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MG MGF Technical - Fit rear speakers to MKI stereo

Hello All,

I am the proud owner of a new MKII T-Bar with speakers, and I was wondering whether I can attach these to the original stereo?

I've had a look at the back of the stereo which has three connectors

1 Black - I assume the power
1 Brown/Orange - I would guess at the CD changer control
1 Grey - currently has four wires attached which I assume are for the front speakers

I'm sure that the stereo can handle four speakers; just a case of knowing which bits to wire up... any ideas??
Dan

The original Philips head unit takes four speakers extremely well - all you need is the wiring, which you can get in Halfords.

Ted
Ted Newman

Wireing loom from halfords and a connector block, cut the wires off the connects you have and use the connector block to wire pin for pin to the new block, you will be left with an extra 4 wires for the speakers,
bob, uncle
Will Munns

As Ted says, it is very easy to wire two additional speakers into the standard fit Phillips radio - it's designed to take them anyway!

I used a Halfords standard DIN plug connector, and spliced between the car's standard loom plug and the head unit, and took the wires to the rear speakers from this. A picture would be helpful at this point, but sadly I haven't got one! But it is a very easy job. :o)
Rob Bell

As a BTW I did it exactly as Will describes BUT instead of speakers the rear wires go to a stereo headset jack which I fitted in the armrest oddments box.

This arrangement allows me to listen to the stereo without having the volume too high and in fact when I have a passenger that does not like my choice of music I can fade out the door speakers completely.

Ted
Ted Newman

Thanks for all the info, I will pay Halfords a visit this week.

Does the connector into the stereo have a name? Also are there different types as I noticed that the brown and grey ones are keyed differently
Dan

IIRC, the colour of the Halfords connector you want is brown...
Rob Bell

The halfords connector I think comes as one big connector for both power & speakers.
Will Munns

Oh, and it obvious because it has the right connectors on one end, and no connector on the other (most of there others are adaptor cables with a connector on both ends)

Will
Will Munns

Not being very bright I was not sure which one was correct so I looked it up in their (Halfords) directory of which bit for which car/radio.

Ted
Ted Newman

Visited Halfords last night; the connector is apparently called a 'standard ISO connector' FYI.

Now, comes the next part - how the *@?!! do I fit the speakers.

They are a pair of 4"x6" speakers given to me by a friend - looking in the archives it mentions a box that they attach to? I don't have one of these and the holes on the speaker don't match the holes in the T-Bar.

So, do I have to get different speakers, or somehow source a pair of these boxes.

Help would be most appreciated :-)

Dan

Dan,

The standard Mk2 speakers are bit smaller than 6x4's.

The standard ones come fitted in a black plastic container, which is roughly the size of the T-bar.

Usual breakers should be able to help you out, incl. MGF Cenre 01902 403045.

paul weatherill

Dan,

The speaker boxes are part of the bar. You'll get them from one of the MGF breakers. You can see a picture of it amongst these pictures:

http://www.xpower-mg.com/gallery/showgallery.php?thumb=1&cat=527&si=&perpage=30&sort=2&stype=&ppuser=

I had to get mine taken out and the speakers refitted when I had the roll hoops fitted.
David Clelland

Would it not be possible to make your own templates and put 6"x9"'s in? they would probably sound better.
J Price

>Would it not be possible to make your own templates
>and put 6"x9"'s in? they would probably sound better.

The problem is the curve of the T-bar, larger speakers will not sit flat, and they will certainly not fit behind the t-bar (where the 6x4 sit)
Will Munns

Fitting speakers into the Mk1 T-bar is quite possible - see http://www.mgf.ultimatemg.com/installing_rear_t.htm

Here I fitted a pair of 10cm Pioneer's - but even this speaker sits proud of the T-bar curvature, as you can see from the pix.

Tom Randell got around this problem by effectively moulding the T-bar to suit the contour of the speaker - have the pix, must upload them some time...
Rob Bell

Dan,

I tried this technique and got the instructions (and template) from Paul Wormans site http://www.btinternet.com/~paul.worman/Cars_Frame.htm

Essentially the idea is to use the MG speaker cover and glue it into the T-bar, which as Rob says is curved. It does work but in the end, I bought a MK2 T-bar, one of the speaker covers always popped out and I got fed up with re gluing it :(
Les Piggot

Thanks for all the info; I think I'll stick with trying to put the speakers behind the MKII T-Bar, rather than revert to my MKI.

As I don't have standard MGF speakers, does this mean that if I source some of the original plastic boxes then the new speakers won't fit inside? Also what are these plastic boxes attached to??
Dan

Dan,

If you have a look at David Clelland's photo's.

You'll see the metal strip that runs the full length of the T-bar.
This is attached to the black plastic box.
(Only on first picture, as it was later removed.)

http://www.xpower-mg.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2213&password=&sort=2&thecat=527



The Metal strip then attaches with 2 bolts at either end.

If you have a MK1, you will have the metal strip, but not the black box.

I bought my "black box" with speakers attached.



paul weatherill

Ahhh, I see - I thought that the speakers were always placed in roughly the position shown in the following pic:

http://www.xpower-mg.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2211&password=&sort=7&thecat=527

I didn't realise that they were tucked away further back than that, as shown in this pic:

http://www.xpower-mg.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2213&size=big&password=&sort=7&thecat=527

So, if I get the black box (singular?); it should fit under my MKI metal bit and have room for standard 6"x4" speakers then?
Dan

yup ;)
paul weatherill

Thanks very much for the help.
Dan

Personally, I'd avoid fitting the rear speaker boxes (I'm sure that SF is of the same opinion after Saturday's King Cone 2) - basically, the speaker boxes make access to the engine access cover bolts far more troublesome. I'm not even convinced of the need for the boxes?

The speakers themselves fit to the metal 'subframe' - although if you fit 6x4's you may want to work out your own fitting arrangement.
Rob Bell

Damn you Rob, just when I thought I'd understood it all :-)

To be honest I'm not too fussed where the speakers reside; it was that I naively thought that buying a MKII T-Bar would be the 'whole package' so to speak (no pun intended :-). Are we now saying that I have to do some custom drilling or the like to fit these speakers? I'm guessing that the MKI subframe doesn't have mountings for these speakers.
Dan

Well, if you buy all the parts associated with the Mk2 T-bar, then yes, that's the complete package.

But if you want to fit 6"x4" speakers, you may need to fabricate new brackets - not dissimilar to those used by Mike in his Roll-bar conversion - as pictured in http://www.xpower-mg.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2211&password=&sort=7&thecat=527

This should fit quite nicely behind a Mk2 T-bar trim and speaker grilles... and no one would be any the wiser as to what was fitted underneath it! ;o)
Rob Bell

Just for the record, I bought a £3.99 ISO->plain wires connector for (I seem to remember Panasonic radios) from a very local accessory shop (can't think of their name right now, I'm afraid)

Then push a watch screwdriver from the opposite side of the plug to the wires and disengage the springy catch and remove the contact.

Then insert them in the existing plug outside the existing speaker wires. Not sure if it was just my plug, but 2 of the wires wouldn't go in cleanly, so a little effort with a needle file helped...

Of course, it means I've got all the other wires left over...

Neil.

Neil

This thread was discussed between 12/05/2003 and 15/05/2003

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