QuestionThanks for your help, Tom. I did try the speakers that were in to coupe and the door speakers only had 2 wires going into them, but the factory harness had four wires, just like the convertible. Therefore the coupe speakers did not have the miniamps. The coupe speakers did work with the convertible as I swapped the speakers. I also went to the junk yard and got to door speakers with the mini amps and installed them in the convertible. They worked great. I guess that my only problem now is that I would like to use the Clarion aftermarket radio in the convertible. It only has two RCA jack outputs. In your previous response you state that rewiring will have to be done to connect the stereo output to the amp input wires. Now do you mean the 12V supply wires that are at the speaker, or the two sound input wires (I am under the impression that since the amps are located in the speakers, the 12V amp power supply is constant and independant of control from the radio)? If you mean the sound input wires, then I would just have to connect the RCA jacks to the + and - input at the wiring harness behind the radio, right? Would it be possible for you to explain to me the reason why the RCA outputs need to be used versus the normal radio outputs and if possible, explain briefly, how to perform the rewire?
Thanks,
Chris
Followup To
Question -
Tom,
The model number of the stereo is #4430010. If the amps are indeed built into the speakers, did chrylser do this on all of their sound systems (meaning will the 1988 LeBaron coupe have the same type of speakers as the convertible)? Also, I plan on using the Clarion aftermarket stereo in the convertible. Please note from the previous message that with the Clarion hooked up, only faint sound came out of the right rear speaker (and I did verify that the harness was wired correctly using the LeBaron coupe), while both rears worked fine with the factory system. Can aftermarket stereos be used in vehicles that have mini amps built into the speakers? Also, let me know if it might be better for me to just buy 6 new speakers and run new wires for them from the Clarion. Thanks again for all of your help. I had no idea that these sound systems could be so complex!!!
Chris
Followup To
Question -
Tom,
I have a 1988 Chrysler LeBaron Coupe Convertible. No sound comes out of the two dash speakers as well as the two door speakers. The two rear speakers work. The radio is the original factory radio. The wiring harness in the vehicle looks to be in great shape and all factory wiring is intact. To eliminate the factory radio as the problem, I installed an aftermarket Clarion radio using a wiring harness that connects directly to the factory harness. After installing the aftermarket radio, sound only came out of the right rear speaker and it was faint and only treble. I also own 2 other Chryslers so I tried the Clarion with the harness in both of those vehicles (one another 1988 LeBaron) and all six speakers worked without a problem. What could be causing the problem that I am seeing in the convertible? I pulled the left front dash and door speakers and noticed that each speaker had 4 wires going into it. I checked the wires for continuity between the dash and door and found that two of the dash speaker wires are from the radio and the other two feed the door speaker. Can you also tell me what the other two wires that connect to the door speaker are for. I did not find continuity from those two wires with the dash speaker. I have also not checked for continuity from the dash speaker to the connector at the radio. Could all four speaker be blown and not emit any sound? I am parting out the 1988 Coupe to fix the convertible, so should I just swap the speaker components from one vehicle to the other, or is the problem more intricate than that. Thanks.
Answer -
Chris,
The sound system in the convertable may be a premium system that uses small amp modules at each speaker location. The second set of wires may be the 12 volt feed lines to the amps? If possible can you give me the complete model number of the factory stereo in the convertable, with this I will know what the sound system has for external amps if any are used. If you are parting out the other vehicle, you may want to swap out the speakers to what happens.
TOM,
T&D ELECTRONICS
tdeser@zoominternet.net
Answer -
Chris,
Most of the premium sound systems for Chrysler use these small amp boards located at the speakers. As for using an aftermarket stereo with the factory amps, you can do this, however you will need a stereo with four RCA outputs. You will also have to do quite a bit of rewiring to connect the new stereo to the amp input wires. The problem may be with the amp boards themselves. On many of these amp boards I find defective/leaky capacitors that will make noise in the speakers or make the amp completely dead. If you do plan on installing an aftermarket stereo you may be better off installing all new speakers to go with the new stereo.
TOM,
T&D ELECTRONICS
tdeser@zoominternet.net
AnswerChris,
You will need to use RCA pig tail cables to plug into the RCA jacks. With the wires you will need to splice these onto the wires to the amps using the harness adapter. The amp requires low level inputs and not speaker level inputs! If your vehicle has four amps you will also need a high level to low level output adapter to connect the speaker outputs to the inputs of the other amps.
TOM,
T&D ELECTRONICS
tdeser@zoominternet.net
