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Liftgate Speakers

jeepdeez

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Woodbridge, Va
Could someone please lead me in the right direction? I have yet to figure out which wires are for the speakers in my lifgate. I have a '94 XJ Sport with the fiberglass liftgate. Any help would help tremendously! :gonnablow
 
The link is showing the color codes but I don't see those colors in the liftgate. Should I just tap into the soundbar on the roof. Any sugggestions?
 
The wires in the soundbar from left to right are brown/blue, blue/yellow and white/blue, white/orange. Neither of those combinations are in the liftgate.
 
The colors listed there are the colors at the factory stero harness. It is not surprising that the color codes changed while getting to the lift gate. I looked in my 90 FSM and the color codes are only shown at the stereo.

What are you trying to do, add speakers to a vehicle that did not have them before? If the harness is there and the speakers are not, the wires should only be long enough to reach the appropriate side, left or right.

You could remove the radio and run a continuity check from the appropriate color wire in the stereo harness to the terminals in the liftgate.

If polarity is the question, you could use the old trick with a 1.5 volt dry cell. When you momentarily connect the cell to the speaker, it will either drive the cone out or in. Whichever speaker connection is touching the + side of the cell when the cone is driven out is the speaker's positive terminal. Since you have the color codes at the radio, you could do this from the radio harness in the dash to verify the wiring and polarity. Obvously you will need a helper for this test.
 
That is incorrect. The referenced site includes info for rear speakers if you click on the "car stereo" column. When I installed liftgate speakers in my '93 that had never had rear speakers, the wires were there and they matched the color codes in the chart.

What I don't know is whether a factory installed sound bar affects the wiring, although I don't see why it should unless they assume that the owner will not be installing additional speakers in the liftgate.
 
I clicked the link. I saw the rear speaker color codes, along with the front ones, ground, antenna and the various +12 in and out. What did I say that was wrong? You missed my point entirely. This site is intended to assist with the replacement of your factory stereo and I would bet the colors are right at that end. Take a look at the wiring diagrams for your XJ, if you have an FSM. It is not uncommon for the colors to change across connectors in a wire run.
 
You say that "the colors listed are the colors at the factory stereo harness". I assume you mean the speaker wires where they plug into the head unit.

Then you say that "it is not surprising that the colors changed while getting to the liftgate". I'm not sure whose colors changed but mine did not. Or to be completely accurate, I do not remember what the color codes were at the head unit, but the factory speaker wires at the liftgate matched the referenced chart. This is, of course, just my anecdotal experience. Perhaps I just lucked out and mine is one of the few '93-'94s that match the chart. Actually, I got the chart reference from the forum where it shows up in threads now and then, so I assume that I am not the only one who has found it to be accurate.

In the final analysis, this chart (and similar ones from other sites) would be totally useless if they did not show the actual wire colors at the doors and liftgate.

I don't believe jeepdeez has actually confirmed that he has found speaker wires in the liftgate and, if so, what color they are. As you pointed out, it is difficult to misidentify the wires intended for the hatch speakers. I don't remember if mine were hidden or tied up, making them difficult to spot. I know that wiring practices for our Jeeps often changed, but mine is a very basic model and I have been amazed at the wiring harness that is included for uninstalled equipment. Even my '85 had all the speaker wiring even though I bought it new without a head unit.

Finally, I am curious what colors the FSM shows for the hatch speaker wires.
 
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