Jvette73

Its a 86 Pontiac 6000. Im puttin new speakers in the dash. The factory speaker wires and speakers are not marked with + or -. The speaker terminals are marked A and B. Any idea which one is + and which is - ?

Crash Dummy

I'd say turn your ignition/radio on & stick an idiot light into each wire to see which one has power going to it.

Jvette73

I have a regular test light but i didnt think the radio speakers had enough amps flowing to actually light the light. Do they? If so I will try.

LAvetteman

On a speaker you can test polarity by taking a 9 volt battery and connect it to the speaker. Whatever sp terminal that makes the speaker move out when connected to the + on the bat is the +.

As mentioned above, take a dc volt meter and test each sp wire with the red lead of the meter, ground the black lead. The + speaker wire will give you a couple of volts when on.

battsup

the polarity of a speaker is reversible, unless if it something high end or a subwoofer.

LAvetteman

If you connect the - of the bat to the + of the speaker and + of the bat to - of the speaker, the speaker will "suck" in. Reverse these connections and the speaker will "push" out.

Now, when a speaker is hooked up incorrectly with polarity reversed, sure it will play, but the quality of sound and frequency response suffers greatly.

stpman

:iagree:

Jvette73

[QUOTE]On a speaker you can test polarity by taking a 9 volt battery and connect it to the speaker. Whatever sp terminal that makes the speaker move out when connected to the + on the bat is the +.

Thanks for this idea. This will be the method i use. since the factory harness will only plug onto the speaker one way, ill test the speaker with a 9v battery to determine which side of the speaker is +, then the corosponding wireon the harness will be the + one. Great tips.

Ive tried the speakers both ways and ive alweays known that they will play either way. But I also know that there is a right way and a wrong way. The speaker cone should pulse outward sending the waves into the passenger compartment rather then pulsing inward sending the waves under the dash. I do notice a difference in bass when swapping the connections back and forth. I guess it would be obvious that the better bass would indicate its connected correct.

Thanks for the help

Jvette73

Test complete. The speaker terminal marked B on this vehicles dash speaker is the +. So the corrosponding wire on the harness must be the +. That was simple enough. Thanks again.