance measurement, but does show speaker wires are not shorted(0 ohms) or disconnected somewhere(infinite ohms).

You can also run a jumper pair of wires from radio to speaker(either one in the door or any 8-ohm speaker you might have around).
If you still have no sound then amp in radio is bad.

Have a look here:
http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/radio_wiring_diagrams.html

This might help in tracing wires and finding the fault.

 

[1lonlyranger]

RonD your awesome helping me with both my problems. i didnt have a chance to ohm out my speakers i did how ever re wire the deck and i got one speaker back but i still have one dead. i did check the "dead" speaker and it did work. so does this mean the wires from the door to the deck has a short or a cut in it? if its cut any ideas how i can re run wires to it? thanks for the help

 

[RonD]

You can check the speaker wire pair for "cuts or shorts" by unplugging the wire at both ends.
Put an OHM meter on one end, one probe to each wire, it should read "open" or infinite OHMs, if it reads 0 OHMs then wires are shorted together some place, you will have to run a new pair to that speaker.

If OHMs show open or infinite, as it should, then connect the two speaker wires together at the opposite end you are checking, OHMs should now read 0 ohms, wires are shorted together.
If it still reads open or infinite OHMs then 1 wire(or both) of that pair is broken(cut), no connection.
Replace wire.

If everything checks out, wire-wise, then that channel of the amp may be bad, you can test it on a "working" speaker, but it is probably bad.
You can run two speaker from 1 channel, in series, but you will lose the stereo effect.

Running a new pair of wires to a door speaker is not that hard, remove the kick plate and door panel, roll window up

You do not need a large gauge wire, we are talking under 5ft and under 100watts here(closer to 10 "real" watts)
A 22 gauge will give the exact same audio quality as a 2 gauge, so don't waste your money.

You can usually use a short piece of stiffer wire to feed through the door's wiring channel then tape the speaker wire to that to pull it through.
Sometimes the old speaker wire is not connected(tape/tied) to the other wires going through the door channel, and you can use the old wire to pull through the new wire.

 

[1lonlyranger]

how can i test the deck. after what i thought of fixing my other front i lost a rear speaker. i heard about a stock amp? if i had this could this cause it?

 

[RonD]

Did you look here, and at the diagrams?
http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/radio_wiring_diagrams.html

Some rangers came with tuner/amp all in one(regular) and others came with separate amp(premium), both were offered in the '91 rangers.
You need to find out which one you have.
You can often get these at local auto recyclers(wreckers) at a good price.

Check all the speaker wires first, unplug the connector at the amp, each pair should show 6-8 OHMs, if 0 ohms then there is a short in the wire or speaker, if infinite ohms(open) then a disconnected/broken wire.
If all speakers and wires check out OK then test each channel of the amp using 1 speaker, if a bad channel is found then replace amp or tuner/amp

 

[1lonlyranger]

ron i found out the problem i have an open wire between my deck and factory amp i re did the wire and sure enoph music sounded sooo sweat. thank you for your help on this.

 

[RonD]

Good work

Wiring issues are tough to track down

 

[1lonlyranger]

so i rplaced the intire wire and now i can hardly hear the speaker and it works like it should but only when there is tension on the wires what does this mean?

 

[RonD]

Too much resistance in the wire reduces volume level or a limited ground which is kinda the same thing.

Not sure what you mean by "tension on the wire", does that mean when you pull on the wire it works?
Bad wire or connection if that's the case

 

[1lonlyranger]

i re did the ground connection and it works great. thanks again RonD

 

[RonD]