Speaker Upgrade BASIC How To... (2nd Gen Access Cab)

[maverick491]

OK, so first off I have the factory six disc in dash changer head unit, and I have been quite happy with the operation of the stereo, and it's volume capabilities, and figured that would be all I needed if I could just put some Pioneer TS-a series 3-ways in there. Since I happened to have 2 Pioneer TS-a1668 (4 ohm, 50w nominal, 180w max) and 2 Pioneer TS-a1671R (4 ohm, 35w nominal, 220w max) laying around from previous cars I figured I'd go ahead and put them in and write up the install as a DIY.

Disclaimer: If you are not comfortable with any of the steps outlined in this DIY then do not attempt this project. That said I can not be responsible for any damage that occurs to your truck as a result of following the information contained within this thread.

OK, needed materials:

• (2) 6 1/2" speakers for the rear doors
• (2) 6 x 9 or 6 1/2" speakers for the front doors
• (1) Tacotunes.com access cab speaker mounting kit.
• (1) box 3M Strip-Calk part number 051135-08578 (available from your local automotive paint supply store) (more on this later)

Step one. Choose your speakers. I personally have had Pioneer TS-a series 3-way speakers in everything I have ever owned, I like the way they sound and I happened to have 4 of them wanting to go into my truck anyway. I'm not going to try to convince you that I am right on this, the best thing for you to do is to go to your local Best Buy (middle of the afternoon on a weekday is best if you can pull it off) or whatever, and listen to all the options in the sizes you need. Then write down the model numbers of the one(s) you liked and go home and look for them on-line, Amazon, Ebay, Crutchfield, whatever. Then order your chosen speakers.

*NOTE* I believe that Crutchfield may include speaker adapter brackets when you buy speakers from them, so if that is the case, then go ahead and dis-regard step two.

Step two. Now that you have chosen your speakers and know what sizes you'll be using go to https://shop.tacotunes.com/splashPag...620E9.qscweb19, click on your cab configuration, and choose your product.

I went with the Access Cab Kit - 2005 2006 2007 Heavy Duty Plastic Mount Kit - 6.5 Inch. The kit came with front and rear mounts for 6 1/2" speakers, wiring adapters (so that your new speakers plug rightinto your factory wiring harness), and enough screws to mount the speakers to the mounts and bolts to secure the mounts to the truck. I also chose the heavy duty plastic instead of the MDF as I plan on keeping this truck for a long time, and prefer to only ever do things once, and as I understand it the MDF material deteriorates over time, and the price difference was only about $20.00.

*Note about the hardware kit* The speaker wiring adapters are available on Ebay for slightly cheeper than Tacotunes sells them, but I liked the convenience of getting everything in one box. Also, the bolts that they send to secure the mounts to the rear doors are not correct. You actually need a fairly long and beefy sheet metal screw, instead of the bolt that they include. So at your discresion you could opt for just getting the mounts through TacoTunes, and get the wiring adapters from Ebay and hit your local hardware store for the screws and bolts, and possibly save a couple of bucks.

That said, I got everything from TacoTunes for $116.40 including shipping. Here is a picture of the complete kit from TacoTunes.


Continued in next post... (tomorrow)

[maverick491]

That got the preliminaries out of the way, now on to the fun parts. I'll start write-up with the front doors so that the single cab guys can stop reading after this, and so that the double cab guys also feel like they have gotten something out of this.

Tools required:

• 1/4" ratchet
• 10mm socket
• #1 phillips screwdriver
• #2 phillips screwdriver
• T-25 torx driver
• small flat blade screwdriver
• stubby flat blade screwdriver
• 3/32 drillbit
• 21/64 drillbit
• 1 power drill

Step one. Open your front door, and remove the small black plastic triangle on the inside of your door that covers the mirror mounting hardware. Grasp it from the edges and gently pull away from the door. It is only heald on by three plastic clips, and while they seem fairly sturdy you want to take care not to break them.


Step two. Take your small phillips screwdriver and gently (it only needs to move a little bit) press in on the center of the plastic pin on the door panel near the top hinge. Then you can get your finger nail or small flat blade screwdriver under it and lift it out. Set it asside as you will need to re-use it to put the door back together.


Step three. Take your small flat blade screwdriver and gently lift up on the tabs shown in the next two pictures. They are hinged, so only one side lifts and they remain attached to the door panel. Be careful to not scratch the plastic on your door panel with your screwdriver while you are doing this. Then remove both screws using your #2 phillips screwdriver.



Continued in next post...

[maverick491]

Continued from previous post

Step four. Get your fingers under the lip of the door panel and gently begin to pull outward. These are the sturdiest plastic clips I have ever seen, but they ARE still plastic, so be carefull. Once you have freed the pannel from all of it's clips you can then simply lift the pannel upwards. However, at this point you will not get very far untill you un-plug both the power window and power lock harnesses, from the door panel. It takes a little time and patience as there is almost no extra wiring on the passenger door, so you have to feel around down there blindly, squeeze the locking pin, and out the come. You can now set the door pannel aside.

I did the best I could with pictures of the wiring in question, but there was really no room to get the camera in there while it was all still connected.

Step five. You can now see the front speaker. Un-plug the wiring harness from the top of the speaker, and use your ratchet and 10mm socket to remove the four bolts holding the speaker to the door.


You then have to pull on the speaker housing a little bit to get it to come out of the door as it was sealed to the door to prevent water leaks.

Step six. Now hold your TacoTunes mounting spacer up to the opening in the door to determine the correct way to mount it. (It only mounts one way, in my case the TacoTunes logo was right side up, but I do not know if that will be true for every kit). Take note of where the wiring harness from the truck intersects the speaker mount and mark it's location on the edge. Take your drill with the 21/64 bit and MAKING SURE YOU ARE CENTERED drill a hole to run your wiring through. (note the photo is of a rear speaker mount as I only documented the drilling of the mounts one time)



Step seven. Determine the correct orientation of your chosen speakers so that the wires still reach the terminals, mark the holes, and pre-drill your holes using the 3/32 drillbit, then screw your speaker to the mount with the screws supplied with the kit, and connect the terminals on the back of the speaker to the leads on your new harness.


(No I did not drill the holes with the mount sitting on my truck like that, I just put it there for the sake of taking a picture)

Continued in next post...

[maverick491]

Step eight. Remember way back in the first post I mentioned that you would need "3M Strip-Calk part number 051135-08578." Here is what that is, and where it comes in. This is what it looks like.



And this is what you are going to do with it.


I ran two beads of the strip calk around the speaker opening. All doors let a little water in when it rains (that is why there is a plastic sheet on the inside), and you want to seal up the speaker opening just as it was when you removed the factory speaker. I suppose that you could use any type of household calk, but this product seals tightly, yet stays soft, so you won't kill yourself tring to get it off if you ever want to change speakers, or revert back to the factory ones before you trade it in or whatever.

Step nine. Now grab 4 bolts and washers from the kit, insert them through the holes in the speaker mount, line them up, and tighten them down using your 10mm socket again. Use caution not to overtighten and strip out the plasting inserts that the bolts are going into. From there plug in the factory harness to your newly created harness, and turn key to acc. and test.


Put the door back together in the reverse of taking it apart, again being careful with the plastic clips, if they are not going together easily then something is wrong, back up and try again. Brute force and hitting it harder is not the answer.

Now repeat this process for the other front door, noting that the only difference is that there is only one wireing harness controlling the locks and windows on the driver's side, and there is much more play in the wire making it much easier to work with.

Rear access cab doors covered in next post.... (tomorrow)

[maverick491]

OK, so now we are on to the rear doors of the access cab model trucks.

Step one. Open your rear door. There is another plastic clip on the top of the door panel near the latch. Again press GENTLY with you small phillips screwdriver and then get your fingernail under it and lift it out.


Step two. Locate another of those hinged screw covers in the rear door handle, and again carefully pop it open with your small flat blade screwdriver, and remove the screw inside with your T-25 torx driver.


Step three. The final screw is in the "pocket" (for lack of a better term) which is right under the window. This one is also T-25 torx.


Step four. Now remove the weather stripping from the inner edge of the rear door. (where it seals against the front door) There is no real trick to this, just grab it at the top and slowly pull it away from the door working your way down to the bottom.


Note the plastic tabs that were revealed when you removed the weather stripping. There is nothing to do with them right now, but I'll re-visit them later.


Continued in next post...

[maverick491]

Step five. Now that you have all that done, again get your fingers under the edge of the pannel somewhere of your choosing and begin to gently pull outward, working your way all around the door. *NOTE* I could not see an easy way to remove the panel from the bottom seatbelt mount complately, so I left it attached to the door at that point, and worked in the space that gave me. Take note of the amount of space it gives you.


It is also worth noting here that on both of my rear doors two of the little plastic clips remained with the door instead of the panel, so if that happen to you as well, you'll need to get your small flat blade screwdriver in there and get them out and put them back in the panel before you put everything back together.


Step six. You can now unplug the speaker from the harness, and again use your 10mm socket to remove the three bolts holding the speaker to the door. Once the bolts are out, you'll again have to give the speaker a little tug to break the seal holding it to the door.


Step seven. Now again, as with the fronts, hold your new mount up to the opening and line it up so that the holes all match up, and mark the location of the wiring harness and drill your hole in the edge. (refer to post 3 step six for this procedure). Just as a reference, this is how mine lined up.

Passenger's side


Driver's side

[maverick491]

Step eight. As before, connect the new speaker terminals to your new harness, position the speaker in the mount as you choose, and pre-drill your mounting holes with your 3/32 drillbit, and secure your new speaker to the mount with the supplied screws.

Step nine. NOTE!!!!!!! Here's where it gets a little iffy. As I am sure you noticed, the screws that you removed from the factory rear speaker mounts look nothing like the ones you removed from the front. Nor do they look anything like the new ones supplied with the kit. The rear speakers use a much corser thread pitch than the fronts did. I happened to have screws laying around that were the correct pitch and length, so I used them, but I would suggest that you just go to your local hardware store with the factory screw, and the new bolt and tell the guy that you need six bolts of the old pitch at the new length rather than screw with the supplied hardware here trying to make it work.

Now that you have gotten back from the hardware store, take your calk and put a single bead around the opening in the door, line your new assembled speaker and mount up, bolt it down with your newly aquired bolts, and connect the wiring harness.


Step ten. Now after testing the speaker you can procede to re-assemble the door. In doing so there are a couple of things that you need to pay attention to. One is at the bottom of the door. There is an "L" shaped plastic tab that needs to go into a circular opening in the metal. If you don't get that back in place none of the other clips will line up.


Now go ahead and press all of the other plastic clips back into the door, using your T-25 torx driver to put the two screws back where the went, and finally re-installing the push clip at the top of the door.

The last part of the re-assembly is putting the weather stripping back on, and the is the other part that you ahve to pay attention to. Remember those little plastic tabs that I made mention of earlier? These?


You have to put a little pressure on the door with one hand and make sure that as you re-install the weather stripping that it goes over top of these little tabs. That is what holds that edge of the pannel to the door.

Now go ahead and repeat this process on the other rear door, and then go out and enjoy the kick-ass sound coming from your factory head unit.

I have tried to be as detailed and complete as possible when writing this DIY. If I have ommited anything or you have any suggestions or questions please let me know, and I'll try to take care of it.

I hope I have been of help to you and your project.

[socko3161]

Are the tweeters that are in the front doors still used???

[maverick491]

Originally Posted by socko3161

Are the tweeters that are in the front doors still used???

Yes, They are still wired in. I looked at replacing them, as well, but it seemed a little odd as the tweeters use what lookes to be a five pin connector, and I decided not to screw with that, considering that I put in 4 3-way speakers I figure that the tweeters in the new speakers will more than compensate for the crap factory ones, and thus far my ears tell me that is the case.

[rhoppas]

That is an awesome write-up. I am not sure how you could make that any clearer. Good job!

[maverick491]

Originally Posted by rhoppas

That is an awesome write-up. I am not sure how you could make that any clearer. Good job!

Thank you. I am pretty sure it took longer to do the write up than it did to do the actual job.

[007Tacoma]

That is an excellent write-up. The format looks strangely familiar.

Looks like I have a everything I need (minus good speakers) for my next mod!

Cheers!

[socko3161]

im thinking about adding the pioneer 6x9 TS-A6992R five way speakers... crutchfield says they wont fit but you say 6x9s will fit in the front door... also, did you add an amp too, or are you thinking about adding one??? but other than that, very helpful write up, im going to print it out and have it right beside me when swapping out the speakers

[maverick491]

Originally Posted by socko3161

im thinking about adding the pioneer 6x9 TS-A6992R five way speakers... crutchfield says they wont fit but you say 6x9s will fit in the front door... also, did you add an amp too, or are you thinking about adding one??? but other than that, very helpful write up, im going to print it out and have it right beside me when swapping out the speakers

6x9s will fit with the correct tacotunes mounting kit, provided they are not too deep. Check your speaker depth against the tacotunes site and that should tell you if you are going to be ok.

I don't think crutchfield says you can put anything but 5 1/2 or 6 1/2, perhaps because that is all that they have the kits for?

I did not add an amp, and while I am not a car stereo guru, nor do I enter car stereo competitions or anything, but I am plenty pleased with the volume of the pioneers in my truck now. I have good bass, and plenty of clear and crisp highs too. If I crank it I can vibrate all the mirrors, and even get a pretty good massage through the seat.

[socko3161]

Do you have a stock deck??? I have the Pioneer AVH P4900 and I can get my mirrors rocking with the stock speakers, it's really surprising how much sound comes out of the stock speakers

[bbarian333]

Great instructions Maverick491. I'm in the same boat, with the factory 6 disc.I'm pretty sure i wont be able to make my steering wheel controls work with an aftermarket head unit. Did you get a noticable increase in sound quality and or volume with your mod? thanx

[maverick491]

Originally Posted by socko3161

Do you have a stock deck??? I have the Pioneer AVH P4900 and I can get my mirrors rocking with the stock speakers, it's really surprising how much sound comes out of the stock speakers

True you can create vibration with the stock speakers, but keeping in mind that they are just single coil paper cones, and have a magnet roughly the size of a quarter I wouldn't necessarily call it good sound. But then again I guess I am a bit of a snob having put Pioneer Ts-a series 3-ways in everything I have owned since the late 90's. I have gotten used to a richer and more distinguished sound with deep bass, crisp highs, and even mid-range.

I agree that the stock speakers with the stock deck sounded good, but the stock deck with these speakers sound incredible.

[maverick491]

Originally Posted by bbarian333

Great instructions Maverick491. I'm in the same boat, with the factory 6 disc.I'm pretty sure i wont be able to make my steering wheel controls work with an aftermarket head unit. Did you get a noticable increase in sound quality and or volume with your mod? thanx

I believe that there are a few aftermarket head units that will still work with the searing wheel controls, but I can not tell you which units, though I am sure that some of the true audio experts on here know. (Little help with that one guys.)

I got a REALLY noticable increase in sound quality, as well as "usable" volume. By "usable" volume I mean the point at which the stock paper cones used to begin distorting the sound, everything is still crystal clear and perfectly sharp, and I have more than enough volume to get a pretty good massage through the driver's seat, still hear every note of the screaming guitar solo, understand every lyric, and the stock radio still has power in reserve.

Go for it, you'll love the results, and with a usaspec ipod interface, the stock radio is pretty much perfect. (*disclaimer* on the last statement, I have a stand alone GPS unit, don't have kids that need to watch a DVD while I am driving, and have no want for a sub) (*disclaimer disclaimer* if you want an integrated gps unit, dvd player or amp/sub then my statement about the stock radio will be false for you)

[wormhole7]

Thanks for taking the time to do that awesome write up.

[maverick491]

Originally Posted by wormhole7

Thanks for taking the time to do that awesome write up.

You're welcome.