Trey
Well-Known Member
In my off time I've been trying to install a new stereo system in our Cordoba. The back speakers weren't a problem but the front speakers gave me some issues. I bought a set of Pioneer triaxials and found they wouldn't fit on the drivers side because the speaker hole had what looked like just some excess plastic that needed removed. I thought "well I'll just get out the dremel and make some room". Just as I was fixing to cut the plastic out my wife came out to the shop and asked what I was doing. As I was showing her what I was doing I noticed that the plastic that was in the way was not just "extra plastic", it was the top of the duct going to the far left A/C vent. Turns out Chrysler made the plastic ductwork for the dash vents the "spine" for the dash. While I consider this to be a great idea as far as engineering, it presented problems with finding speakers that would fit. Here's a couple pics of the speaker holes in the dash to illustrate.
Pass. side. Notice the squared off part just below the purple wire. That's part of the ductwork for the far right vent.
Drivers side. Lots more plastic in the way because the duct has to go over the instrument cluster.
Pic of the back of the factory speakers. The square part on the back of the round speaker fits in the square part of the duct in the upper pic. Also notice the back speakers only have one wire connector, they use a common ground type system which uses the car body as the ground. The fronts have two connectors because they are mounted in a plastic dash. Also notice the fronts only have two mounting holes.
I looked for quite awhile to find speakers that would fit in the dash holes without hacking into the ductwork. Most aftermarket speakers have a magnet that's too big or the speaker basket is too deep and hits the duct. I finally found a set that would fit and posted a couple pics of them. They are 5.25" just like the factory speakers and they're made by Orion CT525. They fit the hole but I had to cut off two of the opposing mounting tabs for it to fit flush on the dash plate, just like the factory speakers. As far as I know these are the only speakers that will fit without cutting up the dash. Hope this saves someone some trouble when speaker shopping for a j-body.
Pass. side. Notice the squared off part just below the purple wire. That's part of the ductwork for the far right vent.
Drivers side. Lots more plastic in the way because the duct has to go over the instrument cluster.
Pic of the back of the factory speakers. The square part on the back of the round speaker fits in the square part of the duct in the upper pic. Also notice the back speakers only have one wire connector, they use a common ground type system which uses the car body as the ground. The fronts have two connectors because they are mounted in a plastic dash. Also notice the fronts only have two mounting holes.
I looked for quite awhile to find speakers that would fit in the dash holes without hacking into the ductwork. Most aftermarket speakers have a magnet that's too big or the speaker basket is too deep and hits the duct. I finally found a set that would fit and posted a couple pics of them. They are 5.25" just like the factory speakers and they're made by Orion CT525. They fit the hole but I had to cut off two of the opposing mounting tabs for it to fit flush on the dash plate, just like the factory speakers. As far as I know these are the only speakers that will fit without cutting up the dash. Hope this saves someone some trouble when speaker shopping for a j-body.