Question... F-150 Extended Cab... Does anybody have problems with their door locks sticking?!?! I heard it was common for Fords and was wondering if anyone new of a solutions to this ANNOYING problem! Thanks.

 

Dunno what this has to do with speakers, but yes.

However, I thought they were just sticking due to the sound deadener that I added. Its only on the drivers side, but now that you mention it I wonder if there is something more to it.

 

What do you mean sticking?

And you would probably have more luck with this if it was in the right folder (best bet would be electrical systems folder)

 

When I press the unlock button they come up only half way sometimes.

 

Chris,

Yours sounds like an actuator that has a bit of a dead spot in it. Anyway, it is not a big deal if it doesn't happen so often that it becomes a major headache. However if it is happening like every other time you go to unlock the truck then you may want to replace the actuator. I personally would just replace the factory actuator with an aftermarket one since you can get aftermarkets for about $20-30 per pair and then just splice them into the factory wires.

 

Hrm...you think so?

I startted happenin recently and really since it got cold. I thought maybe it was just sticking to the deadener somewhere, but I did check it out a while back and didnt see anything like that and just kinda of dismissed it. However it does happen quite often, but I think it only happens when I use the remote and I think only once the truck has been sitting a while.

 

I wasn't thinking when I posted the message. Good lookin out!!! Anyways, what I mean by sticking is when you push the button on the remote, the lock only comes up half way, and when you go try to open the door the lock goes back down & I have to manually unlock it. It happens almost every time we unlock the truck! And I live in Vegas so it gets really hot so we thought it was because it was getting really hot, but it's still doing it and its freezing now! So I don't know!

 

I'm with cgorris, probably your actuator.

If you take the panels off the door and remove that black cover (it just sticks on the door), you can look down the iniside of the door and get an idea of what's going on.

I think mine has been replaced, but they raped the hell out of my door with a grinder by the looks of it :\

 

Chris,

You can do what I did on my door lock rods to keep the dynamat from sticking to the lock rod I cut a piece of poster board and stuck it to the dynamat adhesive and walla! No chance of of the rod sticking there.

But I do think you have an actuator going bad on you.

 

Yea now that I think about it, I would think the actuator may be the problem. As of right now Im too lazy to go out and fool with it, but in about a week or too I'll fool aorund with it since I should be getting to finally install my font speakers. YAY Ordered the Q forms yesterday and Im going to tak mold of them a modify them so hopefuly I can get them to sound better. I had them before and was pretty happy with them except the tweeter placement. I am going to use the use the actual q forms that I bought and just glass the back of them while I am working on the 'modified set.' I went this route bc I figured it would be easier to make them from these instead of mmaking my own from scratch (this way I know they will meet my needs as far as looks).

I can't wait to hear the Utopias with the Zapco 4.0 (330 watts plus of headroom available for them! ) I wonder how much power I will actually send to them at normal and high listening levels during dynamic peaks.

 

Depends on the dynamics of the music and final setup but you could conceivably deep fry the tweets quick with those power levels if your not careful. I know I don't have to tell you that but just thought I would add a bit to it.

As for the Q forms the ABS they use is way less than desirable (if they in fact are still making them with ABS). We would always custom make our kicks to get just the right placement and a few times would put in the Q's. When we did the Q' we fiberglassed and bondo'd a little to help stiffen them up then would add a layer of dynamat to help deaden them further. Anyway sounds like your on the right track there.


Just for grins I am experimenting with planar's in the truck to see if I can get the placement right to make them sound good. I may just have to toss the HLCD's aside if I like the result. I am using the BG's Neo8's (Freq Res is like 450hz-20khz) and have even thought of using the RD22C's. Looks like they would fit really nice in a triangular style enclosure in the corner of the window and dash. I may even put 2 pairs up there so I can bring left and right channels closer together in the center of the dash which I am hoping will give me an unbelievable sound stage. They should be here Monday and I am hoping to start futzing around with them next weekend. I will let you know what I get out of them. If anything I will swap out the tweets in the JBL studio's that I have at the house etiher way should be a big tonal improvement either in the home or the truck.

 

What is ABS?
Along with HLDCs, RD22Cs, BG Neo 8's.

I may have heard of them and actually know what they are, but the model numbers (Im assuming thats what they are) dont right a bell.

Damn I fell like an ***

Well I know we can get better sound going custom; however local shops wants 350ish for them. I could build my own and I did infact start, but I just didn't think I would be able to get them the exact shap I want (Im a perfectionist when it comes to stuff like that). I had the Q-forms before and was pleased with them for the most part; I liked the looks and the shape of them, but the tweeter placement could have been a little better I believe. When I do the molds and start building my own I hope to fix those problems, and the reason I am basing my molds off of these instead of just doing it from scrat is I just think it will be easier to get the shap and look that I want going this way. Hopefuly they will come out right and the 'stock' Q-forms will only be in there for a short time, even so I do still plan to glass the back of them, I all ready have all the materials needed so right now Im just waiting on the Q-forms. At $104 shipped they were not too bad of a buy. My brother in law may use my mold in his chevy and just build them to fit his kicks.

Oh yea I know I could fry them, but I will never get to the point where there is even audible distortion. I originally had a 6.0 for them (150x2) but decided I wanted more power, just for the peaks in the music. Hopefuly I will be happy with the setup (I think I will).

 

ABS=basically plastic (same as an install kit)
HLCD=Horn Loaded Compression Driver (aka waveguides, horns)
BG = Bohlender Graebener (Home speaker company that makes some very nice magnetic planar style speakers)
Neo8 and RD22C= model numbers of the BG planars.

Check out BG's site if you get a minute www.bgcorp.com, if you want some really hi fi home speakers you should think about building your own and use the raw drivers from bg since you can buy just the maggies by themself for pretty reasonable prices. The Neo8's are about $65-70 each (more of the experimental ones at this point just to see how they image in car). If these do good I will move them over to the studio monitors in the house and get the more expensive and responsive RD22C's

 

Hrm...interesting. I wonder how they sound.


I may build some enclosure for my Utopias and use them in the house to see how they do there.

 

I know for a fact that the BG Radia series speakers sound absolutely flawless in a nice home setup and I will soon find out if I can get them to image and sound decent in my car. I can tell you that your typical car speakers don't transfer over to the home as well in the lower to midbass regions but in regards to tweets and upper range frequencies there really is not that much difference between those in a car and those in the home at least until you get into the horns and planars at least. The horns have been converted to car use through creative fashioning of actual horn bodies and has worked well. But I am not so sure about the direct line planars since they typically have a much narrower audible path when close up. Maybe a combination of horn/planar is in order. The largest downsides I have experienced with the horns is the typical narrow soundstage and some frequency layering effects that can usually be overcome with adding in additional tweets so I am hoping the planar style will do what I am looking for. We shall see soon enough.