Premium Speaker Install: Help Needed

[Nicademus]

I'm currently working on putting the OEM premium speakers in my 1986 325e that only came with the basic audio setup. I already found the wiring for the tweeters and connected them up on the door. However my problem lies with the kick panel speakers.

They are confusing me on what to do. I'm assuming the the wires coming down from the tweeter plug in on the side with the capacitor, but what about the other side? It has a wire soldered onto one of the connectors going to itself (at least that's how I'm describing it). Here are some pictures of what I'm squawking about.








Now this is the part that confuses me. How can I hook up the two wires that used to go to my old shit oem speaker when there some wires soldered on there going back to itself?



Any help would be great.

[netcsk]

Damn, I'm sitting here trying to explain this and I can't. I'd imagine I could if it was in front of me, but this is sad. I worked as a speaker design engineer for 3 years.

Those damn Germans...

[Nicademus]

Damn, I'm sitting here trying to explain this and I can't. I'd imagine I could if it was in front of me, but this is sad. I worked as a speaker design engineer for 3 years.

Those damn Germans...

Do I only hook up one wire on that side? I mean I don't really car about how it works, I just want it to work.

[netcsk]

I'm having trouble with the capacitor layout.

Normally, you have the capacitor in line with the tweeter on the positive side. In other words, the negative terminal is clean from the amp all the way to the tweeter, while the positive terminal goes from amp through capacitor then to the positive terminal on the tweeter.

The same thing is with the inductor (the large coil around the magnet). + amp > through coil > to positive speaker. Ground is clean from the amp.

What I can't see, is where the other side of that coil goes and what terminals have the small copper wires coming off and where they go.

Wait for someone that has experience with these particular German speakers that can explain without seeing where all the wiring actually goes.

[Nicademus]

Here are some pictures of how the factory wires up the rear:

[dashboardmonkey]

They hook up the same as the rears

[Jean]

Look again, the inductor (coil on the midwoofer) is in Series with the mid and doesn't let the high freq. sound go to the midrange speaker. The capacitor is in series with the tweeter and only lets high freq. sound through . This is a 1st order crossover network. Basically trace the tweeter wire, one wire should go through the capacitor (the red cylinder in your pictures) and one connect directly to your speaker wire form the cdplayer/amplifier.

Excuse the paintshop drawing...

[bimmerpirate]

I can get pictures of how it's wired up. I wired mine myself and my bro's is factory wired. I'll grab pictures tuesday.

[Nicademus]

Thanks for the help thus far, but now its dark, its late, its cold and those are the excuses I can come up with not to work on it anymore right now...oh and my GF wants me to come over.

I'm still a little confused, but looking at how the rears are wired up really helped shed some light on it and Jeans explanation.

[robrez]

I wish I could help, but in anticipation of my own future foibles, would it be any easier to just add some aftermarket crossovers?

[Nicademus]

I wish I could help, but in anticipation of my own future foibles, would it be any easier to just add some aftermarket crossovers?

From what I've read and what Luke (Stereoinstaller1) has told me; it makes a big improvement on the sound quality of these speakers. I actually have 1 Eclipse crossover, but need to find it a mate.

[StereoInstaller1]

From what I've read and what Luke (Stereoinstaller1) has told me; it makes a big improvement on the sound quality of these speakers. I actually have 1 Eclipse crossover, but need to find it a mate.

Good luck on that one, bucko.

Keep in mind that the speaker only gets 3 wires in the stock configuration:

Negative, audio in and tweeter out. The tweeter negative wire goes to the negative in the harness.

[Nicademus]

Good luck on that one, bucko.

Keep in mind that the speaker only gets 3 wires in the stock configuration:

Negative, audio in and tweeter out. The tweeter negative wire goes to the negative in the harness.

See thats what was throwing my off (well one of the things at least). I couldn't figure out were all the wires would go but thats a relief to know that it only uses 3 of the wires.

Thanks buddy

We sold the house that you worked on my car at. I think its cause you're so lucky. We should probably give you a cut of the money.

[itsbrokeagain]

this is a good thread. Im about to rewire my 88 for it, and it came with the premium sound. I ripped out all that crap though, and ran my headunit and the RCAs to the back where the amp and the small box is.

I will just run speakerwires to the front, and wire the rears up right in the trunk. Makes life easy :)

I should really run all new cable to the mains and run new wire up to the tweeters..they are blown and have to be replaced...whoever put the stereo in before did a shit job of doing it.

[robrez]

Good luck on that one, bucko.

Keep in mind that the speaker only gets 3 wires in the stock configuration:

Negative, audio in and tweeter out. The tweeter negative wire goes to the negative in the harness.

Now I'm confused. Are aftermarket crossovers good or do they not work?