maltesechicken

In the last week or so I noticed my front left speaker sounded 'weak' but didn't think much of it. Today I was playing with my system and faded everything to the left fron and I realized that the woofer of my 5 1/4 was not working while the tweeter was working.

I pulled off the grill and noticed the woofer was seized. ie I pushed the cone and it doesn't move at all. I tried a bunch of things but it seems like the voice coil is frozen solid.

Speaker: Co axial - Polk EX502a
Running off the HU - Kenwood 22 WRMS/45 peak.
I don't play my music to distortion.

What caused this driver to seize?
Can I do anything to fix it?

Thanks

Ryan

maltesechicken

I played around with it last night. It turns out that the moisture inside the door caused glue to let go. The glue was holding the back of the driver in place. Also mounted to the back plate was the pole piece, so when the back plate let go (and somone closed the door) the jolt shifted the pole piece. End result, the woofer seized.

Now my question, how do I reinstall the pole piece so it isn't touching the voice coil in any way? Or is this physically not possible without the aid of precise machines?

Chadxton

iTrader: (1)

Your woofers have epilepsy, my good sir.


Best to replace it. The pole piece and VC are precision aligned, and it would likely not do to just stick them together. Chances are the VC will rub against the pole piece and wear the pole piece out and cause irritating noises meanwhile.

In the future, use one of those XTC foam baffles to keep moisture from disturbing the woofer.

maltesechicken

Yeah that's the problem I have. I can't get the pole piece in the VC and still have the VC move. When I get it in there it is always off by a fraction of a millimetre so it pushes sideways into the VC.

That's crappy. I quite liked those speakers for the $ I paid for them.

JohnVroom

Polk makes decent stuff for their price!
The QC may be a little suspect though, it doesn’t sound like it was terribly mistreated. When I seize a speaker I want it to be due to excursion and the intent to maim!
Sounds like it is time to go shopping! Check out that Alpine SPX thread in SQ (yeah right like we can afford a set)

Bigmike216

cut off the dustcap neatly with a knife, then you can use pieces of playing card as spacers all around the pole piece, put an even number all around so that it's centered, glue it up, and remove them once it's dried. that should get the job done [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ January 06, 2004, 06:41 PM: Message edited by: bigmike216 ]

maltesechicken

I wish it would work that easy Bigmike.
Here's the setup - attached to the pole piece is a shaft that the tweeter was mounted to. There was no dust cap to begin with. When I don't have the pole piece in place I can already see clear through it. I have already tired to reinstall the pole piece. Even though I was quite sucessful with getting it in the voice coil, the precision alignment of the voice coil didn't agree. It was always off by a fraction of a millimetre - so small of a fraction that I couldn't tell which way it was off. But it was off because it seize the VC up again. I am afraid that I will have to buy new front speakers. In the mean time I guess I will put the stock speakers back in [img]graemlins/puke.gif[/img]

The toughy will be getting the OK from the wife for new fronts.

Bigmike216

ah yes, sorry my idea wouldnt work [img]smile.gif[/img] Good luck convincing the wife! [img]graemlins/@bow.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/beer.gif[/img]

JohnVroom

Ryan
I have never ever had any luck undoing a seized driver, I wanted it to work [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img] I will give it a go next time, what have you got to loose?
I recieved the new Crutchfied Catalog today and the Polk drivers are still inexpensive (even the Momo) They are tough to beat, not too bright not too boomy.

maltesechicken

Well I have unseized it - buy removing the pole piece the cone moves easily. Without the pole piece the speaker still plays - the only problem is that it plays about 1/4 of the volume due to the lack of the magnet field provided by the pole piece.

I've considered grinding down the pole piece for a less precise fit, but then thought that was a lot of work for a pair of speakers that retail @ $130 which I only paid $50 for.

I've been looking at cruthfield. I'm thinking I might wait until I move back to the states in July 2004.