6.5's fit our doors just fine and require no cutting. I have installed them in many 80-96 trucks.

 

If you look at a 5 1/4 speaker, it has a large metal flange with the holes far away from the foam surround, they fit. If you look at a 6 1/2" speaker, they have multiple holes, and one set is way in very near the foam surround. They fit also. Whatever you want to buy, it's your choice.

 

I for one would like to see this! I just today finished installing some, um, ~9 x 3 speakers in the back of my truck... I came across them at the JY, was mostly interested in the aftermarket mounting brackets but the speakers seem to work (just not at all loudly) so that's a bonus, I guess.

Because my cab is rusting to pieces and I have another it'll be replaced with someday, I didn't at all do this installation elegantly & properly, but it works.

More importantly, I think these speakers will be able to be hidden behind the plastic trim (in my basement) that covers up the rear pillars... I saw in a JY some time ago how Ford began sticking rear speakers back there sometime in the later years, this is a spin-off idea of that.

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On an entirely unrelated and totally off-topic note, I also just recently finished installing a factory premium sound system in my brother's 1993 Taurus. Two amplifiers and a subwoofer in the trunk, decent head unit (although cassette and not CD) I think the system came from a 94 or 95.

It sounds pretty damn good! Granted, the subwoofer won't compete with the ones some of the kids like that you can hear from two blocks away but that's entirely OK, I'm not interested in that....

But I'm now wondering how I can install such a system in my DD Tempo.... will have some wiring to figure out....

 

'81 and Dave hit the nail on the head. I think the factory speakers I took out had a lip all the way around the speaker. I have alpine 6.5's. They have no lip around the speaker cone, just an angled metal circle for protection, and little "fang" open ended brackets for screws. Two holes matched the factory, one took a drill to go straight through the metal. Working in electronics I saw speakers in 6.5" with this mount setup from most all of the big manufacturers. 6.5 is becoming the new standard in factory equipment, 5.25's are harder to find than they were even 5 years ago.


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Excellent plans, Chris. A package came yesterday that I had to sign for. It's for my birthday, Saturday. I believe it's the amp that I asked for. The alpine speakers I have are great, but the amp in that head unit must be blown. Even at 1/4 volume where I can just hear it, the speakers crackle. I'm hoping this little bullet amp will remedy that.

And should be no big deal in the Tempo. Power, ground, input, output. Worst part will be install. 90% of the wrenching I cut my teeth on was wiring. Let me know if I can assist.

 

A buddy had 5.25s so i stuck them up to the old stockers. These were pioneer 220 watt speakers. The mounting bracket was 1/2 inch or more short of mounting holes. I went with 240 watt sony xplod 6.5s. They match up hole size but as i went to swap them out both my kids and my bro-inlaw hit a bees nest in the railroad ties that surround the playground near the house. 1 trip to ER later it was dark. Sound test has to come tomorrow.

 

I just measured the failed one I took out of my truck yesterday (I can't understand why it only lasted 26 years) and it measured about 5 1/4 inches. I replaced it with one of the two front ones from my Taurus I removed when I installed the factory premium system. Once I find another later speaker plug, I will install the other Taurus speaker.

 

Are those the JBL speakers? If so, how do you like them?

 

Chris, I don't think the ones I took out are JBL, it was just the basic Taurus AM-FM cassette radio with dash mounted remote. The system I put in may be the JBL stuff as it has the trunk mounted amp.

 

My truck doesn't have a headliner or the rear trim so it might not work for those who do. It might if you drill holes in the plastic though, and mount them a little lower.

Here is a picture of the bracket and speaker installed. (I should have taken pictures when I did this, but hindsight etc... etc...)



(I shrank the picture, Chris. )

It looks good to me, and it's hidden behind the seat anyway. The brackets are angled so they point toward the front.

The top screw of the bracket I attached to the sheet metal. The bottom screw I attached to a piece of plumber's tape with a sheet metal spring nut. The other side is attached to the "b" pillar's inner support. The plumbers tape is then wrapped in electrical tape so it doesn't look crap, although you can't see it unless you stand on your head behind the seat anyway.

The wiring came from a Bronco. I used the speaker harness that comes from the radio to the bottom of the "A" pillar on the drivers side, and the light and speaker harness that goes from the bottom of the "A" pillar to the "B" pillar that is hidden under the plastic door sill.

The harness that powers the dome lamp, and the map lights on the Bronco, also has the rear speaker wires in it. Since the Main harness is the same between the Bronco and the F-series, it plugs and plays at the front. The Trucks Dome/Map/Cargo Lamp wires will plug into the Bronco harness at the back with no problem, as well as the seat belt buzzer wire.

The wires are a little longer, but looping up the access up on themselves, and taping them up took care of that. I did that in such a way you couldn't tell I did it by looking at the harness.

The most difficult part was the speakers and the wiring for the right side. I wanted speakers that were newer, and I got some out of the same car that I got the brackets from. A late 90's crown victoria. I also grabbed the speaker baffles as well that help keep the moisture out, and deepens the base a tiny bit. (I also found some for the front speakers as well)

The connectors for the speakers are differen't, so I got a couple of connectors out of the Crown Vic, and some new wire terminals. I cut the old connectors off and crimped and installed the new terminals on the wiring harness and installed them in the connector.

The wiring of the right rear channel goes along the back of the cab to the right side from the left. It follows along and attaches along the seat belt buzzer wire route, but once it got that far, I had to drill a few holes for the rest of the wire "stays" to be attached on the passenger side. Finally I used wire conduit, (from a late '90's Taurus truck lid) from the bottom of the "b" pillar up to the speaker. On the driver's side I followed the Dome/Map/Cargo wiring route as far as practical, and drilled one hole in the "B" pillar support for the conduit clip, (that I also grabbed from that Taurus trunk lid), aproximately where the Dome/Map/Cargo conduit clip is located. I matched the passenger side with the driver's side.

When I was done, I had rear speakers, and I think a good looking instalation that could be mistaken for factory, and about 25-40% more output. It sounds pretty good for what it is, and it will make you unconfortable and hurt your ears if the volume is turned up too high.

I'm not either, the bass sounds realistic and not "tinny", that's all I care about. The bass will vibrate the mirrors slightly, but nothing the other car can hear or feel next to you at a stop light.

 

This is what I did, I found these in the JY for $4 each. Installed some of those springy clippy nut-things onto the top two holes, haven't bothered with anything down below.

I'll probably redesign this when I install that plastic trim stuff (when I replace the cab).

I have one of those primo radios from a mid-80s sedan and I'm having a hard time getting the rear speakers to have anywhere near the volume as the front ones.

I have to say... looking at the wiring diagram (for the truck, not Bronco, that's a good idea, thank you!) I don't at all understand what Ford did with the speaker wiring, it kinda looks like they had + directly shorted to -.

I had cut off some pigtails from some wiring harnesses and didn't pay any attention, I figured these are just speaker wires, how hard can it be? Should be just like a home system - one pair of wires per speaker, connecting to dedicated outputs on the amp.

Ha!

I will have to pay close attention to what I came up with, I think the back speakers share a black (and maybe some color, I call it 'negative') and there are separate colored wires for L & R.

Looking at the diagram, it looks like Ford wired the things in parallel??? How would you get front/rear fading with that?

Maybe I should spend the time and get an actual, complete harness - if I can find one from a system this old, it's getting hard to find this stuff in the JY these days.

 

Are the rear speakers Ford, or are they something else? It might be impedance mismatch as Ford Radios and speakers had a weird impedance all their own. I want to say the speakers were rated for an oddball 5.4 Ohms, but not sure anymore. Most comon replacements are 4, 6 or 8. They should be matched to the amp or headunit if possible to keep the amp from overloading, or underpowering itself and the speakers. It could also be the fader or rear amp in the radio, but think it might be speaker related.

You are welcome. I had the idea from the 1992 trucks, and thought. "How different is the wiring in the Bronco compared to the pickup? When I found (rumageing through the JY, my favorite hobby) that they are compatible to be swapped, I went for it. Hardest part was the speakers and brackets. Why I went searching through the Ford Cars.


As for + directly shorted to -, it's not. They had the front and rear channels connected in the Pickup wiring harness. This gave the full output of the amp in the radio to the front speakers. Connected this way it takes less "volume" control to drive the speakers and more decibles (dB) is heard at a lower setting on the volume control. (easier to overpower the speakers)

The amp is seperated into four parts for each channel. Front to Back and Left to right. Connecting them in that maner makes the fader not work.


That diagram is for the pickup radio harness where the front and rear channels are connected. The Bronco harness is different and plugs into the connector at the radio, (C-522). Everything from C-522 toward the speakers is wired different. The rear speaker channel wires continue to the rear and connect to two more speakers, four in total on the Bronco.

Why I got the donor harness from a Bronco.

This essentially halves the power to the front speakers, as the rear channels are now moved to the back, but there is more "volume" control to make up for it. My Ford radio can still overload the speakers, so there is plenty of power going to all four of them.

If you can find one that isn't hacked up, then it is definately worth getting a Bronco Radio Harness. Just don't forget to get the harness that also goes from the "A" pillar to the "B" pillar under the sill plate as the rear speaker wires are included in that harness as well. It will all plug and play fine.

 

Need to spread the love so I'll say Thank You out here.

BTW I don't have any Ford speakers in the truck.

 

'81 is a machine. We should have a step before posting for new guys. They have a list of ~10 guys around here they have to follow for a week. They'd have all of their questions answered.


Chris- that's the radio I placed in my truck. I've been having a terrible time with it. By the time I get enough volume to hear it, power isn't there and so I get cutouts, crackles, and hiss in the sound. As well, the FR/LR fading does nothing. All it does is make the sound worse in the channel I move away from.

I need to pull it out this week and make sure I'm not getting issues because of something simple. I ran my own wiring. The radio did the same thing with the factory speakers. I'm currently running them in a speaker cabinet in my bedroom. They sound good, just aren't powerful enough for what I want. I'm suspecting the internal amp on that unit is bad. It produces great sound, just at a useless volume haha. I can hear the radio when the truck isn't moving, cassette or my mp3 input are inaudible.

I picked up an amp this weekend. Little pioneer unit, that might even mount inside the dash. It's only 2channel. But, it's got a great internal equalizer. Input is separated into two channels, not that RCA input. Then, I can tune resistance, high, mid, low, wattage, gain, and filter for each channel. So hopefully I'll have some great sound at the end of the day.

I even know a sound engineer that owes me big time for helping his mother move. If this setup works well I'm thinking about having his strip the internal amp, and use the eq. ***** on the Ford radio to control the functions from my pioneer amp.

 

I don't get it, Ralph....

This is the Bronco wiring...

Look at, say, orange/light-green-hash.... it connects from itself to itself (at the radio) and then sprouts off and becomes a speaker lead.

And then look at the speakers underneath it.... It's, like, two speakers connected to the same two wires....

Why, oh, why....

 

Dave - I am going to try and find a factory speaker wiring harness, I don't trust this self-made wiring I'm using after looking at the diagrams (and the pigtail harness connectors I got about a year ago) and seeing that you're also having problems.

These radios are pretty dang good, at least with two speakers. I was hoping for twice the performance with rear speakers, too.