Infinity speaker replacement and amplifier mounting

[HerronScott]

I just finished replacing the original Infinity door speakers in my wife's 2002 Liberty Limited with Polk DB651s speakers and thought I would post how I handled the speaker connections and mounting the amplifier.

We started with the rear speakers since I figured those would be easier as I had read about the amplifier mounted on the front ones. The rear speakers appeared to actually be in good shape with foam surround intact. The new speakers came with a mounting adapter but unfortunately the 2002 is an oddball on the speaker connector so there is no wiring adapter. Turns out the male connector on the speaker just unclipped after I unsoldered the wires going to the speaker itself (see pictures). I then soldered a short length of the speaker cable that had the right connecters for the new speaker to the Infinity connector and made my own adapter. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the finished result for the rears.

For the front speakers, the foam was shot on both with nothing left so no wonder they sounded terrible. The amplifier is bolted to the speaker and a hardwired cable goes from the amplifier to the speaker with the factory setup. I ended up mounting the amplifier just below the speaker opening after drilling 2 holes with some 10-24 x 1 1/2" stainless steel bolts, washers and nyloc nuts that I picked up from Lowes. The front speakers don't use a plastic connector like the rear and the board is riveted to the speaker but I was able to use a pair of needle nose pliers to get the lug on each side free by twisting after unsoldering the wires going to the speaker. I again soldered a short length of speaker wire that had the right connectors for the new speakers to these lugs and made short extension cables to go from the amplifier to the speaker (see picture). I just had to use electrical tape to cover the lugs and connector on the amplifier side.

Hopefully this helps someone else.

Scott

 

[HerronScott]

Here's the hardware I used to mount the amplifier.

Scott

 

[uss2defiant]

how are your new speakers?

 

[HerronScott]

Much clearer than what they replaced (and no buzzing from the passenger side front. For the price and the door placements, I'm happy with the sound using the factory unit and the Infinity amps.

I haven't decided yet if we need to do anything with the dash tweeters. I'll let my wife drive it for a while and let me know what she thinks.

Scott

 

[profdlp]

I replaced my stock speakers with a component set and the new tweeters in the dash made an enormous difference. It took a little work getting them in there, but I'm glad I did it.

 

[uss2defiant]

My tweaters were fine but getting to them isn't too bad.

 

[profdlp]

My problem was that I wanted to run all new wires. Being component speakers, that meant fishing wires from the dash down to the doors. It's doable, but there is a certain knack required. By the time I was getting the hang of it I had both doors done. :happy175:

 

[djpearce]

I ended up just re-foaming the Infinity front door speaker with a re-foam kit I bought on Amazon. An easy fix and the speakers sound like new. kit was $24 and repaired both from speakers. Just an option to replacement.

 

[profdlp]

Cool! I have always wondered how well that works. Good info!

 

[HerronScott]

I replaced my stock speakers with a component set and the new tweeters in the dash made an enormous difference. It took a little work getting them in there, but I'm glad I did it.

I believe the Infinitys are 2 ohm while the Polks are 4 ohm so just need to listen for a while and see if the highs are too forward now. It didn't sound so to me right after the replacement but we've got a good long drive ahead of us heading down to SC for vacation to listen.

Scott

 

[CalcityRenegade]

Here's the hardware I used to mount the amplifier.

Scott

This system worked well for me lol.

 

[JPElectron]

Looks good, but I question why two amps are really needed...
Head unit is an amp, then you have another amp in the door.

Most head units output 8ohms at enough watts to drive the speakers directly. I bypassed the door amplifiers on my friends Jeep, here is the pinout if anyone else stumbles across this and would like to eliminate the door amplifier and dash speakers...

http://jpelectron.com/sample/Electronics/Car- Jeep Liberty door amp pinout.png

 

[Aceofspades]

Good to know

Was looking recently for any 6.5" speaker in 2ohm and replacements that fit the dashboard as well
Not going for anything special just good replacements

So far I found 4 speakers infinity kappa 62.11i
Next up is the tiny dashboard ones

 

[towpro]

I replaced both head unit and speakers, but first I did head unit and wired amps.
Next I replaced rear speakers and listened.
Than I replace dash and front speakers keeping amps and listened. than I tried it without amps.

Removing the amps made a nice improvement.

 

[Aceofspades]

Was curious about that as well. If using an aftermarket HU, those amps are bottlenecking the power. Could they have built in crossovers that help clean up the sound ?

 

[towpro]

Was curious about that as well. If using an aftermarket HU, those amps are bottlenecking the power. Could they have built in crossovers that help clean up the sound ?

The factory amps did not have crossovers in them, but the factory dash speakers have a bi-polar 68uF cap in series with speaker, (still have them sitting on my desk) this stops lows from getting to dash speaker

Click Here and see page 2232,
you see how dash speakers are first wired to door amps. you can also see how easy it is to just jumper the harness in doors when you remove the amps.

I bought a set of component speakers that were 6.5" woofers for door and 1" tweeters for dash. it came with its own crossover network, which I installed in door after i wired around the amps that were factory in the door.

I used the radio output wires that go to front door speaker connector (an example on diagram is LS door = DG and DG/BR) ran to cross over, than ran bass output from crossover to door speaker and high output to dash speaker using factory amp wire that leaves door to dash (LS = GY/OR and GY/YL). than stuck crossovers to inside door metal with good double sided tape.

I was not worried about factory wire sizing, most head units are only 20w or so and there is plenty of wire size to support that.

my system really sounds great to me. Plus I have a Sound Ordnance™ B-8PT under the drivers front seat .