VADSLRAM

I don't know what they were thinking! Making a 1.5DIN radio

My system went TU last week. It was the stock radio with no marking saying it was anything special. 3 equalizer slides and a joystick balance/fader.
So I wanted something I could put my portable XM to without too many things to confuse this old man.
I ordered a set, single DIN Sony 55watt radio and the adapter kit that makes it a single DIN with a little CD storage slot. $65 shipped
If I wanted to replace with a direct 1.5 replacement,,even remanned $118 + shipping.

So I get the package. the kit comes with the wiring adapter and everything looks like it matches up slot A to tab A. I plug it in and turn the key...lights come on, sources change, radio show it has signal.....NOT A PEEP from the speakers. ***! did I blow all 4 speakers?
after a day and a half of tracing wires I found that the stock radio is an Infinity system with a line amp for the speakers. You need to connect the amp/antenna feed from the radio to the "radio" wire on the grey loom. When you make contact you can hear a solenoid behind the glove box click and viola cranking sound again.

I wish there was some markings on the stock radio that said the blue wire was an Amp and not an electric antenna.

KATOOM

Pictures..... I've thought about swapping out my stock radio too just because there's no way for me to play an MP3 through it. Well, I can get one of those adapters which ties into the FM antenna signal but its not digital.

gorms

I looked at the loom in the doors, cut it all out and ran 4 new speaker wires to the new head. Looks like I saved a day of aggrivation! Good to know now.

anonymous_1

Yep ran into the same problem when I installed my Alpine head unit. Trick is, you need to wire the remote turn on for the amp and the power antenna wire together with the same on the truck side.

patdaly

In case anyone else runs into this, some Infinity head units are marked, some not. The interesting thing is, there is no difference between the Infinity head and non, the only difference is the wiring and the speakers, if you look, you should have Infinity on the door panels by the upper speaker if yours is indeed an Infinity.

Crutchfield has a direct plug in harness to keep you from having to cut and re-wire, which is what I was going to do before I found out the head units were the same. I ended up going to the junkyard and got a plain old minivan AM/FM/Cassette for 10 bucks and bolted it in, works great.......

Lary Ellis (Top)

Couldn't find a 8 track I take it?

KATOOM

I'm sure there's a multitude of people on these forums who would be happy to give you their old Dodge Ram stereo.....with a CD player. Can you even buy cassettes any more?

patdaly

LOL, the cassette doesn't even work.

I never use anything other than the radio........... too old I guess.

Lary, you laugh, but I have an old pioneer under dash 8 track player and about 100 tapes from back in the day............ Don't know why I hang onto them, guess my real name is Fred Sanford.

KATOOM

We all have our quirks.....

VADSLRAM

You either need a cassette player or some other way to put an adapter to it. I hate the FM transmitters, the sound quality was crap, at least with the cassette adapter you didn't get any outside interference.
There was a company that refurbed the stock radios with an aux jack but I didn't trust them anyway.
My Pioneer XM portable is always with me. I can get satelite radio pretty much anywhere, record some if I want, load MP3s to it to listen to and when I sit at the office or in the truck I just pop it into the dock and keep listening.

high bid

I think I have my old factory radio. If ya want it, cover shipping and I'll send it.

cougar

Wow, took me all of 30 minutes to pull out my OEM unit and install the Pioneer. I guess practice does make perfect.