polarity of new speakers?

[BonesDT]

my new 3-way speakers have a distinct pos and neg terminal.

i tried looking on the factory CD to find the factory + and - of the speakers but i cant tell which wire is which.

how should i wire these new speakers, everything else is stock?

does the pos and neg of the new speakers only make a difference with a new head unit? will wiring them wrong hurt the speakers?

 

[ld50]

You should be alright as long as they all are connected the same way.
I heard when replacing mine that the rule of thumb is negative wires are on the side of the connector with the snap thingie.

Or you could dig up a color code.
maybe someone else will comment?

 

[MONMIX]

I have been told that the stripe has the positive signal. I have nothing to back that up however

 

[izackary]

you can probably go to a store that sells the harnesses and copy down the connector diagram, then match the connector drawing (the pinout) with each wire's color code.

Another method would be to disconnect the connector off the radio, take your doors apart but leave the speakers connected, and hook up a D battery or something to the same wires on the radio connector that are hooked to each speaker. if the speaker cone pokes out, the plus of the battery is on the plus of the speaker. If the speaker cone contracts, then the plus of the battery is on the neg of the speaker. make sure you write down which is which.

 

[wvsquirrel]

IZACKARY noted the best/easiest method going. "Popping" a speaker is a very common method of determining polarity. You can use a 9v battery as well, anything to send current to the speaker (I've even seen installers use a cordless drill's battery pack before). And don't worry, as long as you use a low voltage battery you will not harm the speaker.

 

[izackary]

well...I'd recommend against using an 18V battery pack from a drill... seems like overkill to me. but if you're replacing those paper speakers anyways...what the hell! use your car battery!!