Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Audio done! Transmission is also :(

Got back to work on the truck some yesterday and completed the audio install.  It looks great!  I thought some other people might find this useful, so I detailed my speaker mount modifications more in this post.  Here's what I started with for the rear speakers.

L to R Infinity Reference 6.5" w/ grille, OEM speaker housing, OEM speaker mount, Infinity mounting bracket, foam pad
The OEM speakers looked like this


I wanted to keep the new install as close to OEM as I could, but needless to say that speaker grille had to go.  Also, the speakers that were actually in the truck are more like 6.3" or so, they are just a bit smaller than a standard 6.5, but the mounting bracket was big enough to easily accommodation the 6.5 with minimal modification.

To begin with, I removed the OEM speaker grille from the plastic housing.  The Infinity speaker wouldn't fit in the housing like the OEM one did because of the difference in diameter, so I did some measuring and figured out that I could trim away the inside of the plastic housing and some of the Infinity bracket and make them fit together.  I went ahead and mounted the Infinity bracket to the OEM housing (drilled/riveted) to make it easier to work on.

Removed 2 of the screw holes and trimmed about 4-5mm from the inside.

If you notice near the rivets there are sections that are milled out, this is where the OEM housing fits

As you can see, the height of the OEM screw holes is almost exactly the same as that bit of the bracket I milled away.  This worked out nicely and allowed me to set the Infinity right over the top of the plastic housing and mount it to the Infinity bracket, using just the pressure of the speaker to hold it down.  This also left enough room between the bracket and the plastic housing for the carpet to fit back under there.


Here they are installed, with the carpet back up on the rear cab wall.  Unfortunately due to a change in how I did the right vs left side I had to use different screws for the right one, so they are silver instead of black. I'm going to touch this up with some black paint later to make them match.  The seats don't fold down on the sides anymore, but I wasn't planning to use those anyway.  Later if I decide I want the seats to fold I will remove the Infinity speaker grilles, but for now I'm leaving it that way.

Unfortunately, Friday I learned that my transmission is at the end of its life.  I'm having problems getting the truck into 2nd gear and it makes a rumbling noise at idle when the clutch is engaged.  I made this video a few days before taking it to the shop before I was certain that the transmission was where the noise was coming from.


It's going to be $900+parts for a rebuild, or $450-650 + $400-500 for a used one plus install.  I'm leaning towards having it rebuilt just to make sure I don't inherit problems from another vehicle with a used one.