The Fader Control Rewire

[DaveC]

I am going to hard wire my front and rear together. The fader has caused problems in the past and when I am sitting still it is nice to have all four corners blaring!

I am going to take a few pic and show one method of connecting them together.

[biggersm]

We look forward to it; especially the promise of pictures. I read recently in a different post that it was essentially a big in line resistor.

[DaveC]

Well I removed my fader and hard wired the the speakers.
Things you need:
Voyager XII

Wire cutters
Wire strippers
Wire nuts
if your feeling frisky heat shrink, I got a box of assorted from H/F. I use wire nuts as they work, any garge Joe can do this. There are other ways that "look" more professional but I did this so anyone with little electrical knowledge could follow along and complete this.

You take out the fader. Remove the two nuts holding the U tension bracket. Unplug both the input (small ) connector and the output (large) connector. Remove the two nuts on the bottom and just pull the control knob off.
You should see this:


A closer inspection and you well see + and -, FR, RR, FL, RL.

[DaveC]

Now the next steps are easy, you just need to do one side at a time. Lets look at the wire list:


As you can barely make out there are Left and Right.
These are broken into + and -
R is (-)b/y
(+)r
L is(-) b/r
(+)bl
then they break them into the four corners.
FL+
FL-
FR+
FL-
RL+
RL-
RR+
RR-

so by looking at the PC board that you pulled out, you cut the first input, in my case I start with the + Right side and hooked in the front and rear + , wire nut them together after stripping the end.
these are the + sides front and rear


notice that the colors are all similar, versions of red

[DaveC]

The reason I started where I did you well notice in the group of 4 wires the ones I cut where on the outer edge, easier to get to.
Then I did the negative side (-)


Then I went to the left side and did the same starting with the + side then the - side
I ended up with this. Sure one of the nuts is a differant color, you gotta work with what ya got!



Then I installed it and as you can see I put heat shrink on. You won't need shrink or tape, but be assured the wire nuts do not fall off. I zip tied my cable together, a bread tie would work in a pinch.


So there you have it, Takes basic hand tools and about 30 minutes after the fairing is off. I did this on my first Voyager after the fader started giving me fits, poor sound, weak sound. Oh I forgot I put a Volt meter in the hole. I have had this one for years, so what the heck I stuck it in. I doesn't photograph well so no picture.
I was looking at the hole and I decided to use plexiglass to cover it , back side, and mount a digital under the lens.

[Bill52]

A question for those of you that have removed the fader control , do you find the sound from the speakers louder/better?

[HodagBill]

Removed mine when it fell apart. I find I go with 3 bars on the radio volume where I was at 4 to 5

[DaveC]

A question for those of you that have removed the fader control , do you find the sound from the speakers louder/better?

Yes and yes.

[flip18436572]

Is there any chance that this would improve the consistency of the volume on the headsets? The rear headset connection is always louder than the front. It doesn't matter which helmet is plugged in where.

Just curious, because I never use the speakers, because I always were a helmet.

[Mr Jensee]

I've usually found if you spray the pot control with electrical cleaner that is solves the glitching problem. Never tried it on the Voyager but from the looks of it, it would work.

[DaveC]

I've usually found if you spray the pot control with electrical cleaner that is solves the glitching problem. Never tried it on the Voyager but from the looks of it, it would work.

Very do-able. Yet your dB gain is a good 30% by removing the pot altogether. It was hard for me to do the first time as I like leaving my bike stock. After I experianced the improvement in clarity and volume it was easier the 2nd time. :mrgreen: For head sets I would try spraying contact cleaner into the connector in the dash and at the outputs for the headsets. It may be internal to the radio. Weak transistor or a out of spec resistor.