Wiring for dummies
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Wiring for dummies
So I got my four mm651's in yesterday, the ss amp will be here tomorrow and the adapters some time next week. Pulled the fairing off and removed the old speakers and removed the tour pack speakers.
Since I don't know a darn thing about electronics, I was hoping that by starting this thread (I've spent the last hour searching and not having much luck) I could ask questions about my install and some of you informative, helpful folks could lead me in the right direction.
Since I'm waiting on the adapters, I started with the rear speakers. I removed the old, filled the pods with polyfil and now am at the wiring/mounting phase....hence my first set of questions.
1. Ultra, you mounted your crossovers behind the passenger pad, correct? How did you mount it?
2. How the heck do I wire the crossover? Lol, sorry for the newb question.
3. For confirmation, the stock wires in the pod.....solid color goes to positive and striped goes to negative. I only ask because the size of the clips compared to the speakers would seem to indicate otherwise (i.e. negative female end on bike is wide while male end on speaker is rather thin and vise versa).
4. I'm assuming I need to drill new holes to mount the speakers to the pod since they're wider, correct? Also, the HD speaker covers that some are using....the primary reason for these is to protect the speaker, correct?
Since I don't know a darn thing about electronics, I was hoping that by starting this thread (I've spent the last hour searching and not having much luck) I could ask questions about my install and some of you informative, helpful folks could lead me in the right direction.
Since I'm waiting on the adapters, I started with the rear speakers. I removed the old, filled the pods with polyfil and now am at the wiring/mounting phase....hence my first set of questions.
1. Ultra, you mounted your crossovers behind the passenger pad, correct? How did you mount it?
2. How the heck do I wire the crossover? Lol, sorry for the newb question.
3. For confirmation, the stock wires in the pod.....solid color goes to positive and striped goes to negative. I only ask because the size of the clips compared to the speakers would seem to indicate otherwise (i.e. negative female end on bike is wide while male end on speaker is rather thin and vise versa).
4. I'm assuming I need to drill new holes to mount the speakers to the pod since they're wider, correct? Also, the HD speaker covers that some are using....the primary reason for these is to protect the speaker, correct?
Last edited by deerhunt799; Mar 17, 2013 at 11:52 PM. Reason: Another question
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ince i'm waiting on the adapters, i started with the rear speakers. I removed the old, filled the pods with polyfil and now am at the wiring/mounting phase....hence my first set of questions.
1. Ultra, you mounted your crossovers behind the passenger pad, correct? How did you mount it?
i actually used very short screws to mount them (the crossover snaps apart) but others are using heavy duty velcro.
2. How the heck do i wire the crossover? Lol, sorry for the newb question.
only dumb questions are the ones that don't get asked. On one end of the crossover is 2 wires that go to your stock speaker wires. The other end has 2 sets of wires, 1 for tweeter, the other for mid-woofer. The connectors on these wires are different and should be plugged in to each component properly.
3. For confirmation, the stock wires in the pod.....solid color goes to positive and striped goes to negative. I only ask because the size of the clips compared to the speakers would seem to indicate otherwise (i.e. Negative female end on bike is wide while male end on speaker is rather thin and vise versa).
yep, good ole hd, azz-backwards.
green is your rr+ stock wire
green/brown is your rr- stock wire
brown is your lr+ stock wire
white/brown is your lr- stock wire
the white stripes on the crossovers are your + wires.
4. I'm assuming i need to drill new holes to mount the speakers to the pod since they're wider, correct? Also, the hd speaker covers that some are using....the primary reason for these is to protect the speaker, correct?
yes sir that's correct on drilling holes. As for the hd covers, in my case it was more for looks. Instead of having the polk wagon wheel looking grills, i chose to use the cvo grills for looks more than anything and i think most who are doing this feel the same way. The polk grills are more than sufficient for protecting the speaker itself and it's marine-certified so water getting on it won't be an issue.
1. Ultra, you mounted your crossovers behind the passenger pad, correct? How did you mount it?
i actually used very short screws to mount them (the crossover snaps apart) but others are using heavy duty velcro.
2. How the heck do i wire the crossover? Lol, sorry for the newb question.
only dumb questions are the ones that don't get asked. On one end of the crossover is 2 wires that go to your stock speaker wires. The other end has 2 sets of wires, 1 for tweeter, the other for mid-woofer. The connectors on these wires are different and should be plugged in to each component properly.
3. For confirmation, the stock wires in the pod.....solid color goes to positive and striped goes to negative. I only ask because the size of the clips compared to the speakers would seem to indicate otherwise (i.e. Negative female end on bike is wide while male end on speaker is rather thin and vise versa).
yep, good ole hd, azz-backwards.
green is your rr+ stock wire
green/brown is your rr- stock wire
brown is your lr+ stock wire
white/brown is your lr- stock wire
the white stripes on the crossovers are your + wires.
4. I'm assuming i need to drill new holes to mount the speakers to the pod since they're wider, correct? Also, the hd speaker covers that some are using....the primary reason for these is to protect the speaker, correct?
yes sir that's correct on drilling holes. As for the hd covers, in my case it was more for looks. Instead of having the polk wagon wheel looking grills, i chose to use the cvo grills for looks more than anything and i think most who are doing this feel the same way. The polk grills are more than sufficient for protecting the speaker itself and it's marine-certified so water getting on it won't be an issue.
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3. For confirmation, the stock wires in the pod.....solid color goes to positive and striped goes to negative. I only ask because the size of the clips compared to the speakers would seem to indicate otherwise (i.e. Negative female end on bike is wide while male end on speaker is rather thin and vise versa).
yep, good ole hd, azz-backwards.
green is your rr+ stock wire
green/brown is your rr- stock wire
brown is your lr+ stock wire
white/brown is your lr- stock wire
the white stripes on the crossovers are your + wires.
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Posts: 14,670
Likes: 139
From: East of the Sun, West of the Moon
yes sir. cut the clips back a little ways that way if you decide to put it all back in later (selling the bike or something) you can just splice them back in.
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From: Colorado
For anyone looking at this later...I drilled a pilot hole and using the allen screws provided with the speakers seemed more than adequate in holding the speaker down.
Got the backs done tonight...for clarification, only an inch worth of polyfil for the pods, correct? Originally, I packed those suckers but then read only an inch so took some out.
Another newb question. I picked up 7ft. of the 8 gauge wire to run from the amp to the battery along with a 30 amp fuse. Can I use any leftover for the ground wire or is there a difference between power wire and ground in its raw form?
Hoping to get the amp wired and mounted tomorrow. Adapters are supposed to be here on Thursday so will hopefully be buttoned up in time for the weekend.
Got the backs done tonight...for clarification, only an inch worth of polyfil for the pods, correct? Originally, I packed those suckers but then read only an inch so took some out.
Another newb question. I picked up 7ft. of the 8 gauge wire to run from the amp to the battery along with a 30 amp fuse. Can I use any leftover for the ground wire or is there a difference between power wire and ground in its raw form?
Hoping to get the amp wired and mounted tomorrow. Adapters are supposed to be here on Thursday so will hopefully be buttoned up in time for the weekend.