i have a 97 dodge dakota i am putting new speakers all the way around. I took out the driver side speaker and disconnected the speaker wires the speaker wires are white with blue stripe and white with pink/purple stripe. what wire is positive and negative?

 

I will move this to the 2nd Generation Dakota Sub Forum. There is the service manual there with wiring diagrams.

 

Grab a multimeter, if you dont have one go buy one then bring it back after your done. turn on the radio and touch the leads to the wires, you might have to turn the volume up a bit. if you get a negative voltage your backwards, if you get a positive voltage you have to correct pos neg wires.

Or google a wiring schematic for your truck

 

According to the manual...
Dark blue/ white is right rear speaker - Positive

As for the white with pink/purple stripe - could not find in the manual Im guessing... ground?

Like parky07 said... try the multimeter.