Aftermarket radio help

TheSkunk

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Alright guys I just finished installing a aftermarket head unit in the glove box of my 78 Lebaron. Don’t freak out the glove box was already cracked n some heat gun persuasion to the air duct and it’s completely hidden with the glove box closed. Still need to trim n polish for final assembly (waiting on new speakers).

But my issue is I have my rear speakers wired in but no sound..? I hooked positive to positive per wiring diagrams. .Speakers worked with orig radio tho n now nothing.. radio comes on n surfs just fine but no sound am I missing something Simple..?
Thanks in advance guys
 

Mikes5thAve

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Did you run both sets of new wires to the speakers? You might have to do that to get them to work.
 

TheSkunk

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No I didn’t n that thought crossed my mind after the fact.. I may run a jumper wire for testing purposes I guess I assumed it was copy n paste like my previous installs?
 

Duke5A

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Do NOT power it up again! You'll blow the head unit if you do. Common ground radios haven't been used in years and you can actually destroy the amplifier in the radio doing this.

You're going to have to run new lines to the speakers.
 

TheSkunk

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Gotcha will be running wires in the morning. Dumb question sense I’m away from the car currently. Where do they run the wires to the rear speakers? I assume under the passenger or driver sill plate?
 

MoparDan

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Gotcha will be running wires in the morning. Dumb question sense I’m away from the car currently. Where do they run the wires to the rear speakers? I assume under the passenger or driver sill plate?
the wires are in the trunk under the rear deck, on my old '82 we had to completely rewire the speakers even though I was using a later ('87) factory unit. Common ground still in '82, that changed about 1984 I believe
 

Mikes5thAve

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It doesn't really matter where you run the wires but pulling up the sills and running them under the edge of the carpet is the easiest. Make shure there nowhere where they will get pinched, rubbed thru or get a screw put thru them.
 

Aspen500

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The factory rear speaker wires on my '79 Aspen run along the inside of the passenger sill, up the wheel well and then under the rear deck to the speakers. I'd imagine a Lebaron would be the same.
 

TheSkunk

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Awesome thanks guys I’ll try and get some pictures of the install. I was very surprised I could fit and hide a double din in the glove box with “minor” work. radio has a remote that fits nice in the ash tray so you wouldn’t know it was there. Until you realize the factory radio is MIA. I’m working on building a delete plate out of kydex to hold my aftermarket gauges. Granted I started with a cracked glove box so cutting it didn’t phase me lol.
 

Mikes5thAve

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The plus side about the glove box is that it's the same right up to 1989 except for loosing the clock the older ones have so it's not the end of the world to get another one later on if you want to put it back to stock-ish.
 

Aspen500

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Semi off topic,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I wonder why nobody (except the one Retro makes) make a 1.5 DIN radio. It'd fit many years of both Mopar and GM vehicles, maybe Ford too. A single DIN with an adapter plate looks like crap and obviously a double DIN won't fit. Plus, most aftermarket radios have the styling of a fence post it seems. Sorry for the "rant"!
 

TheSkunk

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Trust me aspen I feel your pain. I needed to upgrade and couldn’t find anything that looked “clean” or belonged in a 78 2dr Lebaron with 14/15 staggered keystones so I chose to hide it. Gauges in place of the radio looks cleaner to me then hanging off the dash somewhere and gives a more down to business vibe.
 

Aspen500

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Main reason I keep the original AM/FM stereo radio in my car (with new speakers), it looks "right" in the dash. As for sound quality? Well, what do you want from 4 watts per channel, lol.
 

Mikes5thAve

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Yup, look is also why I keep stock radios. Sure you can get aftermarket ones that sound better but there are decent factory ones out there. I've got the 90s style tape/CD one in the Chrysler.
 

MoparDan

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Yup, look is also why I keep stock radios. Sure you can get aftermarket ones that sound better but there are decent factory ones out there. I've got the 90s style tape/CD one in the Chrysler.
That tape/CD radio is great, and looks like it belongs there on my Fury and old Diplomat, on both my Fifth Avenues though I kept/fixed the stock tape deck only because they didn't make that tape/CD with a silver face and it wouldn't have looked right
 

Opticon77

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Most people are walking around with entire music collections and "head units" in their pockets now. Leave the stocker in the dash and run an aftermarket amp with a bluetooth receiver or an AUX cable.
 

TheSkunk

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Alright guys sorry the rona bs has shipping all messed up I was able to finally get my speakers in and ran all new ground wires and all new power wires for the fronts. Was all pumped up to start jamming but turn radio on find favorite radio station and no noise... I’m a rookie when it comes to audio but something isn’t making sense on what’s going on. Can some one kinda give me a trouble shooting list so I can figure out what’s going on?
 

TheSkunk

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Hey just an update I had a bad head unit been jamming out ever sense I switched out the head units but shortly after some of my gauges seem to of died. I started a new thread due to me not think the radio and gauges are related sense they worked for a few days before acting up.
 
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