Here's what's printed as the diagram-

FEED CONNECTOR (Gray)

BAT
ACC
ILL
PARK
RF-
LF-
MUTE

SPKR CONNECTOR (black)

ANT
LR+
RR+
LF+
RF+
LR-
RR-

where would a wheel harness connect at? Of the 14 wires, 8 are speaker cables, on is the mute wire for bluettoth systems, one is power in, one is power onfor the amp (manual antenna, not powered), and I assume ILL is the light control/dimmer feed? So whatw ould PARK be? To make some functions not work except when the transmission is in park?

 

anyone?

I don't see where/how there would even be a connection for the wheel controls. Does dodge even have those, neither my dad or I have ever seen a dodge with radio on the wheel. My dad and I were in town today, now it'll change just by hitting a bump or closing the door- going any direction (it's not just left anymore).

 

From what I understand the radio controls are on the back of the steering wheel. From your wiring description is does not sound as if the radio has steering wheel control hook ups.

I still think it's the ground. When a ground goes bad, it makes bad contact. I would hook a volt meter to the 12 volt and a known good ground, not radio ground, and drive around. Then hook the volt meter to the radio ground and drive some more. If there is no difference try the other hot wires and ground wires. You may want to pick up a cheep volt meter with a needle not digital. The digital may not pick up a really quick change in voltage.

If you get a different voltage doing this, start at the fuse panel.

Bad voltage on the hot side or going to ground can make electronics do strange stuff.

If everything checks out with the hot and ground wires try resistance testing the speaker wiring.

keep us updated, strange problems like this are fun to figure out.

good luck.

James

 

I don't see any leads indicating a remote controler link on the origional radio (ILL?? maybe), but like i said, a bad ground would shut the whole unit off. It just changes FM to AM and vise versa. I was thinking about pulling the radio again and have my dad hold it up while i drove around seeing if it still did it. As he put it, if i get a new head unit and use an adapter kit, even the new unit may still do this since it uses the same wiring.

 

Agreed your radio does not have any type of remote controllers.

A broken ground would make the radio not work. A ground or hot lead that has a poor connection will cause drops in voltage and could cause the radio to do funny things.

If some of the speaker wires have chaffed they might cause some kind of feed back that could cause problems with the radio.

One radio bad, maybe, two radios doing the same thing has got to be a short in the wiring some where.

A volt meter and testing are my advise.

 

how would I check the speaker leads without removing the panels? My first guess is the wiring in the door looms- next would be the amp (basically behind the glovebox??), then the rear speaker leads. I'm THIS close to even considering the antenna cable.


Would a ground fault loop between the grounding straps for the amp and head unit, the grounding bolt, and the chassis cause the radio to do something like this?

 

I think I'm going to agree with the clockspring idea. The highline Durango and Dakotas do have rear sterring wheel mounted radio controls, and the wires for these controls do run throughthe clockspring. Even though yours does not have the steering wheel radio controls it is possible that the wires are there anyway and that one of those is shorted. No other wires could cause the radio to jump stations.

 

Todays electronics are very picky about voltage. A bad ground will cause a voltage drop. Think of it as a bad ground on a 12 volt battery. When you hit the starter it spins over slower than normal. That's a voltage drop.

To check the radio wiring get a couple of small paper clips that will fit in to the radio plug. You can use the paper clips to make the connection to the volt meter, like a extension. Your looking for a change in voltage.

For the speaker wiring you want to check the resistance. Your looking for a change, test each speaker one at a time. Your wanting to check the wiring, like a wire has got cut and is grounded out to the frame. If it's doing it when you close a door, start with that doors speaker wiring. You should also do this with the ground for the radio itself. From the radio ground the a known good ground, seat bolt or something like that.

Good luck