TheSamba.com :: View topic - New '85 Vanagon Country Homes Camper Owner Questions

Tue Apr 13, 2004 8:53 am

We are the new owners of an '85 1.9L Vanagon that was originally a Country Homes Camper conversion. The Vanagon came without a stereo, so we had an area mobile electronics expert install a Pioneer 4600 dp CD deck which is housed in bracket just beneath the glovebox. Of the 4 stock/factory speakers, the passenger side rear speaker does not work. This could be due to either bad wiring or a blown speaker. The shop did not want to touch the speaker because they felt that they could damage both the speaker and the headliner in doing so. Since we have yet to receive our Bentley manual, I was wondering if anyone could point out how to both remove the rear passenger side speaker and take down the headliner as the problem could be either the speaker itself or wiring.

What is the best way to address this?
Do the fronts of the hanging rear speakers simply pop off?
How does one remove the speakers?
How does one access the wiring between roof and headliner?

Any info would be of great value and immensely appreciated!

Tue Apr 13, 2004 2:09 pm

I have an 85 Westfalia that I just pulled out the speakers from, but it sounds like you have a different setup, with the different conversion company: my rear speakers are in the box over the heads of the rear seat passengers, and unscrew easily (by holding the front, and then twisting a wheel on the back of the speakers that unscrews.) Headliner removal isn't implicated anywhere. Hopefully someone else with the Country Homes conversion can help you with this.

I would note that the speaker wire is less likely to be bad than 20 year old speakers with paper cones. While the wire could have a short somewhere (exposed wire where insulation has worn off, a bad crimp or pinch, etc.), the speakers probably weren't great quality to begin with (unless Country Homes put nice speakers in), and have probably just crapped out.

dan

Tue Apr 13, 2004 3:49 pm

To remove the rear speakers, there is a screw at the top of the speaker (on the side I believe). Pull it out and the speaker should drop down. The speaker attaches to a plastic mount that can be removed by two screws.
VW wired those rear speakers so that they have a common ground. That means that there is only 3 wires that go back to the speaker pods (two power and one ground). Most new decks will not work correctly wired that way. They require a separate ground for each speaker.
I know this because I just put a new CD player in and tried to jumper the grounds and use them as a common at the deck. Doing this gave me a lot of static. My solution is going to be to run another ground wire back to the speakers.
Hope this helps.
I agree with petunia. The speakers are probably your problem. The wiring is usually pretty good unless it has been gacked by a previous owner.

Thu Apr 15, 2004 6:39 pm

earthmuffin-
Before you run another ground back there, try removing either of the grounds to the stereo from the bundle of wires that runs to the back. Turns out it's OVERGROUNDED. Since there is a common to the stereo, it works fine for both rear speakers, so both those gray wires shouldn't be plugged up. I pulled off the ground for the passenger side rear speaker and that evil static went away. Kept me from running another wire, thank god.

Mon Jun 20, 2005 5:05 pm

skimballc wrote: earthmuffin-
Before you run another ground back there, try removing either of the grounds to the stereo from the bundle of wires that runs to the back. Turns out it's OVERGROUNDED. Since there is a common to the stereo, it works fine for both rear speakers, so both those gray wires shouldn't be plugged up. I pulled off the ground for the passenger side rear speaker and that evil static went away. Kept me from running another wire, thank god.

I think My rear speakers are overgrounded! I installed a new deck over the weekend and have the static issue when I have any fade to the rear.

There were 4 wires at the deck. I hooked them up 'one to one' with the deck. Pos and Neg. In the Rear there were three wires on one speaker and two for the other. The speaker with three wires had two of them grouped together as Neg. I hooked all those up one to one in 'plug and play' fashion.

Can I undo the extra grounding without running new wires from front to Back?

Where in the line does that third wire jump into the mix?

Thanks!

Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:30 pm

:D first off, there is no such thing as Over grounded.. I am guessing that one of the ground wires goes to the other speaker. some old stereos had 1 wire that was split between all of the speakers. more modern stereos have individual ground wires for each speaker. The static is probably caused by bad wiring.. :twisted: :twisted:

Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:32 pm

Wow, this thread got dug out of the archives. :shock:

I ended up running that 4th wire and everything is peachy now.