Please Help a rookie!

[lire100]

hi i just bought 2 speakers to replace the factory ones on my tipo. I started with the rear ones:

just that i have a problem connecting them the the wiring of my car. the factory system has these yellow connectors from the speakers to the wires... (of course the wires also have one at the end fitting in the speaker's). so how do i hook up my new speakers...? cut the factory connectors and weld the wires on the new one? or just "tie them up"? is there any adaptors? how did all u people do when replacing your factory speakers? thanks a lot.

PS here's the pics of the new and old speakers.

 

[gaz.d]

ok for starters find out which wire is positive and which is negative, usually different colour or one has marking on and the other will not

then cut the adaptor off, now your can either solder the wires to the speaker or you can buy speaker connectors from a motor factors for a couple of pounds

if you are using the speaker connecters, you have to strip the top of the wire to reveal the bare copper, then attach a speaker connecter to it by using pliers to crimp them up, big connector for positive and small connector for negative

 

[The Negotiator]

Yeah, as Gaz has stated so well.

First find out which is positive and negative, (pos is usually black with white line I do believe although I am not the best at remembering that convention!) then chop off connectors, once done, buy a couple of connectors from any electrical place that will fit, simply slow the wire through the gap, use pliers to crimp and voila, nice clean job!

 

[Alex]

To find the pos and neg, find the manual for the head unit, look at the 'pin out' for the connectors, that'll tell you which wires do what, take the head unit out, and look at the wires comming from that connection, then write it down and repeat for each speaker... once you know which ones are which, you're sorted...

IMO use spade connectors crimped to the cable, and not solder the wires directly, for two reasons: if you want to sell the car, and need to remove your ice, it'll be easier to re-fit the factory speakers, secondly, solderd connections tend to get 'dry after a few years, and the connection will not be as good when that happens... also you don't want to be putting a soldering iron through your nice new speakers either.

EDIT: If you take the yellow thing off the factory speakers ther will be a + and - printed on the contacts, match this up with the connector, and hey presto.

 

[lire100]

ok thanks a lot guys you've been really helpful: it's the first time i do something like this .

well the unconvinient aspect is that both lines are orange -/) so I don't know what's positive or negative since there is no such indication on the factory speakers ether.. will the speakers get ruined if I connect them wrong even for just 1 second? (just to check the polarity)


PS and slightly OT: if i should want to change my head unit also... are there any particular thing I should be careful or worry about? any generic advice for taking the old one out and replacing it with the new one?

Excuse my ignorance!

 

[The Negotiator]

Firstly, I believe I am correct in saying you WON'T damage the speakers with the reversed polarity, the speaker will simply vibrate out of phase to what it should. There's actually a way to do it, I found it on the net on a ICE website, showing how to use a 9v battery and a couple of wires to find out which is which.

You do want them the right way around however.

http://www.techguys.ca/howto/speaker.html

 

[lire100]

thanks but the problem is the opposite! i know the polarity on the speaker! i don't know the poloraity of the car's wires! if there aren't any problems i'll just try! ;-)

 

[The Negotiator]

Well if that's the case, use a multimeter if you have one? That will allow you to find out which one is which....I won't explain how, if you have one you will know how to use it for that.

I am sure there are 100 other methods, just can't think right now!