BigC9164

6.5” FRONT and 6.5” REAR DOOR speakers are mounted in my SE basic model 99 XJ. Install was easy. No metal trimming. Just cut a 4.5” hole in the plastic panel. The hardest part was getting the special speaker mounting clip/nut/retainers in place on the sheet metal then lining up the 1.5” screws to go through the speaker grill->speaker housing->interior door panel->sheet metal door frame. Though once you do the first one the rest are easy!

Mounting speakers to the outside (interior) of the plastic panel has many advantages I believe. It looks great if you are into showing off your audio equipment, arguably sounds better with them not mounted behind a plastic panel, allows for 1” greater speaker mounting depth (although I still used shallow mounts)/ and best of all, when you blow a speaker you can replace it without having to remove the interior door panel.

And of course I ripped out the factory sound deadening and added some Peal&Seal to make my doors shut with a nice “thud” and add some road noise deadening. (ill post photos of this step when I wire the rear speakers).
One expected issue was my manual window cranks were hitting the speaker grills. SOLUTION: get out the ol’ heat gun and gloves and bend the door cranks in an “S” to add about a half inch of clearance.

I used this thread to give me a little idea about how to do this: https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f58/sp...5/#post2371546

I have not wired the rear speakers yet however. I know I have rear speaker wires coming out of the back of the head unit but I have no idea where they go after that!? Any ideas? My XJ only came with front door speaker from the factory. The last photo is the harness with my interior wiring, are they in there??

investinwaffles

Great job - looks really clean

Got any pics of the back-side of the door panel (how you secured the speaker to it)?

I want to get some Image Dynamics CTX-65cs speakers, but when I measured the mounting depth they seemed to be .25" too deep to mount behind the door panel.

BigC9164

Thanks!

I do not have pics now...but check back here periodically throughout the next couple weeks, I will be running those speaker wires to the rear speakers and will pop off the panel and make sure to take a few pics and post them here.

Just have to do more research and find out where the factory rear speaker wires are located.

investinwaffles

If you have an aftermarket head unit, you can always just splice straight into the harness and wire the rear speakers directly.


Do you have rear speakers mounted on the roof, in the cargo area? Just wondering, some XJ's came without the rear speaker "bar" but I want to mount speakers in the rear doors as well.

I have power windows though so it may not be as simple as with roll-down windows...

BigC9164

I do not have the sound bar. I am probably going to end up slicing into the wires at the back of the head unit like you say. Just am hoping someone will get on here and tell me i will find rear speaker wires in the door sills... unlikely however

bigmoser

Im guessing, just like every other xj on the planet, it is wired for everything, even if you don't have it. So, even though you don't have a rear speaker bar doesn't necessarily mean that the wires aren't up there. I would check there first.

SatiricalHen

they never came with speakers in the rear doors so the wires if there are probably in the ceiling where they mount.

bad_idea

Wrong thread. Sorry for the intrusion.