Hi,
In case anybody is still watching this thread.... I have a pair of AL-115s and stumbled on this site/thread when checking to see what the part number for the tweeter is, in case I need another in the future. I thought I had blown one of mine but managed to fix it. The problem wasn't down in the voice coil itself but, rather, the wires extending through the dome and to the solder points. It seems that the black, tar-like goo that they run through is corrosive and after so many years, the wire simply rusted open.
Using my multi-meter, the tweeter measured as "open". The the wires looked kinda green where they went in and out of that black goo-covered channel that runs under the wire mesh cage. So I dug around the wire cage (same black goo), pried it off, dug out the wires and measured further in on both sides, where the wires protrude out of the dome. THAT measured fine (3.5 ohms, if I recall correctly).
I clipped off the corroded parts and soldered in a half inch length of very thin magnet wire (single strand, varnish covered wired for motor windings) that I had laying around... scraping the varnish off both ends, of course. It works fine now!. It wasn't TOO difficult to fix but pretty tedious work.
I've attached a picture of the repaired tweeter. If you look closely through the cage, you can see the "loop" of the old wires, soldered to the new length of magnet wire that I re-routed through the channel and sealed with RTV. I sure hope the RTV isn't corrosive, but if I get another 10 years out of them, I'll be more than happy.
So... if you think your tweeter suddenly blew, and you haven't been abusing it with really loud music, maybe it's the same issue as with mine. It's definitely worth checking those lead wires.
- Kayaker2001
