How to replace left speaker on 89 Venture Royale

[Guest ezornes]

I am looking for tips on how to replace blown speaker, thanks

[Condor]

It looks like you can get to the back of the speaker thru the turn signal, but from what I've read there's one nut you can't reach. So just go ahead and remove the entire Left panel and do what you need to do. You should be able to remove the panel after taking the rear view mirror off, removing the radio and tape deck...they just pull out...and taking the phillips screws holding the bottom panel. It ain't that big of a deal.....and a lot easier than trying to work thru the left turn opening.....

[Guest ezornes]

thank you very much, I just bought bike used but it is such a nice bike I want to fix all the little issues.

[friesman]

there are several posts in here from several people that have replaced the oem speakers. I went with the 4 inch pioneers from walmart for about 40 bux or so, some guys like the Polk units for more bass and more money. Taking the fairing covers off and replacing speakers is probably about an hour for both. When yo go to lidt the black covers off the fairing the speakers are on a connecter on most models to make it easier to disconnect and take it to a workbench to change speakers and do your soldering.

 

Here is a couple of pics when I swapped out the oem audio and speakers

http://picasaweb.google.com/friesman1/Audioswap_08

 

Brian

[MikeM8560]

The mirrow dosent need to be removed is went with polk

 

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-6dQJ50DmZMC/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=51200&tab=essential_info&i=107DB400

[Kandaje]

Greetings...

 

Detailed Instructions: (assuming your 89VR is just like mine)

 

Note: Unless you are replacing the stock speaker with another stock speaker - You'll want to replace both as a matched pair. Poor sound quality will result if you use differently rated speakers and may or may not result in damage to your driving amp.

 

Remove the Top cover (AKA Fake Gas Tank Cover).

 

Left side:

 

Remove the Radio/cassette deck assembly - Insert your key into the lock, turn, pull up, release the upper and lower spring catches on the right side of the assembly - gently pull the assembly up and out using the chrome handles. Set it aside out of the sun. Now is an excellent time to clean it! NOW is also an excellent time to install thin plastic spacer shims to the female blue interface plugs. So that the radio interface sits a little more snugly. You can get an assorted bag of white plastic styrene sheets at pretty much any hobby store for about a $1 and cut your own to fit - no sense spending $3 for them at a hardware store. I used the thinnest sheet in the assortment pack. .001 or something. I dont remember - and it's probably not too important. Just a peace of mind thing really. The other pieces will come in handy over time - making switch mounts, relay mounts etc...

 

Unscrew the inner radio box plastic bezel - 6 screws around the outside of the box. You can't actually remove it from the fairing without disconnecting those blue plastic interface connectors from the Amp - so just loosen it up and drop it back inside the fairing under the outer left side plastic. It's a bit of a wiggle but it will go in through the outer deck.

 

Align the headlight adjuster knob so that the lettering is level and right side up then It just pulls straight off. You align it so that you don't have to remember which way it was pointing when you pulled it off 3 beers ago...

 

Remove all the mounting screws for the left side radio box deck - the thing that the inner radio box holder fit onto. Multiple screws - some may be missing. 1 up by the mirror, 1 up under the windshield - be careful NOT to scratch your windshield! A number of them along the right side - If you still have the (don't know what it's actually called) left inner steering head grill? That slotted grill on the left side - where the corrosponding piece on the right side the hazard switch is fastened to. Mines missing - so I don't know if it comes off with the upper deck plastic like the right one does or not.

I think 3 screws on the left side of the plastic?

 

Anyway - lift up the plastic and reach in and disconnect the speaker wire plug. It may be difficult - a little squirt of WD-40 into the plug won't hurt it. You'll wish you had three hands - a helper with another pair of small hands is useful here. Clean up the connectors and add a nice healthy dollup of Dialectric grease to the backs of each one where the wires go in - you'll thank yourself the next time you drive in the rain...

 

If you have a cigarette lighter installed - disconnect the wires.

 

Remove the deck panel plastic. The Speaker is attached with 4 each - 8mm nuts, lock washers and recessed washers (they are NOT simple flat washers - they have a recessed "divot" around the hole on one side - I really don't know if it's critical or not - but on mine the recesses on all the washers were pointed toward the front of the speaker) - . The speaker will have a white or aged yellow plastic weather half shroud on it.

 

Once you remove the nuts and washers - the speaker comes out the front of the panel with the grill cover. Remember that - It's embaressing to try to screw them back on from the back of the panel if anyone is watching and results in a oops - V8 moment when you slap yourself on the forehead.

 

Install the replacement speaker. Pretty much any adequate 4" speaker (set). The stock speakers are 4 ohm/10 watt continuous/20 watt max - as written on the back of my stock speakers (again, I'm assuming your 89VR is just like mine). If you aren't an audio-phile here's the simple: The higher the ohms - the more power is required to drive them. The higher the watts - the less likely they will blow at higher volumes. The trick is matching your speakers to your amp. Replacing 4 ohm speakers with 8 ohm rated speakers - results in half the sound you are used to - if you even hear anything at all. Using different wattage rated speakers usually results in burning up one or both of the amps output channels over time - it depends on the quality of the load balancing of the amp. Using too low rated speakers with the death star of Stereo wars power amp - means you will instantly blow the cones right out through the grill when you crank up the volume. It's a rather interesting sound - I recomend that everyone hear it at least once in their lives...

 

If your replacement comes with wires attached - You may have to splice the two speaker wires onto the old connector - unless the replacement comes with the same connector. Don't get cheesy and just twist wires together - Do it correctly!

 

The important thing to remember is to get the PHASE correct. BOTH speakers must be using the same phase - In other words - The cones are driving in and out the same direction at the same time - they have to be wired exactly the same. Speakers wired out of phase with each other - cancel each other out. Resulting in poor sound quality. Usually, what you hear is a complete lack of bass responce most noticeable - one cone driving out while the other is driving in - resulting in a cancelled wave. Essentially, you have just inadvertantly built a noise cancelling sound envelope around yourself - not, in this case, a good thing...

 

You may or may not have to solder some wires on the replacement. This is a good reason why you should replace them as a pair - unless you have another stock speaker handy. A lot of speakers aren't marked for phase - some are some arn't - and what the heck are the wire colors? It can get rather confusing. But basicly - it really DOESN'T matter which wire you hook up to which connector - so long as you do them BOTH the same. Some people will argue that point. The cone should be driving out when it's supposed to be driving out - But any party hardy collage freshman can tell you that just having them in phase results in loud enough music either way!

 

If you do have to solder - UNSOLDER the old wires where they attach to the old speaker - don't cut it - the wires are too short to begin with and you don't want to have to replace the wire if you don't need to...

 

So take the time to get it all correct before putting everything back together again...

 

Reverse the procedure to get it all back together again - With a major important detail - when you replace the deck panel back on - pay attention to the air duct and line it up with the fairing air grill with a screw driver as you position it back down

 

Last but certainly not least - Enjoy your tunes...

 

Oh and just in case you are replacing them as a set - Here's the details for the RIGHT side:

 

Pretty much exactly the same - except that the CLASS and CB Wire bundles makes getting them out of the fairing a minor PITA. The good news is that you really don't have to, just to get at the speaker. The wire bundles are long enough that you really don't have to uncrew the inner mounting box from the outer deck plastic. You can lift up the entire deck, CB, CLASS and all, enough to get at the speaker without requiring that you remove it all. Just be careful NOT to bend the plastic deck - It will shatter if you bend it too much. Or you can try the same trick of slipping the CB CLASS inner mounting bezel inside the outer deck panel - like you did with the radio box on the left side - But the CB is so deep that it does make that a little difficult, but not impossible. Just lift the whole thing up and stick a 2X4 under it and you can work on it from there easily enough...

 

The radio/tape deck is just too heavy in my opinion, and the amp connectors are too short to accomplish the same thing on the left side without taking too much of a risk breaking something expensive. All in all - the right speaker - is actually somewhat easier to get to than the left one. But neither is difficult - Just be careful with that 20 year old plastic. It's quite brittle...

 

All in all, it shouldn't take more than an hour to do the entire job - If you've ever dissasembled the fairing before. Maybe 3 if you're spending a lot of time looking around for the first time...

 

And one last note - Any time you go diving into the fairing - bring along a tube of dialectric grease, cans of electrical contact cleaner and WD-40, and a new clean bronze toothbrush. Clean every electrical connector you can reach - one at a time, and goop them up with grease. You'd be surprised just how many weird little annoyances you'll fix just doing that!

Edited July 7, 2008 by Kandaje