broken voicecoil "leads" ?

[tylerj 10+ year member]

not sure if term lead is right. If not, what are the wires that connect a voicecoil to the woofer called?

Oddly enough, I have three of these memphis pr10's, two version ones, one version two.

Now, both version ones have one of their two voicecoils broken, as shown in the picture. On one its on the positive side, on the other the negative.

How do I go about fixing these?

Click to read more...

 

[tylerj 10+ year member]

I just ordered a soldering station + solder.

My common sense is in overdrive today people !

 

[tylerj 10+ year member]

okay, ive got my gun coming tomorrow night, and im watching soldering tutorials.

The lead wire from the terminal to the cone broke right at the cone, so I think i will have to tin the tiny bit of wire protruding from the cone...

however, when i say tiny bit, i mean there is really very little to work with, so i will end up getting the cone pretty hot. How touchy is this cone to heat do you guys think? should I heat the little bit of lead wire sticking out of the cone before tinning it, or should i just make a "cold joint" by heating the solder and applying it to the cold bit of copper lead protruding from the cone?

I hope this question makes sense. Any experienced input would be appreciated, I will be attempting this project tomorrow evening.

 

[Umbra]

There's probably better and more advanced ways to do this, but I had to do this same fix recently.

What I did was cut open the dustcap to get to the rest of the tinsel leads (that's what they're called). I saw they had separated, from the voice coil, so used some solvent and a knife to cut around the glue that was in the way, exposing a bit more of the connection to work with. Twist the tinsel lead and voice coil together as best you can, get the soldering station nice and hot (350C) using a large tip so it heats evenly, heat up the connection, melt some solder into it and let it cool. Then I used a basic hot glue gun to cover it all up so it wouldn't move in the future. I tried it once with heat shrink tubing and it came undone, so I tried glue this time.

It's been working fine ever since.

 

[tylerj 10+ year member]

There's probably better and more advanced ways to do this, but I had to do this same fix recently.
What I did was cut open the dustcap to get to the rest of the tinsel leads (that's what they're called). I saw they had separated, from the voice coil, so used some solvent and a knife to cut around the glue that was in the way, exposing a bit more of the connection to work with. Twist the tinsel lead and voice coil together as best you can, get the soldering station nice and hot (350C) using a large tip so it heats evenly, heat up the connection, melt some solder into it and let it cool. Then I used a basic hot glue gun to cover it all up so it wouldn't move in the future. I tried it once with heat shrink tubing and it came undone, so I tried glue this time.

It's been working fine ever since.

thank you for your input !

I do not think cutting open the dustcap is an option, Ive never opened up a speaker, and i would like to avoid beeing able to tell the speaker has been repaired when it is mounted.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

thank you for your input !
I do not think cutting open the dustcap is an option, Ive never opened up a speaker, and i would like to avoid beeing able to tell the speaker has been repaired when it is mounted.

You will not be able to fix that tinsel with solder on the bottom side of the cone. It will fail quickly at the solder joint.

You MUST remove the dustcap and do as has been suggested, use acetone and scrape gently with a razor knife to reveal clean metal on either the tinsel or the coil lead under the dustcap. I'm guessing the OEM tinsels are either too short or poor quality so you'd do well to also try to replace the whole tinsel right to the terminals. Drill out a hole in the cone where the old tinsel went through and feed your new one through, then solder. Even this may or may not be possible depending what they use for glue inside and how much there is, but if you're creative you can probably get it working.

I would highly suggest using CA glue after you're done. Bending and small bits of wire is a recipe for quick failure. You will want a rigid glue or epoxy to keep the coil lead from wiggling around.

Furthermore, even if you had enough tinsel coming out of the cone, I'd recommend against soldering tinsels. Simple crimp connector would be far superior, giving you not only some extra length, but also the tinsel will want to wick up your solder so by the time you connected two loose ends you'd have a tinsel that was a rigid piece of solder.

 

[Umbra]

thank you for your input !
I do not think cutting open the dustcap is an option, Ive never opened up a speaker, and i would like to avoid beeing able to tell the speaker has been repaired when it is mounted.

My issue was where the tinsel lead connected to the coil, which was several inches inside the cone, so I had to cut mine open. I neglected to go into detail about that part, but I reattached it and you can only tell it was cut open if you're looking for a seam. It sounds like if you're precise you might be able to fix it without going inside. You said you posted pictures, but I don't think they worked.

Ialso forgot to mention if you solder, do it quickly. You want the iron hot, but only on the work for a few seconds.

I like hispls's suggestion about using a crimp connector. I wish I'd thought of that at the time.

 

[bbeljefe]

Since you said you don't want to remove the dust cap it sounds to me like your break is outside the former, close to the triple joint (your pics aren't showing up). If that's the case, there's not much hope for repair there because even if you manage to get a good solder connection, the movement at that joint will break the connection.

Also, from what it sounds like, your tinsel lead is what's broken because again, the solder joint between tinsel and coil wire are almost always under the dust cap where there is no pivot point. If that's true, you need to remove the dust cap with an Exacto or similar knife and you'd probably be better off doing like hispls said and replacing the tinsel lead. It isn't difficult to remove a dust cap and with the correct glue, the repair can be done so that 99% of people would never know.

Parts Express sells speaker repair glues.

 

[tylerj 10+ year member]

i will get up a series of working pictures when i get home

 

[tylerj 10+ year member]

i will get up a series of working pictures when i get home

New pictures in OP.

Any new advice? I should still remove/open the dustcap and crimp the tinsel lead together?

I was pretty set on soldering the lead to the little bit of wire sticking out, then smearing a thin layer of epoxy over it with a toothpick or quetip.

thoughts ?

 

[Umbra]

New pictures in OP.
Any new advice? I should still remove/open the dustcap and crimp the tinsel lead together?

I was pretty set on soldering the lead to the little bit of wire sticking out, then smearing a thin layer of epoxy over it with a toothpick or quetip.

thoughts ?

Try it. If it comes undone try something else.

 

[tylerj 10+ year member]

This is where I am at. I am waiting on some CA glue to arrive at my house to put the dustcap back on.

I covered the speakerwire-tinsel lead tie in with a piece of inner tube and lots of epoxy >_>|

First speaker fix, lets hope it holds :X

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

WTF is that red wire?

 

[tylerj 10+ year member]

WTF is that red wire?

speaker wire ^_^

not to worry, it gets worse. As you can see, I melted the plastic around the terminal with my soldering gun.

Success on all fronts

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Speaker wire will fail rather quickly. As I said, small wires and flexing are a bad mix. Only hope you don't run enough power to set the cone on fire when the wires break and burn the insulation at the joint where it meets the cone. Burnt plastic on that terminal should be cosmetic only.

Now you're also pretty hosed from putting a tire patch on the cone with epoxy. you will NEVER get to that coil lead ever again if your repair fails. This is where CA glue is superior since some acetone will take it right off if you need to perform surgery in future.