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Best method for splicing wire


RedWakesetterVLX

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I'm getting ready to install my Kicker KMS67 tower system.  The Kicker Manuel wire diagram has a jumper wire running from each positive/negative terminal that's connects the horn and driver together and then splice into that and run to the amp channel.  

IMG_1695.thumb.PNG.adb6192de839b452f2eb401dc27105ab.PNG

 

Whats the best way to splice?  Butt connection heat shrunken? Quick connect like this?

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Or soder and heat shrink? 

I emailed Kicker and waiting for response.

Edited by Cazan
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Solder and heat shrink. T taps can be very problematic and could corrode or disconnect over time. Crimp caps and t taps are not meant to be exposed outside.

The cleanest way if youre wiring up like  the 3 can illustration would be to go into the first can, then daisy chain to each of the other can. You can solder the wires for speaker number two onto wires to speaker number one and so forth.

  • Like 3
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Two wires into one terminal on the speaker if they are quality terminals. Fewer connection points to fail and you keep the wire flexible.

Crimp or solder are fine if the person using them knows how.

Never use T-taps or Scotch-locks. First things to get thrown away if I come into a shop that uses them.

  • Like 2
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3 minutes ago, MLA said:

What pods are you using? If they have binding posts, the junction can be made there.

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Titan cans for Illusion X. No binding posts. 

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59 minutes ago, jk13 said:

Two wires into one terminal on the speaker if they are quality terminals. Fewer connection points to fail and you keep the wire flexible.

Crimp or solder are fine if the person using them knows how.

Never use T-taps or Scotch-locks. First things to get thrown away if I come into a shop that uses them.

Ok. The terminal has a male spade.  So I could crimp the jumper wire and amp wire together to a female spade and plug that into one terminal correct? Obviously heat shrinking all the connections. 

Edited by Cazan
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13 minutes ago, Cazan said:

Ok. The terminal has a male spade.  So I could crimp the jumper wire and amp wire together to a female spade and plug that into one terminal correct? Obviously heat shrinking all the connections. 

That works.

  • Like 1
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Ok, so surface mounted pods with the leads passing through the pod to the tower, right? Short jumper from upper pod to lower pod. Jumper connected to the spring loaded binding posts on the driver, jumper run into tower, back out tower into lower pod, along with the lead going to the amp. Make junction in lower pod by connecting both wire pairs to the appropriate binding pods of the lower driver. No actual "splice" needed, just join the wires are the lower pod, right on the driver's binding posts. 

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3 hours ago, MLA said:

Ok, so surface mounted pods with the leads passing through the pod to the tower, right? Short jumper from upper pod to lower pod. Jumper connected to the spring loaded binding posts on the driver, jumper run into tower, back out tower into lower pod, along with the lead going to the amp. Make junction in lower pod by connecting both wire pairs to the appropriate binding pods of the lower driver. No actual "splice" needed, just join the wires are the lower pod, right on the driver's binding posts. 

Yes, surface mounts with leads passing through the tower.  That makes much more sense. I just looked at them and they do have binding posts.  I was looking at my KM65s by mistakes which have the male spade. Thanks for  the help. 

Edited by Cazan
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  • 5 weeks later...

But the heAt shrink soldering connectors!

best of both worlds. Then put shrink wrap over it as well.

a good heat gun will melt the soldering in a all-in-one connector and you don’t need to frig around with a soldering iron.

i got a bunch off eBay for pennies each.

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  • 2 years later...

Bumping an old post, as I just got this kms67 kit to replace my 4 tower 6.5" speakers. The wiring diagram has slightly thrown myself off here. 

  • Am I unable to just pull the current speakers and use those wires in conjunction with the kicker speakers. Meaning having one set of the horn and mids bridged together on AMP 1 of Kicker 700 amp (3 amp channels)? Then the other set of speakers and wires bridged on Amp 2. 
  • Knowing the speakers work together, should I change the placement of my cans? Or just place the horns on the middle cans (current placement) to directly project sound the loudest directly behind the boat? 

Amp 3 is the sub amp. 

Side Note* I'll have all 4 of the kickers and my kicker sub ran off the 700 at first (just getting the blown/trash 13 year old speakers out of my cans). I plan on taking one of my amps laying around and installing to separate the two, but holding off on that until I have the wire & control module like WS 420. 

 

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Each horn/mid need to be wired in parallel. This can be done at the pod, in the tower or at the amp, depending on how the tower is wired now or will be wired if re-wiring. The will present a 4 ohm bridgeable load at the amp. Id put the horn in the inboard pods. 

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46 minutes ago, MLA said:

Each horn/mid need to be wired in parallel. This can be done at the pod, in the tower or at the amp, depending on how the tower is wired now or will be wired if re-wiring. The will present a 4 ohm bridgeable load at the amp. Id put the horn in the inboard pods. 

Thanks MLA, my hopes here are to use the existing wiring if possible. Just got done pulling two of the speakers and checking the amp. They are Clarion 100W 4 ohm speakers. 

two sets of +/- at the amp. The outer pod has the amp wiring and the inner has a different wiring, so must be spliced off the primary wire going to the amp. The wiring I am seeing from the setup would be like below, which cannot be done or is that actually work?

 

Also for the Amp wiring knowing the horn/mid work together. Should i be installing them on the same amp channel? One set for left, the other set for right? 

 

main-qimg-ec874a93e03eb513d4807f660539e3

Edited by BlacknBu
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2 hours ago, BlacknBu said:

Should i be installing them on the same amp channel?

Once wired in parallel, like your pic, you have one speaker assembly. This is just like a traditional speaker, the tweeter is in parallel with the mid. 

Seems you have a 3 chnl amp? If so, your left mid/horn will be wired to one chnl and the right mid/horn will be wired to the other chnl. 

If you have an ohm meter, wire up the mids and horns and then measure the impedance on the wire pairs at the amp. Should be 4 ohm on each if the pods are wired correctly in the tower. 

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