6.5 components in 89 riv

I was at Best Buy the other night and scored some pioneer components for $40, so I figured I wasnt out very much if they wouldnt fit in my Riv. I have the old mid range and tweeter out but I am kinda stuck on the wiring. Both the mid and tweeter have the same color wires (tan, grey) going into the car. Anyone know if the car had a factory amp, or do these wires slpice together to go into the radio? I need to find out where I can get to them inside the car because I have an output converter and I need to cut into them. Ill post some pics up of how I am going to mount the drivers in the factory brackets later tonight.

Thanks!
Tony

I don't know about the factory amp, but they're probably going to something, otherwise why run separate wires? You can always run new wires from your 6.5" speakers to the head unit, right?

I could but I want to power the new components with a amp I have. I'll need two channels going into the amp. I guess if I have to I could get a 4 channel amp and power each tweeter and mid on it's own channel. I'd rather just use a 2 cannel amp and the passive crossovers.

No need for a 4-channel amp - use the passive crossovers and a two channel amp for the fronts. See if there's a place to put the crossover box inside each door. That way you can run short length wires from speakers to crossover, then one wire from each door to the amp.

That's what I want to do, but there's two wires off the tweet and two off the mid. I only need two for the output converter for the amp. I don't know if I could just use the tweeter wires or the mid wires because they could already be crossed over. Do you know where I could get a wiring diagram?U

I don't know about a diagram, but I wouldn't use the original wiring. Just reroute new speaker cables to the amp. The converter for the amp should be installed between the head and the amp. Take out the head and see what's back there.

Well its got a crt touchscreen so there are about 100 wires coming out of it lol.

OHH, that's right. Well crap then, the best advice I can give is to trace the wires through the door and up under the dash. See if you can locate them and see where they go. You may get lucky and find an amp or crossover module. That would mean a single pair of wires to the head unit - those would be the ones to tap into.

http://www.modifiedlife.com/1989-buick-riviera-car-audio-wiring-diagram/

I dont know if I should trust this, but I only pulled the left speakers out, the wires are the same color as they say,but they dont say anything about a tweeter. I will do like you said, trace them back untill they go to an x over or somehting. Im going to make some mdf speaker brackets for the mids, and I am going to modify the stock tweeter brackets with plexiglass to mount the aftermarket ones. Ill post pics when I get into this.

Sounds great. If you get a chance, take some step-by-step pictures and post up. Makes it easier to trace your steps if you forget how everything was before you started. When you're finish, we can turn it into a write-up!

Sweet that be cool. Ill try to get some pics of the door and the original mounting brackets tommrow.

I recall there is an external radio module _Somewhere_ under that dash, the CRT just controls it, but I'll be damned if I can remember where it is. We looked for it on our '86 once but I just can't remember what we found, it was so long ago.

The radio head unit is actually located in the center console, just behind the shifter assembly.

Ok, that will be easy to access. I bet theres a tweeter output and a mid range output coming out of the source unit., if there is them I will probably just replace the tweeter and mid with the pioneers and not even amp them. I seriously doubt either of those channels with be fullrange, they are most likley crossed over at the source unit. I could use a 4ch amp and power each tweeter and mid on their own channel but thats going to be alot of work. For now I will just probably make the mdf adapters and replace the drivers.

Actually, now that I think about it, I have a old alpine 3527, 30w x4. It has high level inputs so I wont even need an output converter. The only problem is that when I got it, t did not have any of the input plugs lol. Im sure I can figure something out.

I wouldn't power them independently if you can help it. The passive network that comes with the components is specifically designed to work with those speakers - it's like mating a transmission up to an engine - if you use the wrong one, the speakers may not perform properly. You probably won't damage them, but they may not sound as good.

If the separate tweeter and woofer wires both go into the head, you have no choice but to run them independent. Try the 4-channel amp, but maybe run the midrange straight through, but the tweeter through the passive crossover (this way you at least get the recommended high pass cut-off).

Yeah Im kinda worried the factory tweeter might be crossed over lower than the pioneer recomends. For now I am going to Wire the speakers up to the stock wires. If I want to amp them I can find them in the center console and run the amp to the wires there.

I don't know how the stereo in the '89 works. In the '98 IIRC they used Piezo tweeters, which don't require crossovers due to sharp frequency response rolloff below the treble frequencies. I don't remember the rolloff characteristic but it's easy to find on the web.

Albertj

I think the OEM tweeters in my '98 are 1" moving coil dome type. They are wired with a capacitor inline (1st order filter) to limit the low frequencies. The mids use a natural acoustic roll-off to filter the highs.

So is the midrange gettig a fullrange in and crossing it over with its own x overs? If so I could amp the midrange channels and run the passive 2 ways off of them and amp them.

After looking at the tweeter I see there is a resistor on it, so I am almost positive that both channels are fullrange.

89riv wrote:

So is the midrange gettig a fullrange in and crossing it over with its own x overs? If so I could amp the midrange channels and run the passive 2 ways off of them and amp them.

That's a great idea! I'd try it. You'll know if it's not fullrange because you won't hear the treble. Do a test and see - you can't hurt the speakers doing this. I'm about 90% sure this will work!

Try using the midrange wires first. If there's a resistor on the tweets, that doesn't filter any of the sound, it just attenuates the volume level. There still may be some filtering upstream. It takes a capacitor or inductor to filter specific frequencies.

AA wrote:

I think the OEM tweeters in my '98 are 1" moving coil dome type. They are wired with a capacitor inline (1st order filter) to limit the low frequencies. The mids use a natural acoustic roll-off to filter the highs.

HMMM... I guess the PO modified mine. Last year I took them out and put in coax speakers from Crutchfield with aimable tweeters, whcih I am very happy with.

Albertj

I scored this 2 way set for cheap, but I was planning on using coaxial speakers.

I plugged the original midrange in with the tweeter unhooked and I had the fader and balance on the left front. I could hear all the low end stuff and I could hear symbols and vocals so I am pretty sure that channel is fullrange.

Heres how I plan to wire it;

I will run the midrange wire out of the source unit to the output converter to the amp. from the amp mounted in the truck. I will run the wires from the amp to the passive cross over mounted in the trunk. I will run the tweeter and midrange wires from the passive cross over to the wires from the source unit to the speakers and I will splice into them there so I will retain all my original wiring incase I need to pull anything out.

I think I worded that badly lol. While I am working on it I will post pics of what I am doing. Friday I am going to a freinds house who has a very nice wood shop so I will get the mdf brackets made.

I got my adapters made today, and got all the signal wires ran. Luckily I still had about 10' of 9 conductor speaker wire from my last build so I only have to make 1 run of wire. There was only a left and right channel going into the source unit. So I will run the midrange wires into the passive crossover and split them there.

I suck at working with wood lol, but these brackets will do their purpose. I used 3/4 mdf for the midrange adapters and plexiglass on the tweeter adapters.

It was a pain to get to the source unit, but like ash said earlier; it was located right under the shifter. For now I am just going to put these mids in as they are now. Future plans will be dynamating the door, and making mdf tweeter backets because the plexiglass on the ones now arent sitting plush.

Also, I found an adapter that goes into the head unit at the antenna that has rca inputs so I can use my ipod through the radio. So I plan to buy that soon.