Starter and CD player...

[dantheman68]

Im coming home from college this weekend, and theres one problem with my SHO thats been bothering me just a tad bit...

So ever since i did my tranny a few months back ive been having this wierd problem with my starter turning over slow, and my CD player having an attitude. The car will turn over really slow, and then eventually fire up, but this is a little embarassing, and when i go to put a CD in, sometimes it will work, but more often it doesn't. Im thinking these problems are related somehow... now to the questions...


Does the CD player work at low voltages, my battery is fully charged and my alternator is new...

Also i took the ground cable off of the tranny casing and cleaned it up with a wire wheel, as well as the bolt that secured it, because i thought if they were dirty there wouldnt be a good connection... still nothing

When i removed the starter to get the tranny out initally, i broke the smaller wire off of the bolt, it was still connected to the starter, but the starter won and broke the wire, thus i spliced a longer piece of wire (it was very taught before so i used a longer one) the longer wire shouldnt have anything to do with it... it conducts electricity the same way.. right?

i also remember being an idiot and taking that smaller wire off without disconnecting the battery and it sparked on something, i was spooked and didnt remember... this is where i belive my problem lies, but i checked all fuses and the starter works good usually, its just sometimes it cranks slow...


so after my novel... im open to ideas, thanks in advance

 

[dantheman68]

Anyone?

should i recheck my grounds???

 

[CerberuS]

the cranking slow , could be 2 things i think.

starter giving up , or low batt.

check voltage car off , you should have near 12V.

If you think its your starter , i got one used. pm me.

 

[dantheman68]

if the starter were going... would it crank slow all the time, or just sometimes?

 

[lithy]

if the starter were going... would it crank slow all the time, or just sometimes?

My experience with a dying starter was that it cranked very slowly and eventually fired 3 times, then it just didn't do anything at all. If it has been doing this slow cranking for a while now I might start to suspect a power problem instead of a dying starter.

Also with the CD player, when you put a disc in does it click? And just never start playing or is it just not on, I think more info is needed here, is it the stock ford slave cd player?

 

[dantheman68]

yeah its the stock CD player... i have records of it being replaced before... different owner... what happens is ill put it in a CD, and it will display:

01 0:00

then sometimes it will play and other times it will eject the CD, also i can change the track #, like it recognizes how many tracks, it just wont play, then if i play with it, (put the CD in, eject,put it in, eject ETC) it will work, I also noticed if i put/leave a CD in, then turn the car off it will usually play the CD when i start the car... odd? i know...


im thinking about an aftermarket CD player too at this point, except i have the 2 stock amps in the trunk (premium sound???) and i think it would turn into a wiring nightmare... is there a harness available???


OH and my voltages are around 12.4-12.6 with the car off

 

[SlowHeavyObject]

sounds like that sparking wire fried something somewhere, maybe even your starter. i killed a couple parts that way being lazy and not disconnecting the battery. maybe, maybe not. just my guess?

and it sounds like your cd player is giving up the ghost. if you get aftermarket. scosche makes a harness that can interface with/or bypass your factory amps. also you can just unplug your amps in the trunk, then reach up into your dash and tug on the radio harness a little and pull it out farther and you'll see a second connector for the speakers from the non-jbl that you can plug into with a standard harness. our cars are dual wired for either option cause ford decided it was too much work to put different harnesses in every taurus.

 

[dantheman68]

so is there a second harness, or is it attached to the JBL harness??

i really would like a new HU... im getting excited... the whole reason i didnt do it was because i thought it would be hard work, bu this sounds easy... well easier

 

[SlowHeavyObject]

all the plugs are on the same harness. just grab hold of your existing harness and either tug on it (being careful not to damage anything) or follow the wires up until you get to another plug that's further up the line. it should be a flat, rectangular black plug. then you can just get a regular ford interface harness like ones that go for a mustang/taurus with the non-jbl. just remember to unplug your amps from the system back in the trunk.

 

[SHOZ123]

You should check the battery voltage and voltage at the starter when it is cranking slow. If the two are the near same it's either the battery or the starter. If they are quite a bit dfiffernet like a volt or more than I would suspect cables.

 

[93rev2sev]

Two possibilities I can think of.

Bad ground causing both starter and CD Player problems - doubt it since you said you cleaned the contacts for the grounds (all of them).
or and more likely:
The two problems are unrelated-Bad starter/ground causing slow cranking AND a bad CD player. It's either that or you are trying to play copied CD's in the stock ford player...my experience says that it's a hit or miss thing trying to get copied CD's to work.

Stock ford radios and CD players DO seem sensitive to power loss. Also after time, they have a hard time reading perfectly good CD's. All CD players/DVD Players suffer from this over time. I have to dissasemble my DVD player at home and clean the lens with alcohol and a q-tip once a year or so. It will start 'hunting' for the correct track or start skipping during graphically intense scenes. Eventually it just spits the disk back out at me...I have had this kind of thing happen to car audio players, Home CD players and DVD players. I'm sure being a smoker dosen't help.

FWIW: I would never use one of those Lens Cleaning Disks unless there was no way I could actually get to the lens with a q-tip. Even then I would be tempted to replace the unit before trying the lens cleaning disks. That disk spins at 500 or so RPM...any solvent on that little brush will get sprayed all over the inside of the player.

You can completely bypass the Ford radio harnesss' power and grounding wires. Ground the radio directly to the chassis using the existing ground wire coming out of the back of the radio when it's plugged in (SOLDER an extention to the wire if needed but keep it as short as possible). Run a 'new' always hot wire directly from the battery the same way. Use a multi meter to identify which wires are "ground" and "always hot".
This will ensure that the radio is getting clean power and a good short grounding wire. If you are still having CD player problems, then I suggest eBay for a new Kenwood head unit (which will really like having those dedicated power wires). Make sure to cap that original hot wire when you are done.

 

[marklindholm]

Secret Speaker Harness

Heh SlowHeavy Object
I have a Ford Radio CD (with integrated amp) that I want to install in a 94 SHO with Premium Sound. I was thinking I was going to have to use one of those signal attenuators to cut the speaker voltages down, before sending the signals to the amp in the trunk. I read your post about the "other" connector. I just looked in my car, and sure enough there is an 8 wire connector (with a protective cap on it), fastened to the gold metal bracket just to the driver's side of the radio. Do these 8 wires run directly to the speakers? Does each speaker have 2 wires from the secret connector (by the radio) and 2 wires coming from the amp in the trunk?