therobski

Guys ordered this new speaker for my 64 F-85 post, how do you wire this so I can plug the original single wire into the radio? Its a dual voice coil, replacing the single front speaker with one lead that plugs into the radio.

oldcutlass

Just wire them in parrallel for a single wire system. If your running a stereo hookup then wire the left pair to the left side and right pair to the right.

jaunty75

My guess is that the original wiring for your car's speaker used the car's frame as the negative (-) or return wire and that single green wire as the positive. If this is so, you would just connect the green wire that went to the original speaker to the plus (+) lead on the new speaker, and connect a second wire from the negative lead on the new speaker to a convenient ground point nearby. The original AM radio would have the return wire already connected to ground internally, so that once the radio's own ground was connected (probably by just having the radio's housing connected to whatever bracket supported it behind the dash), the speaker ground would be connected as well.

If you're putting in a new, modern radio, it would have two wires per speaker, and then you would do what oldcutlass says and run two wires to each speaker, whether you have one speaker, two, or four.

If there's one thing about the wiring for these early radios, it is that it was VERY simple.

therobski

Like this, I have the two positive leads tied to the single lead that plugs into the AM radio. the speaker will ground itself when installed?

jaunty75

I think so, but I've never seen a speaker like the one you are trying to use. It has TWO sets of inputs? Why does it have that? So you can use a stereo radio in a car with only one speaker? Seems like overkill. I would just use an ordinary single-channel speaker and connect both the left and right positive leads to the single positive terminal.

I do NOT believe the speaker will ground itself. The original one that came with your '64 likely did, but newer speakers have a separate input for the negative side. Your new speaker has TWO negative inputs, one, apparently for each of the left and right channels.

You need to duplicate the situation that existed with your original speaker by connecting the two negative sides on your new speaker to a nearby ground point.

jaunty75

I just now went to the Retro Mod website, and that's exactly what your speaker is. Very interesting. It's specifically designed for use in older cars that have a location for only one speaker, and it allows you to connect both the left and right channel. I'd never heard of such at thing until today.

therobski

Gotcha, it maybe alittlle overkill for the stock AM radio but I don't believe I paid a lot of money for it either. Maybe $40.00 tops. I rather hear the 425!!!

jaunty75

I take back what I said earlier. In looking into this thing further, I think this is a great idea. I DO think you will get better overall sound with the two channels connected to two separate speakers, even if the two speakers are in the same place.

Now you are apparently using the original AM radio, correct? That, I'm sure, never put out the greatest sound, but AM radio back in 1964 didn't demand all that much. Certainly no one was concerned about high fidelity at the time, and a factory-installed stereo radio was probably a rarity if it was available at all. If all you're listening to is AM, you'll probably end up listening to sports or talk stations as much as music stations, depending on what's in your area, and with talk radio or a baseball game, sound quality is really not important.

therobski

Exactly, and down in this area I like to keep an update on the weather if need be. It can get real nasty, real fast in North Texas especially this time of year. Thanks for your input.

oldcutlass

I have to correct my earlier suggestion of wiring them in parrallel. Your adapting 2ea 4 ohm speakers to an 8 ohm output. So if your using a one wire hookup then the speakers need to be hooked up in series. It would be like your center diagram.

As stated by Jaunty above the neg -, wire needs to go to chasis ground.