The front (and only) speaker on my 71 comet died on me. It's wedged way up there and I can't figure out any way to get it out. I was thinking of taking the dash pad off to try and go at it that way but a) I'd rather ask on here before I go tearing all that out and b) I don't even know how to get the dash pad off :} Any tips? Jason
No A/C. I partially figured it out but still haven't been able to get it out. I found a post on here showing the mounting bracket that the speaker screws into and that screws to the dash from underneath. It looks like the mounting bracket has two screws on the side closest to the passenger compartment (away from the windshield). I felt the screws and managed to undo one of the nuts (the one toward the passenger's side). The one toward the driver is damn near impossible, I can't get a wrench or socket on it. I think I should only have to undo these and then it should pull out right? Jason
You will need to remove 4 nuts. They are 11/32 in size. I suggest using a nut driver. Remove the ash tray and ash tray assembly so you can see what you are doing. You will also need to remove the defrost ductwork as well. Two nuts are near the windshield and are close together in the center. Two are at the rear of the speaker at the ends.
Were you thinking of getting another factory speaker to put in there? Any speaker that is 30+ years old is bound to be questionable, even if it is NOS. Might not live very long. That dash speaker is a bit of an odd size. I am trying hard to remember if I have seen a direct replacement available. I know that there are replacement speaker units made for Mustangs that bolt in place of the factory speaker. They are two speakers (probably 3 inch) on a plate that bolts up to the factory studs. Nice thing too is that, being two speakers, they can be made to work with an aftermarket stereo too.
There is!!! It is a 5 x 7. It is made by Custom Auto Sound. 5"x7" Dual Voice Coil Speaker ● Stereo Input to One Speaker ● 140 Watts Peak Power ● Dual Tweeters ● 4 Ohm Impedance ● Freq. Response 70hz - 20Khz www.customautosound.com This is an old picture of the old design. Maverick dash speakers mount on the sides. Using the above speaker required drilling 4 holes. The new design now has provisions on the sides for mounting it in the factory mounting holes. I would still suggest drilling and using the 4 other holes.
Dash speakers?? I don't have no stinking dash speaker, I have Stereo!! (My 73 is the only Maverick I've ever had, that has had more than one speaker)
I don't know what I"m going to do yet, but I know I want it out of there. If it's not working then I'd rather take it out. Especially since, once the paper gets brittle I will start getting paper and crap falling from the dash. Making my own setup looks intruiging. However, I can't see how putting two speakers in place of one will work. The impedence will be off. Does anybody know what the impedence is on the factory speaker? I tried measuring it but obviously since it's busted I got no circuit. Jason
Until you start running a lot of wattage, impedance isn't that critical. The factory speaker is likely to be 8 ohms, dropping to 4 should be OK which would be two 8 ohm speakers run parallel. You would get more volume. Run them in series it would be 16 ohms, less volume. BTW, ...really nice Comet there ...
If you pull out the gauge cluster it will also give you alot better view of what your doing, I pulled the one out of my 77 with A/C without a problem.....other than it being stuck to the dash, because it had never been removed, and busting my hand open on some sharp edge under the dash.
Thanks, that was the first post with my sig pic, I toned it down a bit since it was rather large. On my other forum (vintage-mustang.com) everybody uses huge pics which doesn't seem to be the norm here. Regarding the impedence, my main concern is on the load at the head unit. I like the stock head unit so I'm most likely going to keep it. If I ran two speakers I would probably run them in series at 16ohms and lower the load that the head sees, hopefully preserve it. I don't know how long it will keep up with 4ohms. As far as removing the speaker, holy ****! Excuse my french. What a complete pain in the ass! I managed to get the speaker out today, I had to drop the tray under the dash, pop the heating duct out of place so I could move it around, and take the ash tray out as recommended. However, I could only get the speaker out, I couldn't get the housing it was bolted to out. I can get a wrench around the back two nuts, but the bolts they are on are bottomed out on a metal plate that runs the length of the dash. So I wouldn't be able to take the nuts off the bolts entirely. Has anybody else experienced this? I was going to take a pic but I gave up and put everything back together and moved on to other stuff. Jason
