I feel pretty confident on the location and installation procedure for the optional rear speaker. My question is specifically how do I wire the new rear speaker into my existing, original stock AM (Only)radio. What is the acceptable wiring procedure for my situation. I appreciate any advice, guidance, help. TY
Match the rear speakers to the front speakers. If its mono, then all the wires will be connected simply positive-negative. If its stereo, then match the rear speakers to the front speakers and match the R/L sides the same (unless you want cross stereo where you match front right to left rear & front left to right rear). Some of the newer front speaker replacements are stereo on one mount under the front dash, and again, match front to rear.
I dont have a diagram in front of me,but if memory is correct, grey and green were speaker colors, then its a case of positive, negative for the speakers, red was typically power positive, and then a negative ground for the power. Cant remember if the speakers were negative ground/frame or not (I wouldnt as it would produce static as the engine moves, and then you'd need a noise resistor installed.) Definetly have your stereo grounded properly.
Also make sure you have the power lead with an in line fuse, on the correct side of the fuse panel so that its protected by the in line fuse, and the circuit breaker/fuse at the panel.
Hope this helps... Im going from memory of having installed countless stereos over the past few decades...and if Im wrong, Im sure someone will chime in.
Be careful hooking 4 speakers all in parallel with a mono system. I would find the resistance for the original mono speaker and try to match that with all four speakers. If for example the original speaker is 4 ohms, if you were to simply parallel all the speakers, the overall resistance would drop to 1 ohm. I not sure if the original audio system could handle that as you would tend to overdrive the amplifier. You may want to add a series resistance to each speaker to keep the overall resistance close to original.
Thank you very much...perfect...Any advice on snaking the speaker wires from trunk to Radio, remembering the speaker will be on the right hand side....Appreciate your support. Lee
Agree, I wouldnt advise hooking 4 speakers to a mono radio setup, but it can be done with modifications. Changing from single mono speaker under dash to dual speaker single mount under dash shouldnt be a problem. Single front mount and single rear mount shouldnt be a problem either.
Of course I would question, why mount a single rear speaker?
I think I would lean towards leaving the mono radio in the dash for aesthetics, then put a seperate radio with quad setup in the glove compartment so that you could run dual speakers under the dash with the single mount (or kick panel speakers), then run two speakers in the rear (slim arm rest area or divider frame mount behind the seats).
Where are you mounting the rear speaker?...in the small space in the side arm pad area, or mounting to the rear seat divider area?
You can either go under the carpet, or along the side area channels. I would snake the wires from dash, behind kick panel, under the wire sill covers to rear the back areas. If running into to the vert well areas, careful of pinching wires, and that the speakers are thin enough to not hit the top bows/wires/top, etc.
