Difficult to follow what you're describing here, but there should only be two wires for each speaker. Most stereos have eight wires - two for each speaker of four. Do you have a wiring diagram for the stereo? Sometimes the colour coding of the wires is on a label. You must connect the correct two wires to a speaker to get an output, if you connect two - wires or two + wires you will get silence, so that may be the problem. What colour are the various wires? They are often coded in pairs with one having a contrasting stripe, or there may be a + or - printed on the wire. Might be able to help more with more information.