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Help restoring QLS1

jt45

jt45

Super Member
Anyone here familar with the cabinets on QLS speakers. Ive got to remove some mids and a few other things and wanted a little advice on these, the cabinets are really in good shape so i would hate to go in blind and start messin up the cabinets. I need to clean the pots and a couple of the mids need to go to watkins also the midbass coupler on one speaker isnt firing although it looks great All the Emits are working front and back. The Watkins Woofers are working but have no foam left, is refoaming something i could do ? I havent seen any kits for these 12 inch woofers. Im just getting my bearings on this restore and have been in touch with Bill Watkins, his shop is only 100 miles from me, but any pennies i can save by DIY would help. My question is how you get into the cabinets on these speakers. (I may be cheating on this but it beats screwing something up on these big boys. Thanks,
 

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the midbass could just need its pot cleaned up.

you're very lucky that all the EMITs are working, but i guess it's not terribly surprising since it sounds like he was at least using enough power (many owners didn't).

you can refoam the woofers yourself and save $80 or so, but if you haven't done it before and the rest of the speakers look so nice, you might want to have a pro do it so they don't come out looking messy or anything.

if you need to get into the crossovers, you just remove the woofer, pull out some of the polyfill, and look down. in order to clean the pots and/or replace some parts, you can carefully pry the black plastic backplate out (which is stapled and sealed in place from the inside) by applying leverage around the edge from the outside. once this is loose, you can unscrew the bottom particleboard slab that holds most of the crossover, disconnect the wires that go up to the drivers from the crossover, and pull the whole crossover assembly out.
 
Thamks for the info and the links, I dont know that Im ready to tackle the OXs yet. (LOL) but i could use some info on finding a refoam kit for the woofers, or will it be feasible just to drive up to Watkins shop (100 miles). Also did you use (any ) deoxit or what to claen the pots, I hope your right about the midbass coupler. Watkins says the Domes arent available anymore so thats a repair for sure. Also I broke a binding post on the low freq. input (neg) loading it in my truck (stupid) Will that be hard to find and replace. Sorry but i may have to bug Youall a few times since this is my first attempt at speaker repair. I will be driving these with the Spec 2 in my rack as seen on my avatar. Thanks again.
 
Having fun now.

Today I got the crossovers out and pulled out block wich holds everything
I followed everyones advice on cleaning those pots, hope that takes care of
my midbass coupler problem,I ordered a refoam kit for 27.00 shipping included
and may only have one mid-dome with a broken wire, although i thought 2 sets werent playing when i tested them. Also when i unhooked my woofers i marked the pos on one thinking there would be some referance point on the woofer but
looking at the connecters on the woofer both sets are Identicle, Anyone have
advice on that? Seems odd that with a dual voice coil there would not be at least a north/south point of referance on the woofer. Does it matter wich set,
besides Pos/neg of wires you hook back to the woofer? Im putting up some shots of the woofers and the crossovers, thanks. A special thanks to jimreeves
for helping me with the binding post.
 

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You can detect polarity by hooking up a 1.5V battery (Not 9V!!!) and if the woofer moves out (i.e. away from the motor assembly) then the terminal that the + of the battery is connected to is +, if it moves inward then it is -
An exception to this is most JBL woofers which have inverted polarity.
 
What I meant was there is 2 sets of connections on the Watkins woofer VC1 and VC2 but as far as i can tell there is no differance between either set of connecters on the woofer and there not marked as such, also I dont see anything on the woofer to use as a referance point for those connections ie Paint or writing or, i did mark 1 of the pos wires and the connecter but really on my other woofer there is no way to tell wich set of wires connects to wich connection. I had no problem Identifying pos/neg and also found the specs for the woofer and the caps but the woofers themselves are identicle as far as the actual connecters go. 1 set is directly across from the other with no way to tell if its VC1 or VC2. Does it matter as long as the polarity is correct or do you have to have VC1 wires connected to a specific set of post on the woofer ? If so how do you know wich set if there isnt any markings to use as referance. ? Same goes for VC2 .?
 
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Do you have a basic multi-meter?
Put it on the smallest Ω setting.
One coil should read lower than the other, maybe 2 ohms? I can't remember.
The other should read higher.
The lower one should be connected to the lower crossover.
 
the wires matter. use a multimeter to test the resistance of each set of posts. one will be about 2.5 Ohms and the other will be about 5. if you're looking at the schematic, VC2 is the 2-Ohm coil, and positive and negative are as Sir.Byrd described.
 
Thanks I will give that a shot. It seems odd that there isnt a mark on the woofer somewhere at least a s/n or something that could be used as a referance point.I should have known better . I use markers at work when im on something new electrical to help speed up repairs, never figured to get stumped by a simple set of speaker connects.
 
is there a splotch of red paint on one side? or perhaps some letters scratched into the basket?
 
Just the red dot on the bottom of the magnet, I havent looked really close for any stamping in the metal but i will. one woofer does have a little bit of white on one side of the magnet the other woofer not much white left, do you suppose that used to be numbers maybe ? Both woofers have the big red spot on the bottom of the magnet. It will be a couple of days before i hook up everything i still havent got the refoam kit.By the way where might i get some clamps for that refoaming job.? Would clothespins work ?
 
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Clothespins work, you will need a LOT of them. I find that binder clips (black metal kind) work well too, you will want many of those too, I have about 50 I think and I only run out of I am doing a pair of 15" woofers.
 
QLS refoaming !

Well I got my QLS refoam kits today and this was my first refoaming job, So far
so good. Also got the Speaker post replaced and all the pots cleaned up. Just 2 Mids to fix (not looking forward to tackling that tinsel wire) and I will get to hear
these big girls play.
 

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Nice work JT! Keep us posted. If you decide to try them out before fixing the tinsels be sure to put the dead mids back in. The watkins woofers need a sealed cabinet.
 
Looks very nice for your first job! Good work!
If you want to get your woofers looking even better you can replace the dust caps.
 
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