Is anyone familiar with the color coding or wiring harness of the radio for my car. It has the factory front and rear system with the seperate amp which mounts behind the glove box compartment. It has a seperate front and rear fader switch on the radio dial. I believe it might have come out of a Delta 88 or Nighty Eight model. The speakers have been replaced and I think it is wired wrong. It does not seperate correctly when it is in only the front or rear position. It seems to work ok in the center position using both the rear and front speakers. Any help would be appreciated.

 

OK- do you have a two speaker or four speaker system? The original 1971 Cutlass AM-FM-stereo radios were only two channel stereo with left-right balance only and no front-rear fader. Left channel thru front speaker and right thru rear, or some with 8-track had a front speaker and two rear speakers.

A pic of the radio face will help us determine what it came from. Four-speaker units became available in the big cars in 1971 and in Cutlass in 1973.

I can't find a radio wiring diagram in the 1971 chassis manual. It has a component location drawing, but no wiring diagram.

 

Thank you for the reply. I have attached the pictures of the radio that is installed in my Cutlass. I believe it came out of an 88 or 98 model. It has 4 speakers, 2 front and 2 rear. The balance is for front and back on the radio.
There is no 8 track.

OK- do you have a two speaker or four speaker system? The original 1971 Cutlass AM-FM-stereo radios were only two channel stereo with left-right balance only and no front-rear fader. Left channel thru front speaker and right thru rear, or some with 8-track had a front speaker and two rear speakers.

 

The original '71 radios have a front-rear speaker balance ****.
It has nothing to do with left or right.
With a right-left speaker balance control and a front to rear fader control it would still be a two channel stereo.

Are you sure it doesn't have separation on front and rear only and sounds good in the middle balance position because the rear speakers are one channel and the front speakers are the other?
You would have to have a fader and a balance control or a separate switch somewhere for it to be two separate channels for the rear and front speakers and to have left right balance and front to rear fading.

That pic looks like the radio just just has the speaker and tone controls?

 

So tell me again how it has nothing to do with left or right?

Mono radios with fader simply split the monaural signal between front and rear speakers, mainly so rear seat passengers could hear the radio without deafening the folks in the front.

Stereo radios with only one front and one rear speaker sent different signals to each speaker for stereo separation and the balance control (incorrectly labeled fader) controlled each signal's relative volume in the car- which often meant neither front nor rear seat passengers enjoyed decent sound.

If you added in left and right speakers front and rear, the stereo channels balanced left and right and the fader controlled relative volume between front and rear speakers. With a two-channel four-speaker system, both front and rear passengers enjoyed both stereo channels and neither had to suffer from too loud or too low volume.