Setting up my truck

[soul_sound]

I bought my Ranger in November of 2003 and I drove it until the insurance ran out in Feb. of 2004. I couldn't work at the time so I did not re-insure the truck or get to put much work into it all year. Feb of this year I got it insured again and Ive been working for a month.

I lasted the first 4 months of driving it with my 3 (stock) speaker, minidisc player-through-tape player setup. Come this past February, until the past weeks, I managed to tolerate my fuzzy, quiet and somewhat distorted stereo.

Then I got my first paycheck from my new job and I bought a pair of 5.25" JL Audio VR coaxials and a pair of MB Quart Discus 6x8" coaxials to replace my stock speakers. I also bought a used Panasonic cd player head unit to play my discs. The installation of the HU went fine, except that I followed the original wiring and combined the back two channels ground wires, and the same with the front. Fixed that and all is well now.

The 6x8's screwed in fine and other than not knowing which terminal was + or -, becuase MB Quart does not label them, all went tell there.
Edit:I assumed the smaller terminal was the - and the fatter was the +. Is this universal?

I'm having a problem with my JL 5.25's. I decided to put them into my door panels rather than my dash. A little time with the 'Ol Zip-Cut and I had the room to screw them in as well.

I was wondering if there is anything I can stick behind them to insulate them, possibly to inprove sound? Is that needed?

Also, I used 22 guage wiring (on the front), becuase that was all I had left. The back speakers sound fine but both the front ones have a distorted sound to them, especially at low volumes. Will the higher guage wiring cause this? If not, could the motor of the speakers be interfering with the metal in the door panel? If so, how much room should be left around the magnet?

I don't have an amplifier yet but I was looking at purchasing a 100wX4 Fusion.

Can anyone help me with this ? I would appreciate it :)

[William from NOLA]

A higher guage wire will be a must with a new amp. Component speakers need much more power than coaxial speakers to operate properly. Head units cannot supply enough power for just about any component set. I believe the minimum for most component sets seems to be 30 rms (absolute minimum). 50 rms or more would be much better (100 being great for them).

So in other words, it isn't your wiring causing the distortion. 22 is okay, 18 would be much better, but 16 is what you should be running.

[soul_sound]

Thanks. I don't plan on putting a component setup in my truck as then my stereo would be worth more than what it would be sitting in.

Just the passenger side front speaker is doing this. I hope it's not blown, although I couldn't see how it would be becuase I haven't even turned it up loud, let alone give it enough power to push it past its factory recomended RMS rating.

It sounds as if the woofer is distorting but I still get clear vocals and sounds from the tweeter.... :(

I don't think there is a warantee on the speakers becuase I put them in myself. Fun fun...

[William from NOLA]

Oh I'm sorry, I misread your post.

That's odd. Try swapping the left and right and see if it is the speaker or not. Make sure that the metal in the door isn't touching the terminals of the speaker also.