voice coil repair

[imready]

finally cracked open one of my 3090 leak woofers to see why i had and open on my meter. wire is broken about 2/3's the way thru the coil. wire coil has been shoved around some. anybody ever attempt to repair a broken voice coil wire and what were the results? anybody ever try taking one wrap of wire out of the coil to make a repair? am i silly? voice coil is 2", anybody got a source for voice coils? magnet wire? i will probably attempt a repair on one of these and see how it goes.why? i like to be self sufficient and i'm cheap.

 

[Blue Shadow]

I searched for 2.5-inch voice coils a few months ago and saw that there were 3" coils out there. Don't recall if you can buy just a couple so maybe one of the speaker rebuilders will have something for you.

I did not find any 2.5-inch vc, unfortunately.

 

[CUlater]

I would also like to find out a source for voice coils - I have a couple of blown ones that I, for the same reasons, would like to fix...

 

[Bone Yard]

Try these guys... http://www.matelectronics.com/acatalog/Mat_Electronics_Speaker___Accessories_11.html ...and take lots of photos and report the progress....

 

[imready]

i did see the ones at mat but they give no dimensions other than the diameter. i will probably buy them , great price. they have a great price on surrounds also and i will be placing a good size order there soon,anyone used there surrounds? in the past i found an online source that had other variables for as far as length went but they don't do retail. i am considering trying to repair what is there just to see if it can be done. wish i could see better , these cataract's make it very difficult to work on small stuff.

 

[tarior]

Thing about voice coils, the diameters are nominal, and vary from one speaker to the next. JBL 4" coils are 3.910" (IIRC), Gauss 4" coils are actually 4.120" (also IIRC), obviously not interchangeable. Also, former and winding widths will also vary from speaker to speaker. listing a part as a 2" vc just isn't specific enough.
Chances are you will need to have that one re-coned, there are a few of us here who re-cone, just depends on who you are close to.

 

[Nat]

I think that fixing the broken wire is a better bet than replacing the voice coil. I suspect that unwinding one loop of the voice coil wire wouldn't have much effect, and would give you wire to work with, or you could solder in a bit of equal diameter wire.
I'm going into a Altec Verde woofer to see what is wrong with it, but I think my problem is different than yours -- I have continuity, but think the wire is no longer glued to the voice coil.

 

[imready]

well, i had about an 1/8 of wire overlap when i went to soldier them together . it took me a bit but i was able to get a good soldier joint that didn't pull apart under good pressure. the bigger problem is that about half of the coil is pushed away from the rest about 3/16" around about half the cercumference. wonder how that will affect it's ablilty to perform. i did have 5.4 ohms resistance when i was done which i believe is correct. i was able to reistall the magnet with no voice coil rubbing. i haven't tried it out yet. i believe sagging caused the problem. i looked at the second woofer, it is in a state of disaster with the coil cylinder split in half and the coil itself with the rest of the cylinder stuffed in the slot in the magnet for the coil. i will porbably attempt a voice coil replacement here or i will look for a donor wharfedale woofer and do a sort of kit bash with it. don't know if this is right , but my thought is to cut the donors cone off, carefully not to distort it,neatly cut the spyder off the frame and drop the whole works into my frame which should keep the coil lined up properly with the magnet. i don't know if that is possible but it sounds good........

 

[CUlater]

i did see the ones at mat but they give no dimensions other than the diameter. i will probably buy them , great price. they have a great price on surrounds also and i will be placing a good size order there soon,anyone used there surrounds? in the past i found an online source that had other variables for as far as length went but they don't do retail. i am considering trying to repair what is there just to see if it can be done. wish i could see better , these cataract's make it very difficult to work on small stuff.

I've used the MATelectronics surrounds exclusively with no problems - including on original Large Advents, Bose, EPI, and others. The price can't be beat. BTW, I have used Fabri-Tack, Aileen's, as well as plain old Elmers' glues with no problems also.