Hi all,

I recently bought an XK8 (1997) with Harman Kardon audio. Unfortunately only the subwoofer works and there is a constant crackling. I took out the radio and it turned out that almost all the wires were cut. Now I would like to know how to put it back in the connector. Can someone help me? Attached a picture of the current situation.

 

***Edit***
WHOA, WAIT STOP

I just looked at 1998 electric service manual. It shows that if you have a subwoofer you must have a coupe with premium sound. That means there's an amplifier between your head unit and the speakers. Using a 9volt battery will NOT work if this is true.

Do you have a premium system? A coupe? An amplifier in the trunk?

If yes, you've got to take a different approach.

Can you see the wire colors of the cut wires?

Maybe someone else has a 1997 electric service manual

​​​​​1slet us know friend..

original answer assuming no premium sound:
Ok 1st identify which wires go where.

Car off. strip cut wires to expose copper.

Take a 9volt battery. choose 1 wire, hold it to one battery terminal. Choose another wire quick as you can, touch and remove that wire to other battery terminal.

If these are speaker wires, you will hear a brief pop identifying a speaker's pair of wires.

The brief connection will not damage a speaker. I hope for your sake none of these pairs feeds a speaker with a high pass capacitor filter. DC battery will not pass through the capacitor.

looked again. You only have 3 wires to work with??? There will be 2 pairs for 2 speakers to sort out. One pair per speaker.

Let's say you find 2 pairs. Have identified the speaker by pair. You are 1/2 way there.

I don't know your electronic knowledge. 1 pair of wires. One wire is connected to + speaker terminal, other to - terminal.

Its rather important to keep the speaker's in phase. Identify which wire is + (connectedto +terminal), the other is - by default.

When the + wire is connected to the + side of battery and - to - side, when you do the pop test, the speaker will move outward towards you if you are looking at the front head on. You'll see which way it moves from either side front or back..

Now you ID'd the wire polarity. We now have to get them in the right connector slots. Are the cut wire remnants in the connector still?

If not come back. The service manual should have a connector breakdown.

In the end you must secure the wires to the connector. Probably easier to use a bridging piece of wire. Solder 1 end to the wire, other end to the remnants in the connector?

You've gotta solder these. There are ways ro remove the metal female terminal embedded in the connector, lets cross that bridge when we get closer.

Questions?

Will await your feedback/ findings.

John

 

Hi John,

First of all. Thank you very much for your extensive response.

It is an XK8 Coupe from 1997. With (probably) the premium sound system. There is an amplifier above the CD changer in the trunk. And on the subwoofer and tweeters, it says Harman Kardon.

On the cut wires, I see blue, green, yellow, and 2 red wires.

Diederick

 

D, does your CD changer work? As you can see the cd changer wires almost duplicate the wire colors to the amp.

Jaguar wasn't great at respecting and standardizing wire colors. That combined with the change from Harmon Kardin to alpine leads me to suggest you find a copy of the 1997 elec service manual.

BTW can you read the wire stub's colors in the connector? May be the simplest route to reconnecting correctly.

John

 

From 1998 maybe similar? Meant to included earlier.

 

I had to replace my rear speakers when I bought my '97 in 2008. They were toasted. This is common, but it is a real PITA job. You may also have to replace those speakers if you hook up that amp.

 

Sorry for the late reaction, gentlemen.
I have now got the speakers (sort of) working. It turned out that the plug that goes into the amplifier has the same colour codes as the plug on the back of the radio. After plugging it in the same way, I got sound again! Unfortunately, it still sounds a bit strange, as if it is sometimes underwater.