Well that wasn't it. Bummer. I removed the door panel only to discover a plain ol' two-wire 5 1/4" speaker. No amp attached. The speaker looked to be in good shape, so buttoned it all back up and proceeded to rip parts of the dash out to trace the wires.

Huh, interesting. They are bundled with other wires heading towards the driver's side, then diverted straight down. I pulled the carpet back to expose the driveshaft hump at the firewall as that's where the wires lead. There's a reinforcement plate and a box behind it. It got too hot for me to stay in the truck, so had to come inside. Perhaps it's an amp after all? I'll get back out there after I cool down some.

Anyone happen to know what that box is?

 

I followed the wrong wires. It appears as if that box on the hump has something to do with the airbag. The radio wires actually head towards the driver's side then 'up' and back to the passenger side to an impossible to see location. There's another mystery box hidden behind the upper dash to the right of the glovebox. Man, this has me befuddled. And you know I am when I use words like "befuddled" on the internet! How about I just rip out everything and buy a complete aftermarket system. Better yet, take it to a pro and let them worry about it!

All this just so I can listen to Rush Limbaugh...

 

Infinity systems had the separate tweeter on the door panel, pre-2001 the tweeters were mounted up in front of the door pull cup area. There is a grille about the size fo a half-dollar that has the Infinity logo on the bottom of the grille. No tweeters on your doors means there is no Infinity amp. You might remove the passenger's kick panel and see if you have a factory amp there. If it is there, it is about 4"x8" and an inch or so thick. It will have heat sinks on one side and ventilation holes in its case. Two screws hold it in at the bottom and the top has a metal tab that slips under a hole in the upper area of the kick panel. I have never seen a pre-2000 Dakota that had the amp in the kick panel but I guess anything is possible.

If you can find no amplified speakers or external amplifier, it could be a problem with the existing speakers shutting down the radio's outputs. If a speaker wire is shorted to ground or you have a speaker that is shorted internally or has a bad voice coil it will mute the radio's outputs to keep from damaging the radio. You can check the speaker wires with a multimeter set on continuity to ground. You can also remove each speaker and check for open voice coils with the multimeter.

If the speakers and wires all check out OK, the radio itself may have an internal problem. A good independent car stereo shop or electronics repair shop can bench test the radio for you. If the radio is bad, it may be better and much less expensive to just go with an aftermarket deck. You can buy a good quality deck for less than $100.00 nowadays, and good speakers can be had for $30.00 per pair and up. The installation kit for the dash and the matching wire harness to connect the new deck to your existing factory radio wire connectors should not cost much more than $25.00 or $30.00. It would be a good idea to buy the wire harness made for installing an aftermarket deck into your truck, because it will make it much easier to check for shorted speaker wires plus it will take the guess work out of installing the new deck, if you end up going that route.

Jimmy

 

It's definitely not an Infinity system. There's also nothing behind the passenger side kick panel. I've already tried an identical replacement radio, so the next step will be to test the 4 speakers. Thanks again!

 

There's no continuity on the speaker wires from the radio connector to the speakers, so it must be going through something like an amp. I might just have to tear this dash apart to find the problem. Or maybe I'll sell this truck to a recycling center or junk yard! Then again, I might have to pay them to take it!

 

I had replaced all 4 speakers coz one quit a few years back. Also went with $40-$50 pair speakers. Pioneer up front , and like mentioned an Infinity oem sound have the tweeter separate in the door. My back are Sony explod 3-way. My oem cd player has not been wanting to pull in the cd lately, so i may be looking into a new unit soon... Good chance it may be an Explod ...