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how did you match the wiring. for the speakers and such, mine doesnt have the wire colors hooked to the deck like i thought, grey and grey w/black, green and green w/black, etc. how did you hook the wires up.

 

please tell me how, color to color.

 

like yellow to black or what ever. thanks for any help if you understand me.

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Disclaimer: This is how I swapped decks in my '92 Loyale. I'm not saying it's safe, unsafe, smart, idiotic, etc., nor am I saying it's the only way to do it. If you do this my way, make sure none of the wires contact the frame of the car, or anything conductive that touches the frame of the car, or you're bound to either blow a fuse or fry something. I went through a couple fuses doing this... lucky & dumb, but being part redneck, I'm used to this ;) I'll say it again... If you do it my way, you'll be playing with live wires... not a good idea, usually, since you have to be really careful.

 

Anyway... it was a pain in the @**. Whoever had put the Sony deck in before me had pulled out the factory harness, if there had been one, and just wired up the Sony deck with electrical tape. Half-@**ed job, really.

 

Anyway, I ended up using an old CB as a test light (I recommend using a test light, voltmeter, or multimeter, btw... the CB was a little awkward :D). Before I pulled the Sony deck, I made note of which wire was ground (the black wire coming off the back of the old deck is the ground, so whatever wire it's connected to is the ground.)

 

Once you know what's ground, ground the test light to it. With the ignition off, connect the test light to all of the other wires in succession... that'll give you the constant power source. This is the one that powers the deck to keep the time, date, etc... if'n I remember right (and I could be wrong), it's the yellow wire coming off the new deck, assuming it has standard wiring.

 

Then turn the ignition to accessories. Once again, connect the test light to the ground, and test all of the other wires. Once it lights up, you've found the intermittent power. This connects up to what should be the red wire coming off the new deck's harness.

 

That should be the end of the power wires... next comes the fun part... the speakers.

 

I couldn't remember the standard designation for the colors off the new deck's harness, so I had to guess. The white and white-black wire should be one of the front sets, and the grey and grey-black should be the other, but I could be wrong. Anyway, I powered up the deck by turning the key to accessories, then set the deck to play (connect the antenna if you're gonna play the radio, or stick a cd in). Then I set the fade and balance on the deck to play the front left speaker. Grabbed a pair of matching wires (white & white-black, grey & grey-black, etc.), and started methodically testing each set of the speaker wires. Once the front left speaker started playing, I knew I had the right combination, and hooked 'em up permanently.

 

Then I reconfigured the balance & fade for the front right speaker... went back through the rest of the wires, and hooked 'em up.

 

It helps that my Loyale only has the front speakers... the rears were never installed, as an option nor as aftermarket.

 

Like I said, not the easiest or smartest way to install a deck, but it got the job done with the tools I had at the time. *helpless shrug*

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I didnt read all of that reply, so it might have been said... but the only thing i can suggest is to re-wire your speakers, and do not use the shared ground that Subaru Has. Expecially with aftermarket decks, it's just asking for horrible sound.

 

Its a PITA to re-wire your speakers, but its well worth it in the end.

 

-Brian

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As with the bard, I have no expertise in this field. In fact, the very expensive cd player my wife bought me for christmas I had installed professionally. In the process, the installer complaned that before a certain year ( 1989 I believe he cited) all Subbies had a common ground speaker set up. In the process of hooking mine up, I also opted for new speakers so the wiring wasn't as complicated. But if you're running to an existing set up bear inmind you're probably dealing with a common ground system.

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Originally posted by TheSubaruJunkie

...Expecially with aftermarket decks, it's just asking for horrible sound.

-Brian

 

Nope... didn't know about this, in fact. I get decent sound out of the setup, as-is, but I'm not running anything really hefty, either. Just a Clarion deck and the factory speakers.

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ok well i have aftermarket pioneer speakers. i dont plan on rewiring the crap now, dont have the time nor the money.

 

but i see what you mean about shared ground now, i wasnt sure what goes to what,

 

i just hooked up the stock settup with the acc, full power, and ground. and i got the wiring scmetics out of a haynes manual, but i dont understand the crap.

 

like if im soposted to hook both grounds for the left front/rear speakers together then to the stock harness, or what.

 

thanks for any more help.

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The best and "professional" way to hook up the deck is to buy a wiring harness for about 15 bucks can get at any car parts store even Radio Shack and Target. All you do is unplug the the harness form the orignal deck and plug into the harness you bought. You don't even have to wire any thing in the car. They even come with a color chart for the wires. If the orignal harness has been cut just get one from a yard and match wire colors and blam your set.

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Originally posted by 87 Pimped Gl

The best and "professional" way to hook up the deck is to buy a wiring harness for about 15 bucks can get at any car parts store even Radio Shack and Target. All you do is unplug the the harness form the orignal deck and plug into the harness you bought. You don't even have to wire any thing in the car. They even come with a color chart for the wires. If the orignal harness has been cut just get one from a yard and match wire colors and blam your set.

 

tried, no one carried them for a 86 subaru GL wagon.

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Here is a link to some folks that may be able to help you out. You still will have to run a wire from each speaker back to the new deck to eliminate the ground problem I believe.

 

New stereo systems use a balanced output compared to the older single ended output design that shared the common ground. The design of the newer power amplifier IC's has the output leads floating from ground so you need to isolate the speakers from ground.

 

http://www.123av2.com/DetailPage.asp?ProductID=SISSU01B

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I can't improve on the_bard's description for the red, yellow and black wires. If there's a blue wire it goes to an electric extendable antenna motor if you have one. DO use a test light to make your measurements; using a digital multimeter can mis-lead you on the voltages due to it's high internal resistance.

Frye's carries the adapter harness for '86 and newer wagons. Also, here are the colors for the speakers:

Gray/Gray-Black is right front

White/White-Black is left front

Violet/Violet-Black is right rear

Green/Green-Black is left rear

These are the standard wire colors from the new deck. Your best approach is to run new speaker wires to eliminate the common ground problem (might as well change the speakers on a 17 year old car too). The black stripe on all the speaker wires goes to the negative side of the speaker.

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thanks for all the help, i ended up calling car toys and they had one adapter left in the back corner, covered in dust, im serious, got home and spliced it tot he new deck and plugs it in to the car, bingo, all works and sounds great.

 

i just have to go get some new pioneer speaks for the driver and front passenger door and run some wire to the back hatch where im mounting the pioneer 6X9's

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i did nothing but cut thout the stock speakers and splice in the new ones using the stock connector on the doors, and just plugs and spliced the connector tot he cd player. been out in my car, since 10pm, not 11:30pm listen to music, sounds sweet with the 2 pioneer 6 1.2's and the 2 front stock speakers which i still have to replace.

 

i just cant wait till i get my 6X9's mounted to the rear gate, should sound much better.

 

but it ends up the deck i have is too long, it sticks out like an inch too far, so tomarrow im gonna make a 16gage sheetmetal holder at school. and bring it home, that also give me a place to mount my toggle switches, for my turbo, interior lighting, and other stuff.

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Glad to hear your enjoying the new system.

 

I am wondering if your old speakers were really isolated from ground in the first place. It sounds like they were all along, unless the ground was before the connector. I am really curious about this since you should not be able to tie the balanced output of the deck to ground without damage to the output.

 

You can purchase extension covers I think to help with the install of the new deck. It sounds like you have other issues though.

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ya ths funny, i have the auto pull down option on my subie. you push the door up, it stays up just fine, you tap it, it slowly shuts by it self. ill just go measure the length and pick up a pair used for like a chevy truck hood or something. so its used to the added weight.

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kind of on the subject.....

 

How do I replace the dash speaker or is it even worth fooling with it. My car currently has the am/fm with factory tape player, but the tape player kinda stinks (I love elvis, but my tape of the king deff needs to leave the subie) I plan on installing a cd player and I wll prob put speakers in the door pockets or kick panels (if possible) Any ideas? I also would like to change the dash pad, but that may be too involved for my tastes.....

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yes, a cd player can and will be hooked up in a soob, common ground, as is so the 83 trashwagon and the 87 rx, both with pioneer cd.

 

the ground from front and back speaker channels will be together. either left or right- for front and rear

the other - speaker wires from the radio will not be connected to anything.

 

i did mine by poking around on the factory clip, using female blade terminals to hook-up. the rx is wired permanently to a subaru stereo harnedd, it will unclip, but fit soob harness only

 

 

for the dash speakers, the one on the left, remove the cover, pop it out

there are screws above the fuse panel for the speaker mount, and one above the speaker

 

the right speaker is above the glovebox. remove the glovebox and the speaker is on a bracket held on by 8mm nuts

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Here is a little trick to help identify speaker wires.Get a AA batery and pop the speaker.It will not blow your speaker.I used to install for a living.We would just tape some wire to a aa and poke around the radio harnes to identify the speakers.

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