I made my living out of electronics for the better part of 50 years. Yes I worked on equipment with tubes and saw solid state ushered in before the various symbols were standardized which made working on things interesting. Any argument on the merits of twisting things together with out soldering them is one of wishful thinking.
If you are having a problem with something that was assembled using the method of twisting wires together? The very FIRST place to go to deal with things is poor connections and twisted connections are nothing but poor.
The second placed to go is putting something together by guessing what wires went where is the second place to go.
Like many things that one needs some basic knowledge in trouble shooting and analyzing a diagnostic symptom for something you are not familiar with such as working with something electronic? If you don't know how to read a schematic diagram and also don't know how to use a standard VOLT/ OHM meter a forum format can discuss the merits of using poor connections to put things together with and/or what color speaker wires are until one is blue in the face while these things may or may not have any bearing on the problem, the problem actually is some one has no idea what they are doing and this type of format in helping them is not a real good method to get that type of a job done.
Yes I have been there before and not known what is going on. Trying to get a radio into a car and not having any clue what wires go where, the knowledge of being able to second guess something has saved my butt.
However I have also blown up a few things too.
jToday's cars have become very technical in how they work. The electronics in them would take a semi-truck to carry the components alone 30 years ago and trying to get a radip from today into a 30 year old car and not being aware of the new radio standardization format because you have not worked with that part of the field of electronics at all and were not aware of what had taken place.
13 years ago I could buy a radio to fit a model car I built then. The instructions with the radio identified the wires used for and with it well enough to install it and my ears were good enough to detect speaker phasing so I could get them hooked up right because the speakers were not clearly marked as to which were + and -

NOW?
I can not even buy a radio that fits the dash board. And I can't hear the dang thing that well either.
And I had dang well better be able to read an electrical schematic diagram both for the car in question which requires buying one ( Thus the emphasis of going to the the auto store and spending $25.00+ tax on a Chiltons for your car) and some form of clear instructions on radio wiring (Thanks oceonarcher, I needed that and got a copy of it ) Between that and the shop manual for the car I am building and some instructions from my nephew who has kept himself current with the changes in stereo systems for automotive applications which I have not done. I should be able to install a modern radio in my 1976 car as soon as I can figure out how to fabricate some place for it to live.

 

i plan on soldering the wires together as soon as i get the setup to work, but what i'm gonna try is putting the simpler stereo out of my truck in the car if they have the same plug in the back.(they have became all but universal, so it's a possibility) this should give me a better diagnostic tool because when my stereo is miswired, instead of telling me(and not functioning until i fix it), it will work, but sound funny so i can tell where the error is and fix it... honestly, if the stereo out of my truck will work in the car, it might find a permanent home there, as i'm pretty sure it will work in the truck as my wiring is finalized (as in, soldered and shrink wrapped)

 

I would suggest this, get some good crimp splices and a crimper and splice you r old plug back in, that should not be hard, just match up the wires by color and size. The go and get the correct adapter plug.

Your splice method is one I have never heard of and like uncljohn, I have worked in the electronics industry for almost 50 years. Cars are my hobby.

 

I remember seeing the "v-splice" in a Popular Electronics magazine many years ago. I believe it was done so that when the splice was complete, the finished "joint" was not much larger than the original wire. Don't know if it's better than a crimp-type splice, or just different. With respect to the "phasing" of your speakers, the first thing I'd check is to see if one side or the other of the speaker coil is grounded to the frame of the speaker -- would sure make a difference in the hookup ....

 

there is where the problem i have lies. i didn't cut the wires with a pigtail on the end of the factory plug, i de-pinned the factory plug, like an idiot... so i would need some female pin connectors(factory ones are trashed) and the pinout of the factory plug to fix it...

i know it wasn't my finest moment, but i gotta live with it now... i'm consulting a professional in my area to see what i've done wrong in my wiring, other than not having soldered connections...

 

What's done is done, hope this helps and hope you learned something from all this. I hope this works, I am using photobucket to upload a picture. I cannot meet the constraints of this web site for the pictures which are from the FSM. If I drop the resolution any more, they will be unreadable. I have shrunk them as much as I can.

 

Well that didn't work. See if this works.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps4e98613b.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps867c5b7d.jpg

This isn't working any better, they only show the thumbnail, so much for photo sharing.

 

Maybe this will help, its not the big picture but it fits in the constraints, I think.

 

yeah, it's readable. i'll check that car tomorrow, i might have wired it up that way...

 

i checked the wiring in the car, and it was backward, so i redone it again, but the stereo still doesn't work... the wiring is done properly and all... this is getting to be extremely frustrating, and my wife is getting impatient with me...