So I decided to fix my PSW-300 tonight...

[Syndil]

Decided to fix my PSW-300 tonight. It was sounding very boomy, and at loud volumes there was the infamous rattle. I'd read enough in the forums to feel like I had a good handle on what needed to be done. I figured the rattle was the spider, and I also expected to see a damaged cone or surround.

Long story short, got the amp plate off, and the woofer nearly rolled out with it. It wasn't attached to anything. Spider was absolutely fine, with a neatly applied thick ring of epoxy around it. No visible damage to the driver.

Anyway, pre-drilled some new holes in the baffle and remounted the woofer, and all is well. Not sure how long that thing was loose in there or why it came loose (perhaps shipping damage) but it certainly sounds better now. Just thought I'd share.

[Glowrdr]

Ended a lot better than what I was expecting from the header. Congrats

[rebuy]

Gee whiz, You would have thought the driver was screwed into the cabinet. Someone musta been in the restroom when that came through.

[Syndil]

Actually it had been. Left out a bit making the long story short.

I had purchased this sub used. There were two sets of screw holes in the baffle from where the driver had been mounted twice before already. A few of the original set of holes from the factory had cracked to the edge of the baffle, and the second set of holes which was obviously done by an amateur had not been pre-drilled, which caused the MDF surrounding the holes to raise up like little volcanoes, and of course put an undue amount of stress on the baffle when the screws had been put in, causing the eventual failure. At least I suspect that's what happened. The woofer, as it was lying loose in the polyfill, still had all six screws in it, fully screwed in.

I had to sand down the mounting area to get rid of those little volcanoes and pre-drilled a third set of holes. I expect my repair to last a bit longer than the one done prior by someone who didn't know what they were doing.

Also the whole removing of the amp plate, that was shortened too. The amp plate was no problem, but the plastic divider behind it that was glued to the enclosure, that was a problem. Had to figure out how to break the glue's seal without damaging the box. Prying it with screwdrivers and whatnot did not work, as it just deformed the MDF where I was prying. At first, I actually removed the heatsink from the amp plate and screwed the amp plate back to the divider, using the hole where the heatsink was as a handle to try and pull the divider loose. Nope.

Finally used my brain a bit and used a wide putty knife to pry it loose. I think that is probably the only tool that could have done the job. Was wide enough to spread the force out over enough of the enclosure to prevent it from deforming.