Polarity unclarity

October 5, 2011 12:23 PM

How to I tackle replacing (rear) car speakers when there's a special connector?

The rear speakers on my car blew out. Took the bass too low. Ah well. So I bought new ones, and I am taking the old ones out:

Original rear speaker

It looks like I need to clip off the white connector from the original speaker, and solder it to the new speakers. The white connector plugs into a special audio wire from the car electronics.

My question is, simply: Which side of the connector goes to which connection on the speaker?

There are no markings on or around the connector port to mark which is which. Should I just follow the orientation of the wiring on the original speaker?

posted by Blazecock Pileon to technology (4 answers total)

You can identify the polarity with a AA battery.
posted by exogenous at 12:28 PM on October 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

There are adapters available to plug into most factory wires and then to your new speakers - I can't see your pic at work, but check on cruthcfield.com, sonicelectronix.com, etc, etc - ebay usually has them for a few bucks each.
posted by pupdog at 12:28 PM on October 5, 2011

It may be easier to clip the connector off of the factory wire, strip and crimp on proper new speaker connector spades.
posted by ijoyner at 1:10 PM on October 5, 2011

Thanks, exogenous. Worked like a charm.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:50 PM on October 5, 2011