The Stupid Electronics Questions Thread

[Erik the Awful]

I have a bunch of notes on the moonie gauge cluster wiring... and I can't find them. If I can figure out where I saved them, I'll put 'em up.

 

[baddawg]

Thanks a million for ALL of your help.
With the service manual ya posted, I found them all. Really appreciate all the posts.

 

[Onizukachan]

I searched the thread for both parking brake and parking brake din and didn't see the answer.

Where should I run a wire from in the dash or wherever to get the parking brake actuated signal needed for DVD's to work in a double din head unit?

Some only need to see ground. Some like my pioneer need to se power ground power. There is a tiny bypass module for $20 for those. I bought it amd it works, and bought from original guy instead of ebay/ Amazon clone.

 

[mn_ski]

Planning a stereo upgrade with new speakers as well. Front doors are 6.5" with 1" tweeter? Rear extended cab are 4x6, is that correct?

When it comes to speakers how much do people spend before there are diminishing returns on our trucks? I.e. is it worth spending $130 on a set of Alpine S-S65C over $75 for some Fosgate R1675-S for the front doors?

Fosgates have mica-injected polypropylene woofer cone with foam surround vs the more expensive Alpine has carbon fiber-reinforced plastic woofer cone with specialized rubber surround. How much does that stuff matter for the average Joe?

 

[df2x4]

When it comes to speakers how much do people spend before there are diminishing returns on our trucks? I.e. is it worth spending $130 on a set of Alpine S-S65C over $75 for some Fosgate R1675-S for the front doors?

Depends on how good your ears are, and how much sound deadening you plan to do.

On a serious note though, personally I would stay away from the bottom dollar stuff. Foam surrounds tend to degrade over time much more quickly than rubber, so if you plan on keeping the truck for a while I'd spring for rubber surrounds at the very least. I also tend to prefer silk dome tweeters over metal, but that's subjective.

You're correct on the speaker sizes. In my experience you can fit either a 6.5" or 6.75" woofer in the front doors with no issues, but 6.5" is probably the safest bet.

 

[Onizukachan]

I did a set of 6.5 morel ultimates, about $130-160 crutchfield. N ice silk tweeters, midbasses have a good frequency response and tonality.
beat the pants off the El cheapo skar 5.25 coaxial the truck had from the PO.

 

[Alteca]

I searched the thread for both parking brake and parking brake din and didn't see the answer.

Where should I run a wire from in the dash or wherever to get the parking brake actuated signal needed for DVD's to work in a double din head unit?

Sorry I’m a bit late but I always just ground this wire so me or my passengers can use the head unit as they please without the truck having to be in park.

 

[ralmo94]

Planning a stereo upgrade with new speakers as well. Front doors are 6.5" with 1" tweeter? Rear extended cab are 4x6, is that correct?

When it comes to speakers how much do people spend before there are diminishing returns on our trucks? I.e. is it worth spending $130 on a set of Alpine S-S65C over $75 for some Fosgate R1675-S for the front doors?

Fosgates have mica-injected polypropylene woofer cone with foam surround vs the more expensive Alpine has carbon fiber-reinforced plastic woofer cone with specialized rubber surround. How much does that stuff matter for the average Joe?

There's a company called skar audio. It's supposed to be a bunch of audiophiles. They have silk dome tweets and copper voice coils, and decently priced. I was going to get a set next time I put speakers in something, but haven't so far. They may be worth checking out. Make. Sure you understand the difference between composite speaker sets and coaxle.

 

[fancyTBI]

I have kicker 4x6s in my ‘92 regular cab. They are ok for the money but tend to distort at times and have also not fared well due to the dirt and dust that gets in them. If I had foam covers on the grilles, it would be better. For my ‘95 extended cab I will be running Rockford Fosgate component speakers (6.5” with 2” tweeter) with their own amp, of course. I’ve heard them in a buddies truck and they are great. I will disconnect the 4x6s in the rear. Also have a shallow 12” sub and matching amp to run it.

 

[Onizukachan]

There's a company called skar audio. It's supposed to be a bunch of audiophiles. They have silk dome tweets and copper voice coils, and decently priced. I was going to get a set next time I put speakers in something, but haven't so far. They may be worth checking out. Make. Sure you understand the difference between composite speaker sets and coaxle.

the following is my opinion only. Let your ears decide for you.

Skar is a bunch of El cheapo bass head stuff. Basically half a step up from swapmeet stuff. I’m not impressed at all with thir coaxials nor the two 10s the PO put in mine, and yes they are amplified. I’ve gotten better volume, tonality, cleanliness, and gotten lower hz with SWS 8” than these skar 10s can go. If you have lunch money money and need something, skar’s mostly better than nothing/ no name/ Walmart spec stuff Amd probably about as good as most entry level Best Buy stuff. If you actually are looking for quality of sound, and only want to do the job once, do components (also called separates) and not coaxial, do 6.5, amd look for a mid level product of a brand that has a reputation for tonality/sq. And beware that many brands today are no longer part of the same company they were 10-20-30 years ago. the names were sold off to junk swapmeet level builders, names like blaupunkt, digital designs, etc etc.

current sub $150 offerings for component 6.5, my favorite was morel, I like focal but they are far more and don’t sound as smooth, alpine and pioneer are always to tinny, kicker never sounded great unless you were wanting bright highs and lower lows with no balance in midrange (some people do! ) jbl is decent for the pricepoint, but their great days are behind them now and Infinifty is just jbl at a higher price point.