Hello Everyone!
I have a background in electrical systems and building them so my first build thread has to be about something I know. Anyways for those of you out there that have the 2003-2006 Sound Pods instead of the sound bar, here is a way to upgrade the sound in them and its not very difficult. If you have the sound bar you can do some of these techniques to get a better stereo. I chose Polk MM 522 5-1/4" because they are waterproof and were on an open box sale. I also wanted the same size speakers in the dash as the sound pods so they would be even. I got most of my stuff from Crutchfield because they make it so easy and sent the speaker adapter plates that go in the dash for free. For those of you who want the upgrade but do not want to do it yourself, PM and I can do them for you for a small fee. Please see my work below if you like the outcome of it.
Tools Required:
Basic screwdrivers
Torx ratchet or screwdriver
Wire cutters/strippers
Dynamat speaker door kit 10"x10"
Optional but Recommended:
Solder Gun and Solder
Heat shrink to cover exposed wires
Helping Hand/Third Hand to hold wires when soldering
Center punch
Speaker Gasket Tape
Tesa wiring cloth tape
Liquid electrical tape
Speaker hole adapter wooden circle flush mount (see below)
Taking off the Sound Pod is very easy, you do not need an instruction manual. Just a couple torx screws and it comes right off. Once you have the sound pod off the jeep you are going to want to unscrew the factory speaker faceplate and disconnect the speaker from the plug in the back. After this is done, do the same thing with the light except to pull off the cover on that you just take a flat head screwdriver and pry it open. Disconnect the wires and unscrew the mount and take the whole thing out.
At this point, you should have an empty sound pod with only the wiring left in it. Now this is a fork in the road, you can either take out the factory harness like I did or just keep the old stuff in there and shove the new speaker wires up the grommet. I suggest you take the wiring harness out since it is not very difficult. The grommet pulls right out and then you can cut away the old speaker plug and put liquid tape over it like I did.
After I fed the new wires through the hold which came with speakers I tesa taped some of it together to cut out rattling where I though it may rub with the body of the pod.
Once the wiring harness is out of the pod it gives you unrestricted access to the inside and you can install the dynamat as well as the polypill to give the speakers more air to push and get a deeper sound.
You can also see the black ring that is added inside the hole. Because my Polk speaker faceplates were bigger than the stock hole, I had a audio shop make a wooden circle that fits inside the stock hole and brings it flush and then they spray painted it black. There is a lip at the bottom for those of you that are curious how its staying in the hole and not falling through. I then screwed the new speaker into the wooden adapter plate once the holes were center punched and ready to go in. Speaker gasket tape was also used on top of the wood to minimize vibrations
Here is the final Sound Pod assembled and ready to go back in the jeep. All thats left is soldering the wire or crimping it into the new speaker wire routed through the jeep. I suggest not using the stock speaker wire if you are installing better speakers to not hinder them.
Please let me know if you have any questions!
I have a background in electrical systems and building them so my first build thread has to be about something I know. Anyways for those of you out there that have the 2003-2006 Sound Pods instead of the sound bar, here is a way to upgrade the sound in them and its not very difficult. If you have the sound bar you can do some of these techniques to get a better stereo. I chose Polk MM 522 5-1/4" because they are waterproof and were on an open box sale. I also wanted the same size speakers in the dash as the sound pods so they would be even. I got most of my stuff from Crutchfield because they make it so easy and sent the speaker adapter plates that go in the dash for free. For those of you who want the upgrade but do not want to do it yourself, PM and I can do them for you for a small fee. Please see my work below if you like the outcome of it.
Tools Required:
Basic screwdrivers
Torx ratchet or screwdriver
Wire cutters/strippers
Dynamat speaker door kit 10"x10"
Optional but Recommended:
Solder Gun and Solder
Heat shrink to cover exposed wires
Helping Hand/Third Hand to hold wires when soldering
Center punch
Speaker Gasket Tape
Tesa wiring cloth tape
Liquid electrical tape
Speaker hole adapter wooden circle flush mount (see below)
Taking off the Sound Pod is very easy, you do not need an instruction manual. Just a couple torx screws and it comes right off. Once you have the sound pod off the jeep you are going to want to unscrew the factory speaker faceplate and disconnect the speaker from the plug in the back. After this is done, do the same thing with the light except to pull off the cover on that you just take a flat head screwdriver and pry it open. Disconnect the wires and unscrew the mount and take the whole thing out.
At this point, you should have an empty sound pod with only the wiring left in it. Now this is a fork in the road, you can either take out the factory harness like I did or just keep the old stuff in there and shove the new speaker wires up the grommet. I suggest you take the wiring harness out since it is not very difficult. The grommet pulls right out and then you can cut away the old speaker plug and put liquid tape over it like I did.
After I fed the new wires through the hold which came with speakers I tesa taped some of it together to cut out rattling where I though it may rub with the body of the pod.
Once the wiring harness is out of the pod it gives you unrestricted access to the inside and you can install the dynamat as well as the polypill to give the speakers more air to push and get a deeper sound.
You can also see the black ring that is added inside the hole. Because my Polk speaker faceplates were bigger than the stock hole, I had a audio shop make a wooden circle that fits inside the stock hole and brings it flush and then they spray painted it black. There is a lip at the bottom for those of you that are curious how its staying in the hole and not falling through. I then screwed the new speaker into the wooden adapter plate once the holes were center punched and ready to go in. Speaker gasket tape was also used on top of the wood to minimize vibrations
Here is the final Sound Pod assembled and ready to go back in the jeep. All thats left is soldering the wire or crimping it into the new speaker wire routed through the jeep. I suggest not using the stock speaker wire if you are installing better speakers to not hinder them.
Please let me know if you have any questions!
