Connecting rear radio speaker

[Guest]

I am replacing the rear radio speaker on my '65 Skylark. I simply went to Best Buy and bought the cheapest 6x9 car speaker they had, since it's the stock AM radio. It fits perfectly, however it has two connections for wires (like all modern speakers). The original speaker has only one connection though, for the single original wire. Will a modern speaker work? Do I just need to connect the radio wire to one speaker connection and connect ground to the other? Or do I need a more primitive speaker to use just one wire? <P>Thanks,<BR>Carl

[Don Caithness]

Connect the one wire. It will probably ground through the rear parcel shelf metal like the original.

[Guest]

Oh I forgot to mention that I did connect the one wire... and it doesn't work, no sound out of the speaker.<P>Of course it could be a problem with the radio. I will do some testing to see if there's any juice in the wire.<P>On an unrelated note, did Buick offer AM/FM radios in the '65 Skylark? If I replaced the radio I was wondering if I could upgrade to FM while I'm at it.<P>Thanks<BR>Carl

[Guest scott mich bca # 6619]

Try connecting one wire from the speaker to the one wire from the wiring harness. Ground the other speaker wire. If this does not work, thry reversing the two wires. If you still do not any sound, try connecting the speaker directly to the back of the radio to see if it works.<BR>Scott

[Guest]

Buick didn't offer an AM/FM in a Skylark 1965. My brother did have one done by one of the radio guys that looked orig, by using a '67 or something guts. <P>------------------<BR>buickfam@aol.com<BR>Life long Buick Fan.<BR>1965 Skylark H/T<BR>1965 Gran Sport Convertible<BR>1948 Chevy Pickup with 401 Buick.

[Guest]

Before you burn up the radio, check the ohm rating of the original speakers and the new ones. If the car didn't have rear speakers to start with, check the front speakers. Also check the wiring diagrams in your service manual. I changed the AM/FM-8 track radio in my 75 Electra to an AM/FM-cassette from a 79 Riviera. The old radio used ungrounded speakers in the front but grounded speakers in the rear. The new radio uses ungrounded speakers both front and rear. The new radio is 10 ohm resistance and the speakers I bought were only 4 ohm. I had to install a 6 ohm resistor in each line going to the rear speakers.

[Guest]

best way to check for negative side of speaker is to take a small 9-volt flash light battery place on both speaker terminals at the same time... if speaker cone moves *out* the neg-side of battery is neg side of speaker... if it moves *in* pos-side of batt is negative side of speaker... and you need to ground the negative side of speaker to frame ((if you have only one speaker wire from radio))... A 4ohm speaker will work fine with no problems but I think it (radio) puts out a 6ohm load.. Good luck

[Guest]

Cool idea, with the battery, dstereo. <P>------------------<BR>buickfam@aol.com<BR>Life long Buick Fan.<BR>1965 Skylark H/T<BR>1965 Gran Sport Convertible<BR>1948 Chevy Pickup with 401 Buick.

[palbuick]

Do you have the correct radio fader switch.<BR>This switch controls the speaker functions, front , rear or both speakers. Pull your knobs off first, then remove the second round<BR>switch, dont remember whick one, but one will have 3 prongs on it, this is the fader switch and controls speaker. If you dont have switch you will never get raer speaker to work. No fancy test equipment just look.