Hi Gang

What would be a good way of finding out which is the positive and negative on two wires for a audio system. Say you don't have any wiring diag, all you have is two wires coming out of a door panel, and you want to hook them up to a speaker.

I have heard that you listen to the sound, you check them out with a meter, etc. Is there a foolproof way to find this out?

Also does any one know if the radio in a 99 Vette has a signal wire to operate a electric antenna to make it go up and down with turning on and off of the radio? I have been told yes they do and no they don't. It has the 12 CD and the Boise system. It has the stock antenna on it, and it is not the convertible. (I understand these come with the electric antenna) I don't know if they have an extra switch or they work with the radio, on and off, or with the ignition switch, on the convertibles.

Take care............Gunny....... :seeya

 

They are both the same color, and no markings?

 

Hi

Say one is orange and one is purple, or one is white with a green stripe, and one is green with a red stripe, no matter. I have seen all combinations of colors. I guess what I am trying to say is, no matter what two colors of wires you have and all you know these are speaker wires you have for sure. And when you hook them up to a speaker you cannot tell any difference in the sound, but you want the best sound you can get out of the speaker, so you must hook the positive and the negative to the right terminals.

Say you have a normal digital meter the reads DC voltage, and you hook the leads to the two wires coming out of your door, what should you read? And how do you tell if you are reading the voltage correctly, by having your leads hooked to the right wire. Red to positive, and black to the negative wire? I know there must be a simple way of doing this.

Take care...........Gunny :seeya

 

I think I heard this somewhere but please verify with a knowledgable source to make sure it's correct.

But I thought I read that you can hook wires to each end of a flashlight battery and then to the speaker terminals. If the positive side of the batter makes the cone move forward then that is the positive terminal. If the postive side of the battery makes the cone suck in then that is the negative terminal of the speaker.

I've never tried this myself, I just read it somewhere at some point.

 

Hi 1coolPC

Thanks for the tip, now that you mention it I think I have too, some where along the way. Yes the more I think of it, it was on one of these forums a long time ago. This would tell me what is the positive and negative posts on the speakers. I have seen most of them are marked with the + and the - but I have run across some factory ones that are not marked, or they are marked with a colored dot. But this don't tell you either if the marked post is marked because it is the positive or negative.

But this still don't answer the question about the wiring. It is a good tip to remember though.

Take care............Gunny.... :seeya

 

This may or may not help, but in general, the bigger of the two terminals is the positive side.

 

Hi Leolufse

Yes that is true, I have seen this on other speakers. But to just give you a for instance, I was looking at some factory Ford speakers, the terminals were the same size, no + or - any where, and there was a blue dot to one side of the terminals on the framework of the speaker. Ok I would think the dot represent the positive side of the speaker. Wrong, according to the battery check, the blue dot was the negative side of the speaker. Just goes to show you, no one has a set way to designate the positive side of a speaker.

Take care..........Gunny :seeya

 

If you were on Millionaire, this is the answer:

In general, the wire that has a marking (or a ridge) is negative. This is true in most electrical/electronics fields. Just look at a lamp cord. The ridged side connects to the fat prong (which is neutral, or ground - negative). Of course, this isn't really a negative since it's AC, but the rule is marked = negative.

That said, there are a lot of manufacturers that don't follow it. Even though I know this rule, I wire my home/car audio speakers with the positive wire being the one with writing, or a ridge. I don't know why I do that.... just one of the anomalies that make me human :)

- C5B

 

Hi C5B

Yes most of my electrical work has been with the AC, so I am familiar with what you are saying, about the ribbed wire. Funny thing all the wires to these speakers had a solid color with a tracer. So that is 8 wires, 4 front and 4 back speaker wires, and none were a solid color. If they would have been a solid color wire I might have gone with that being the positive to start with, but that was not an option. Maybe this is just the way Ford does it, I have not got into my Vette yet, plan on putting a electric antenna on it, so I might get a chance to see how they color some of their audio wires.

Take care........Gunny...... :seeya

 

Well, I could be wrong, but I think if you have a Multi Meter, take the wires from your stereo with the stereo off and touch each pair of wires to the multi meter neg. and pos. probes in the AC setting on the multi meter. When you get a pos. wire from the radio touching the pos probe on the multi meter and a neg. wire from the radio touching the neg. probe on the multi meter at the same time you should get a small value like .1 or .2 on your multi meter. Any other combo shouldn't read anything with radio off.

 

Yeah, unfortunately, the negative side of a speaker output is not always tied to chassis ground. This is especially true when you have a multi-channel amp in bridged mode. Bridged mode is nothing more than an amp transistor (or pair) with the phase reversed so it pulls the negative further away from the positive (equals bigger boom at the speaker - called voltage differential).

So, SOMETIMES, what you think is a negative, is really the output of the amplifier transistor(s).

EDIT: Confirming the battery test:

I just went down to the garage and verified the battery method. I used my power supply, set at 3volts and 500ma, to confirm the method. I connected 4 different known-polarity drivers to the power supply (+ to +, - to -) and all four of the cones on the drivers pushed out (away from the basket).

So there it is. A flashlight battery (safest way to do it if you can't regulate the current of your power supply) would confirm a speaker's polarity.

- C5B


[Modified by C5B, 11:57 PM 6/16/2003]

 

Unless I am misunderstanding what he is wanting to know, He does not want to know what is + or - on his speakers, he wants to know what is + or - on his wires from his stereo.

The battery check works great for speakers, but it's not going to tell you which wire is which coming from the stereo.

 

Hi

I know this had to happen to some other guys before, I cant be alone in having this problem. In a way I am glad to see some of your brains are working hard trying to figure this out too. When I first put this question on here I thought this is some thing simple I will get an answer from one of you and it will be so simple I will feel like a dummy for not knowing it.

If you had the speaker and the wires intact, and there were no markings of any sort telling you if it was positive or negative, then you could use the battery test and come out smelling like a rose. But if a friend came over to your house and asked you to help install his new speakers, (that are marked + and -). All there is are two wires coming out of each door, (cause he cut the speakers wires off) and there is no wiring diag, or old speakers, (he tossed them)

If you hook them up to each speaker with the radio on, you cannot tell the difference in the sound, by hooking up both wires to the new speaker, either way. I don't have the best hearing but he could not tell any difference either. And we played all sorts of music, and talk radio, AM and FM. Like I said earlier I always thought you could tell by the sound if the positive was hooked up wrong. Maybe this has to do with AC speakers.

Well I sure do appreciate all of you brains, your time and efforts here. I know you guys are one heck of a lot smarter about this then I am.

And I am checking this with a pretty good digital meter, and watching the #'s pretty close to see if there is any different readings between my different connections. If it is there is it has to be very slight, and maybe I am not seeing it. I am checking it with the radio off and on, from each wire to ground, both with it off and on. The only way I have not checked it yet is standing on my head. This is no great emergency here, but it sure is frustrating, especially after thinking it would really be simple. I said sure bring it over, we will dope some thing out. ha ha ha ha I wish he would have asked me to overhaul the motor instead. What could be so difficult you turn the **** or push the button, and music comes out. :lol:

Take care.........Gunny :seeya

 

check this site out and see if it will help you. Click on the year and make of vehicle you are working on, if it has the factory colored wires it will tell you which is + and which is -

http://www.streetdreams.com/wires/


[Modified by vette92_1, 10:37 PM 6/17/2003]

 

Cool site! :cool:

 

Hi leolufse

Hey thanks for the information, I will have to check out that site. It never ceases to amaze me what you can find out on the computer. I am sure it will be cool too.

Take care.......Gunny :seeya :cool:

 

If you don't have any identification on the radio speaker wires or the speakers, here is a listening test you can do to get them phased correctly. Connect the speakers up and listen to good separation stereo music. If the speakers are phased correctly, the music will sound like it is coming from between the speakers. If you have the speakers phased backwards, the music will sound like it is coming from both beyond the left and right speaker. You can correct the phasing by reversing only ONE speaker connection. Hope this helps.

 

Hi JFB

Thanks for the information. I am sort of tone deaf but my Nephew, (who has this problem) has good hearing so he might be able to pick up on this. We hooked them up by the old flashlight battery way of checking them and he is happy with the sound. He has a new crew cab Ford F150, and he is replacing the stock speakers with some he picked up some where. Supposed to be fancier and better sound. It is waisted on me, I really cant tell the difference. He says he can, so that is all that is important. For the money he paid for them, he better. I listen to Talk radio any way, who needs fancy speakers for that :eek:


Take care.......Gunny.... :seeya

 

For 1993 to 1998 Ford stereos the + and - goes to the following colored wires.

Front / Right + White / Green Gray
Front / Right - Green / Orange Gray / Black

Front / Left + Orange / Green White
Front / Left - Light Blue White / Black

Rear / Right + Pink / Blue Purple
Rear / Right - Green / Orange Purple / Black

Rear / Left + Pink / Green Green
Rear / Left - Pink / Blue Green / Black

For 1999 to newer the colors are:

Front / Right + White Gray
Front / Right - Green / Orange Gray / Black

Front / Left + Orange / Green White
Front / Left - Light Blue / White White / Black

Rear / Right + Orange / Red Purple
Rear / Right - Black / White Purple / Black

Rear / Left + Pink / Green Green
Rear / Left - Pink / Blue Green / Black

If it is a "Premium" ford sound system the colors are:

Front / Right + White / Red Gray
Front / Right - Brown Gray / Black

Front / Left + Green White
Front / Left - White / Orange White / Black

Rear / Right + Purple / White Purple
Rear / Right - Blue Purple / Black

Rear / Left + Blue / Black Green
Rear / Left - Yellow Green / Black

 

This is exactly how you do it. It's actually how positive and negative terminals are defined.