Speakers in a J body

Trey

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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.
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Drivers side. Lots more plastic in the way because the duct has to go over the instrument cluster.

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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.
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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.

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Aspen500

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I had a similar problem putting new front speakers in my Aspen. The drivers side hit the A/C duct about 1/4" from being all the way in. I bought the shallowest ones I could find. Don't remember what brand or model they were. Basically, they're the cheapest ones Crutchfield had (stock AM/FM radio). Not as big a deal on an F-body, the plastic duct is flexible enough to "form" to the speaker magnet.
 

Duke5A

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Does that model year have separate ground wires ran back to the stereo? Factory wiring will have two plugs for the radio if it does. If not, I hate to say it, but new speakers are aren't going to sound any better without a separate ground wire from each speaker ran back to the factory radio case it's not going to sound good. Went through this on my Dad's 1980.
 

Trey

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I ran new wires to all 4 speakers. Common ground systems don't work well with modern stereos that require a separate ground going to each speaker. Plus, I didn't want to chop up the factory wiring in case I was to ever install the factory radio back in the car.
 

BudW

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The J dash speaker is different (larger) from the dash speakers used for F/M’s.

I don’t see a problem cutting into the vent ducts – if the magnet is only part in the air flow. Having the paper cone exposed to airflow might make for some odd noise though (speakers vibrating the ducts or air flow vibrating the paper cone(s). I would think placing tape on the duct cutouts would help – but I’m not sure. The tape might vibrate against the speaker magnet.
BudW
 
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