Removing dried ferrofluid from dome tweeters

[Boomzilla]

In the '90s to the mid 2Ks, manufacturers thought it was cool to damp their tweeters with ferrofluid. All of them seemed to do it. Now, that bunch of 10 to 20 year-old speakers all have tweeters where the ferrofluid has dried hard.

In some cases, the tweeters quit working. In others, the amplitude is reduced and the speakers sound "muffled" (and you thought you were losing your hearing!).

Parts Express offers a kit to replace the ferrofluid, but they don't go into detail as to how to REMOVE the dried stuff. Cruising Google, I see that some threads say don't use solvents, others say you must. Some say don't stick paper down around the voice coil to wick out the old goo, others say you must.

So, Loungers, has anyone here actually DONE this? I bought the Parts-Express kit for a pair of yard-sale Paradigm Studio 20s but decided that, rather than risk damaging the speakers, I'd eBay them "as is." So, in short, I have the replacement fluid, but am still at a loss as to how to clean the old fluid out. A dental-style hydrojet with rubbing alcohol might work except that I don't have one. I've got a variety of solvents & degreasers at my disposal, but can't imagine any way to get them into the virtually microscopic gap between the tweeter voice coil & magnet.

Open for creative suggestions here...

Thanks - Boomzilla

[pedrocols]

Is the tweeter in the studio 20 stop working? What version is it?

[PGT]

stick it under the faucet?

- Sometimes the terseness of my reply can't be blamed on my phone.

[Boomzilla]

The tweeters on the Studio 20s played but they didn't sound like they were at full volume. In other words, it sounded like someone had used a tone control and turned the treble down. I added some ferrofluid just to try to dilute the dried stuff, but I'm not sure if it worked or not.

The Paradigms I'm now referring to are some towers (model unknown) that a friend is giving me because he says they have "no treble anymore." Since I've got nothing in them, I'm willing to experiment and see if I can get the gunk out of the tweeter gaps. I don't want to use water because it might cause rusting. I plan to start with a blotter paper and some lighter fluid. Once I can stick the paper in the gap without getting discoloration, I'll assume that the gap is clean and add some new ferrofluid.

Again, if anyone has better ideas, I'm sure open to suggestions on how to do this.

Thanks - Boomzilla

[garbulky]

Nov 25, 2013 18:06:37 GMT -5 Boomzilla said:

The tweeters on the Studio 20s played but they didn't sound like they were at full volume. In other words, it sounded like someone had used a tone control and turned the treble down. I added some ferrofluid just to try to dilute the dried stuff, but I'm not sure if it worked or not.

The Paradigms I'm now referring to are some towers (model unknown) that a friend is giving me because he says they have "no treble anymore." Since I've got nothing in them, I'm willing to experiment and see if I can get the gunk out of the tweeter gaps. I don't want to use water because it might cause rusting. I plan to start with a blotter paper and some lighter fluid. Once I can stick the paper in the gap without getting discoloration, I'll assume that the gap is clean and add some new ferrofluid.

Again, if anyone has better ideas, I'm sure open to suggestions on how to do this.

Thanks - Boomzilla

Since they are not the 20's. The first thing to try is to make sure there is anything coming out of the tweeters. It could be a fried crossover/tweeter.

[Boomzilla]

Yes, both the tweeters & midranges work - they just don't play at full amplitude.