Criss-crossing speaker wires??

Going to mount that wet box today on a friends boat. I can hook the speaker wire up to the amp fine, but ski club of Montgomery(closed) used some horrid brown wire that is not marked neg. Or pos. What happens if the neg. Wire goes into the pos. Slot of the terminal cup and pos. Into negative slot? Yes I'm rewiring it with 4 conductor 16 gauge next week, but was curious about my current situation. Have a great weekend. AMERICA

Switching the wires around won't hurt the speaker. However, it's ideal to keep all your positives and negatives labeled, especially with subs. If the wires are switched on 1 speaker, then the cones will move exactly opposite the normal speaker. This causes sound to get canceled out and your system to not be heard across the lake (this is especially true in subs placed close to each other). One thing you you shouldn't do however do is mix up positives and negatives from different channels of your amplifier. If you are scared get a voltmeter from home depot and test which wire is which.

Hope you have a good fourth!!!!

Just use a DVOM and check for continuity between the ends at the amp and the ends on the tower. Then mark each and with a wire marker.

A quick cheap and foolproof (as far as I know) way of checking is to get a 9v battery and hook up what you think positive is to positive on battery, and then nagative to negative.

If the excursion of the woofer is outward polarity is correct, if the excursion goes in then polarity is reversed. Depending on the setup you may need two sets of eyes. This will not hurt your speakers.

Also take a very close look at that cable. Lamp cord like that normally has a groove molded into the casing of one conductor that can be used to ID polarity. If all else fails, ring it out with a meter.