Changing the front dash speakers / door speakers

[jeffs42885]

Question to those who have changed the front speakers.

Crutchfield/Metra fit guides say it's a 2.5'' speaker which obviously doesn't really exist in this sense. They suggest tweeters. What brackets does everyone use..Amazon? I've seen a few.

Also, are speaker wire adapters/harnesses required to install the door speakers?

And... Has anyone replaced the rear speakers.. Is it worth it..?

[OsageJJ]

Originally Posted by jeffs42885

Question to those who have changed the front speakers.

Crutchfield/Metra fit guides say it's a 2.5'' speaker which obviously doesn't really exist in this sense. They suggest tweeters. What brackets does everyone use..Amazon? I've seen a few.

Also, are speaker wire adapters/harnesses required to install the door speakers?

And... Has anyone replaced the rear speakers.. Is it worth it..?

Hi, Jeff! I changed out all the speakers in my 86 back in November. For the dash and rear mid speakers, I used JBL Club 3020s (3.5 inch) (20W RMS @ 3 ohms). For the dash tweeters and the door speakers, I used JBL GT609C component mids (6.5 inch) and tweeters (1 inch) (100W RMS @ 3 ohms).

Having said that: The mounting holes for the 3.5-inch mids didn't quite line up with the factory locations, so you'll either have to get an adapter, or do like I did: Use a small length metal with a hole drilled in one end to clamp the speaker in place. In more than six months of use, my speakers haven't moved or rattled at all.

Bottom line is that 3.5-inch speakers will work for the mids in the dash. The tweeter shares a wiring connection with the door speakers, and they're wired a little funky, so do a little internet searching for the correct way to get things wired up if you replace those speakers. I ended up running 14-gauge wire to completely bypass the stock wiring to get around that problem.

If you want to read the writeup to my particular install, go here: https://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137706.

Ask questions if you need any additional information, and I'll do my best to help. Good luck!

[jeffs42885]

Wow. You’re awesome. So..

Are your speakers amped or are you running off an aftermarket deck. Was it worth replacing the rear? I heard it wasn’t

[OsageJJ]

Originally Posted by jeffs42885

Wow. You’re awesome. So..

Are your speakers amped or are you running off an aftermarket deck. Was it worth replacing the rear? I heard it wasn’t

I'm using a Kenwood four-channel amp to drive the front and rear speakers. It's rated at 60 watts RMS x 4 @ 4 ohms. Compare that to my Pioneer OEM headunit (it was in the 2017-2019 model years) that puts out 16 watts RMS x 4 at 4 ohms, and you can see how much more punch I've got available in my system now.

Was it worth it to replace the rear speakers? That's a matter of opinion. I chose not to delete them because I wanted to wire them in series with my front mids to give me a 6-ohm circuit for my "B" channel on my amp. The JBL 3.5-inch speakers I chose are rated at 20 watts RMS at 3 ohms, so by going with 6 ohms on that channel, there's less chance of giving them too much power. You could certainly design your system without them, and you might not notice anything missing.

[jeffs42885]

Thanks again. Do you by any chance know the impedance of the factory speakers?

[OsageJJ]

Originally Posted by jeffs42885

Thanks again. Do you by any chance know the impedance of the factory speakers?

The impedance of them all may be 4 ohms, but how they're operating in our cars depends on how they're wired. I'm sure that the OEM door speakers were wired to run at 2 ohms, powered by the amp in the trunk. I *thought* that the other six speakers were running at 4 ohms, but there seems to be some conflicting information about this. If, as some have speculated, the 4-ohm dash tweeters and mids are wired in parallel, then they would be running at 2 ohms, too.

The rears may be running at 4 ohms, but take that with a grain of salt.

Bottom line: They're probably 4-ohm speakers, just wired in a certain way to drop them to 2 ohms. See this thread for more details: https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...aker+impedance

[soundman98]

Fyi: A 4 ohm main driver with a 4 ohm tweeter is generally considered a '4-ohm nominal' circuit. At least that's what the giant faceless conglomerates say.

Personally, i see no reason to maintain the rear speakers as I don't feel they add enough substance to justify the increased costs that can be better spent everywhere else.

[LimitedSlip]

Originally Posted by soundman98

4-ohm nominal

"Nominal" may also derive from the difference in measuring a DC resistance in a circuit that by definition is at a constant 0Hz as opposed to measuring an AC impedance which has been averaged over a frequency spectrum generally from 20Hz to 20KHz. Just sayin' . . .

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by LimitedSlip

"Nominal" may also derive from the difference in measuring a DC resistance in a circuit that by definition is at a constant 0Hz as opposed to measuring an AC impedance which has been averaged over a frequency spectrum generally from 20Hz to 20KHz. Just sayin' . . .

agreed. but the guy just wanted to know what physically fit, and suddenly we're trying to get him to understand series/parallel circuiting, and connecting aftermarket amps