Rear Speaker Liftgate Wiring

Someone on a message board asked me how I ran the wire for the rear liftgate speakers, so reposting for anyone else that wants to know.

The below photo is taken from the right side of the car, but the wiring is run down the left side of the liftgate, this is just to help explain.



I followed how the speakers were wired up in the T&C for this, with one exception. There is a small cavity just underneath and towards the edge of the rear trim panel (red arrow, there is one on each side). The wiring for both speakers enters into the cavity of the liftgate formed by the inner and outer shell. It runs along the edge of the window (inside the liftgate) just like the yellow line in the photo (except on the other side). The wiring exits out the top of the liftgate through a small hole in the upper window area.

On the T&C, there was a grommet and a hole on the upper roof area that my Aspen did not have. For the T&C, this was for the rear speaker wiring, the rear taillight wiring (for the lights on the liftgate) and for a power liftgate relase (if so equipped, mine wasn't). Instead of drilling the hole, I just ran the speaker wire up underneath the rear trim piece that holds up the headliner. You can see the wire in the red box in the photo.

I hope that this information is useful to anyone else.

Exhaust Replaced

Even though softball season is officially over, that was just the spring season (and the World Series trip). Now we are into the fall season, but not nearly as time intensive as the spring. I've also been traveling quite a bit over the last couple of months, so work on the wagon hasn't really picked up like I wanted it to.

But, last weekend I made it a point to do something.... anything.. to the Party Wagon. I ended up replacing the exhaust on it with the exhaust from the T&C. The reason for the replacement is the Smog stations in CA. For whatever reason, I'm not too sure, the exhaust on the Party Wagon had been cut off just above the axle. When I went to smog it when I first got the car to CA, several shops refused to smog it becuase when they would insert the probe into the tailpipe, it would contact the dyno rollers and was unsafe.

I had a temporarpy piece of pipe installed just to get it smogged, and once that was done I took it off. Well, my smog check is coming up again in January, so I needed to fix the problem. I did by installing the exahaust (from the downpipe back) from the T&C into the Aspen.



I did encounter one problem. The flange that connects the cat to the downpipe, the holes are spaced out just a little bit too far. I was only able to bolt up one bolt on the flange. I will need to elongate one of the holes to get it to work. I also have a small exhaust leak, and I believe that it is coming from that flange. I could be wrong, but I will need to fix that as well.

Aaaah.. the fun of modifying an old car. :)