[rschaffrath]

Today I decided to attempt the installation of rear speakers using Pioneer TS-G1647's rather than the Honda kit. Rather than blindly cutting into the carpet, I decided to peel back the carpet by removing the pillar covers and various carpet fasteners. This worked very well and I was able to remove the plastic filler cover and calculate where to cut exactly.

While looking inside the hole, I saw a cable tie around the bus cable that I had installed when I put in the Honda CD changer. I decided to trim it back a little for no good reason other than I thought I should. I went in with the wire snips only to suddenly find the cable tie in my hand. I had managed to cut through the tie and into the bus cable rather than the end of the tie resulting in a blown fuse for the radio circuit. In addition, my bus cable was now cut 1/3 of the way through. I decided I would attempt to fix it but this was going to necessitate the removal of the rear bulkhead. Actually this was not too bad because with the bulkhead moved into the house, adding speakers was much easier as I could cut the carpet exactly and drill the requisite holes for the speaker mounting screws. The only issue was the screws that are included with the speakers are 3/4" long and screws between 1" and 1 1/4" inch were needed.

While the bulkhead was removed, I managed to splice the cable back together, seal it with silicone rubber, and it appeared to be working fine as the CD player was playing again. I had installed the speakers onto the bulkhead while it was in the house and I proceded to reinstall the bulkhead into the car. All of the screws went in fine except for one right behind the driver - naturally. It was sticking when all of a sudden the threaded assembly that is compression fit to the body and that the bolt screws into broke loose. The nut was spinning around with the compression fitting on the end. I decided I would just leave it alone since I probably would not have to remove the bulkhead again.

WRONG! Apparently my little fix to the bus cable did not last. The CD changer stopped working although the radio is still working. It would appear that my soldered splice to the power line did not hold. So I have decided I am going to have to go to Hparts and get a replacement bus cable ($43.70) along with cushion tapes (8 of them at $2.40 a pop for those) and run a new cable to the CD player. In addition, I also have to figure out how I am going to get that one nut out of the car and how I can get a new compression fitting installed (does anyone know who can do compression fittings?). I think I can grab the fitting from the rear with a Vise-Grip and remove the nut. As for replacement, if I cannot get a compression fitting, I am thinking of using simple nut and locknut combination that I can reach from behind.

It had been quite a day...

 

[rschaffrath]

Re: ...

Hey, are you the guy who installed the CD changer in my '93 Intrepid??

If some installer had done this to me I would have gone ballastic. As it is, I have no one to blame but myself.

I did a little research in the parts manual and found that the item I was calling a "compression nut" is either a "pop nut" (90303-S3Y-J00) or a "Nut Plate" (90330-S3Y-300). I won't be able to tell until I remove the bulkhead and and get the part out. The fact that it is a replaceable part is encouraging since it looks like this problem is repairable.

However, despite all of this, the speakers works great. The TS-G1647's do a wonderful job. The rear speakers give more of a surround sound effect. Once I replace the CD player cable and fix the "pop nut"/"nut plate" problem, I expect everything will be back to normal.

 

[rschaffrath]

Well I finally completed the job having received the new HBUS cable from hparts.com. A picture of the completed installation is available at http://www.schaffrath.net/photos/New-Speakers.jpg. The speakers are the new Pioneer TS-G1647's. They definitely add a bit more bass to the system.

Also, I have a picture of the rear area with the bulkhead removed at http://www.schaffrath.net/photos/Bulkhead-Removed.jpg. It really isn't a big deal to remove the bulkhead and I would definitely recommend doing it if you are installing aftermarket speakers. I needed to drill three small holes for the speaker mounting clips and doing the drilling on a floor was alot easier than trying to do it while the bulkhead was installed. Plus, there was no need to worry about little aluminum slivers getting lost in the car. I completed installation of the speakers on the bulkhead before installing it and simply connected the speaker wires to the speakers when I reinstalled the bulkhead.