Fixing Subwoofer wire leads

[Bbisig]

Im posting this to show others how easy it is to replace lead wires on subwoofers.

1st step is to heat the dust cap enough to loosen the glue to peel the cap off.
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd146/mxracer592/mtx/1127071726.jpg

2nd step is to desolder the lead wire from the VC wire.

3rd step is to use a flexible wire and solder that back to the VC wire.
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd146/mxracer592/mtx/1127071904a.jpg

4th step At this point its best to epoxy the wire you just soldered to the VC wire to the cone.
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd146/mxracer592/mtx/1127071918.jpg

5th step is to solder the wires on the terminal making sure there is enough wire for the cone to move freely but no so much that the wire can hit the cone.(one in pic the riser broke of so its not a great fix)
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd146/mxracer592/mtx/1127071938a.jpg

last step is to glue the dust cap back on.

Now I left it basic but please use your own judgement when doing this.

 

[DigitalJunkie]

I've repaired a couple of subs that just had loose/broken leads.

One source I've found for the "tinsel wire" (or w/e that stuff is called) is old telephone cords. It's a bit small,for the larger/higher powered subs,but I suppose you could double/triple it up.(I've seen commercial speakers with doubled-up leads before.)

You could probably also use Litz wire,if you can find some.
(some of the inductors in old CRT monitors used it. )

 

[Perry Babin]

Desoldering braid works. The braid without flux works better because it doesn't wick the solder was well.


When you perform a repair like this, you need to use light-weight wire and you need to make strain reliefs on both ends. Silicone works well.

 

[Clipped]

if you use soft, flexible 10-12 guage wire it will also make things a bit louder... that extra db.

on some of the subs that have the tinsels woven into the spider the tinsels like to shred apart and tear at the joint where the vc meets the spider.

when this hapens i use approx 20 guage single strand wire and join it at the vc leads on the former, then drill a hole through the cone and join it to the "tinsels"... usually need a new spider for this type of repair.

 

[legalizeeit 420]

Desoldering braid works. The braid without flux works better because it doesn't wick the solder was well.


When you perform a repair like this, you need to use light-weight wire and you need to make strain reliefs on both ends. Silicone works well.

A few of my techie buddies told me they used desoldering braid and they broke after a few weeks. I'm going to try this anyways because im a cheap ***. I tested the connections on a low volume and there is output, Ill post back if a problem arises.

 

[boxcustom]

Tinsel wire also called lead wire is the only wire I have used that works. All others I have tried have broken in time.

 

[chipper]

The subs I've had much problems with the tensils falling off are Kickers for years I've used Kicker subs and alot of times they would quit on me and I take them out of the box and to find a tensil lead ripped off and my MTX thunder 4000 has a ripped tensil lead I can't remove the cap on it because it has a paper cone. I haven't tried to fix the kickers yet but checking out this post puts me up for it .

 

[spooney]

If there is enough tinsel lead coming out of the cone there is a way to do it reliably without removing the dustcap. I have a DC audio level 4 that I bought with snapped tinsel leads. A guy I know suggested trimming the tinsel back until its approximately 1/2 an inch from the cone. For my fix I actually sourced some quality tinsel lead wire so at this point I took an approximately 14 gauge piece of solid copper wire bent into a C shape and crimped the new lead to the 1/2 inch of lead coming from the cone and then soldered them together. After soldering I used some E6000 adhesive to glue my newly soldered connection to the underside of the cone so all the stress is on the new lead wire and not the soldered connection. Now you just have to use your best judgment and leave just enough lead wire to allow full excursion without the leads slapping the cone. You can always take some felt pads/or speaker box carpet and glue them on the underside of the cone to keep from ever hearing the leads slap the back of the cone at high excursion.

 

[legalizeeit 420]

Tinsel wire also called lead wire is the only wire I have used that works. All others I have tried have broken in time.

Sounds about right. My leads snapped like 15 mins ago now i have to order tinsel wire and wait for it to get shipped. Desoldering braid worked for like a week and then snapped around where i tinned the ends. No beuno on desoldering braid mang. I even tripled it up.

 

[legalizeeit 420]

Official Speaker Repair Site - Orange County Speaker Repair and Sales - SpeakerRepair.com - Home of GLS Audio has 2ft of tinsel lead wires for like 5 bucks. just bought 2 orders of that. post back if there are any problems.