How to determine speaker polarity?

Okay, I was probably building subwoofer boxes, and installing stereos while most of you were in diapers, but I've never done something like this. I am replacing the factory speakers in my 2004 F-150.  The question is...how do you tell which wire is the positive wire, and which one is negative? If I look at my new Infinity's from the bottom, the positive is on the left side, and the negative is on the right side. Is this universal to all speakers?

No, it's not universal.  Usually Fords use a striped wire and a solid wire for factory speaker connections.  The striped wire is usually negative.  As long as you are consistent  on all speakers you will be fine.

I was out of MY diapers in 1952, by the way.  

I'm out of diaper, but give me another 35 years and I'll be in them again

BTW: You can do a 9 volt battery test on the speaker's to figure out the phase of speakers. If the cone extrudes, then where ever you have the (+) of the battery this will be your (+) lead and if the cone goes in, then it's the opposite.

DYohn] wrote:

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P>No, it's not universal.  Usually Fords use a striped wire and a solid wire for factory speaker connections.  The striped wire is usually negative.  As long as you are consistent  on all speakers you will be fine.

I was out of MY diapers in 1952, by the way.  

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Both wires are striped!!! That's my problem. Yikes.

Velocity Motors wrote:

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I'm out of diaper, but give me another 35 years and I'll be in them again

BTW: You can do a 9 volt battery test on the speaker's to figure out the phase of speakers. If the cone extrudes, then where ever you have the (+) of the battery this will be your (+) lead and if the cone goes in, then it's the opposite.

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Thanks for the advice.

Marshallmadman wrote:

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Both wires are striped!!! That's my problem. Yikes.

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Then you either need the vehicle wiring diagram, or use the battery pop test like Jeff suggested.  Or you can purchase Ford speaker wire adapters if your truck uses the standard 2-position Molex connectors.  Bottom line is it does not matter as long as both speakers are wired the same polarity.  Do the pop test from the head unit or amplifier.

Dag nabbit!! I bought a 9 volt battery, and I got news for you boys, touching the positive of the battery to either side of the speaker does absolutely nothing for the speaker cone.

B.T.W. I wired them up wrong I guess. I assumed the clip side was the negative. Guess I'll have to tear into it again tomorrow, and fix it.

Marshallmadman wrote:

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Dag nabbit!! I bought a 9 volt battery, and I got news for you boys, touching the positive of the battery to either side of the speaker does absolutely nothing for the speaker cone.

B.T.W. I wired them up wrong I guess. I assumed the clip side was the negative. Guess I'll have to tear into it again tomorrow, and fix it.

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You old farts..... it took the young guy still in diapers to catch on. You guys are going senile. To check the speaker polarity with that battery, both terminals on the battery must be attached to the speaker........wow, low planes......just got buzzed by the Snowchickens.....Expecting the F18, F16, F117, E6B, KC130, B52, B1B all to arrive today + numerous others.....back on topic. Connect one terminal of the battery to the speaker, breifly touch the other lead on the battery to the speaker, if the cone moves outward with a "pop" then you have the + lead on the battery connected to the + lead of the speaker. If the speaker moves inward, then you have hooked the + lead on the battery to the - lead on the speaker. Reverse and try again. Once you have one speaker, all other speaker terminals will be the same.

PS, I too am long out of diapers but not in any danger of going senile, unlike my counterparts.

I will just leave them the way they are, then. The only problem now, is that I'm a little worried about my factory head unit. The Infinity's that I installed were 2ohm speakers. (what are they thinking) Actually I know they are thinking that I need to trash my factory head unit and use an amp, but not everyone does that. My deck now gets a little hotter than it used to, but really no other issues. I am wise enough to know that 2ohms is merely an estimation of a speakers impedance as it changes radically depending on the frequencies being fed to it.

Should I let this bother me, or just beat the thing til it blows up and put in my Alpine and an amp? :)

I'd go ahead with the amp as you'll probably wish you had anyway. 

The 2ohm speakers, if it presents a problem, can be wired serial from the HU w/o much trouble.  Once you figure which wire's what, do the serial re-wiring in the dash instead of at the speakers.  Of course you'll have lower output now.  Or just leave it how it is now & don't turn it up (yeah, right).

About the pop test with the battery (you can use a regular D-cell if you want, incidently), what you'll want to do is connect the speakers & run the test from the dash where the HU lives.  Then I'd reverse the wires as necessary from there.  I guess it's all the same, but I think that'd be easier & less chance of error.  And yes, you have to connect BOTH battery terminal to the speaker, else no circuit, no speaker movement.