Car Stereos: Alpine amp, dodge ram 2500, alpine amp

Question
QUESTION: Hey Brian

I have a 2001 Dodge ram 2500 without the infinity package, and just replaced the factory head unit with an alpine cda-9886.  I hooked it up with a kicker 4 channel amp, however the tuner is the only thing that works.  The cd and ipod will "play" on the head unit but not though the speakers. I dont know if I missed a connection somewhere.

Also while replacing the front speakers, I noticed an electro-magnet of some sort on the factory speakers, it looks like it might be connected to the head unit.  there is no need for this piece on my new speakers.


Thanks

ANSWER: Hi Jarrett,

Are you sure it's not an Infinity system?  Because the part you're describing, on the front speaker, sounds an awful lot like the Infinity amplifier--they're attached to the front speakers in the Rams from this model year.   You might not see the Infinity logo, but if your truck has separate tweeters in the doors or on the A-pillar, it's a factory-amplified system.  Of course, if you've replaced the speakers and installed a new amplifier, the type of OEM sound system becomes irrelevant.  If you have the tweeters, they've probably stopped working once the factory amps were removed.

I'm assuming that you're using the 4-channel amp to drive the front and rear speakers.  If so, the solution to your problem is quick and easy:  you have your amplifier's remote wire connected to the wrong wire at the back of the head unit.  Right now it's connected to a solid blue wire.  That's a power antenna wire, and it's only active when "Tuner" is selected.  You need to connect your amp's remote wire to the blue/white wire instead.  This will activate the amplifier whenever the head unit is switched on, regardless of the source selection.

If this turns out to be the problem, don't feel too bad.  Most professional installers have made this mistake at least once.

Hope this helps!

Brian  



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hey thanks
Thats right, the system is infinity.. it didnt show it by the vin.
The only thing is that the amp is powered all the time, because the remote is specially marked on the head unit.  Im am wondering what color wire dodge used to send power to the stock amps, this I could disconnect and leave the speaker powered by the Kicker.  I would like to keep the tweeters however
Thanks for your help

ANSWER: Jarret,

Are you using the blue/white wire for the amp's remote turn-on?  If so, the amp should shut off when you turn off the head unit.  If it's staying on with the head unit powered off, then there's something wrong.    

The factory amp turn-on wire is light green in the factory radio harness; however, if you've removed the front speakers, then you've also removed the factory amps--there shouldn't be anything left to turn on.  The single amplifier in each front door ran the front door speaker, rear door speaker and tweeter for that side.  If you've run new speaker wires from each speaker to your new amp, then you don't need to do anything else to bypass the factory system; but I wouldn't suggest trying to connect the factory tweeters.  The factory amplifier includes a built-in crossover for the tweeters, so if you want to run them from your new amp, you'll need to install an in-line crossover filter on each so they're not getting bass tones.

Brian

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hey Brian

Thanks for all your help, I figured out the problem. All I had to do was find out what factory wire color was used in each speaker (purple and blue) and cut off the amp completely white re-wiring the signal to the back door, and through that in-line filter to the tweeter.  
My truck used one amp for each side (front, back, tweeter) and for some reason did not allow my ipod or cd player function to work...this I still dont know.  Everythings working now, i've never had such a problem with a system.

Thank you so much for all your help


Answer
Hi Jarrett,

I'm glad you got it figured out.  For some reason I thought you had removed the factory amplifiers at the start, and that all your speakers were already running directly from the new amplifier.  The reason the factory amps weren't working with CD or iPod was that they're activated through a blue wire in your adapter harness; if you connected that to the blue wire from the Alpine deck, then it only turns on the stock amps when you have "tuner" selected.

Enjoy your new system!

Brian