My truck is falling apart! I already replaced the rattling ball joints, and a couple of water pumps and the freeze plugs, and now the power locks quit, the water temp gauge pegs and warns then settles back to normal, and the RADIO sound quit working.

The Radio is the standard am/fm/cassette. It powers up and all the functions work, even the seek. There's just no sound. So I bought another duplicate radio on Ebay in "working condition" and replaced my original. Nothing. Same exact problem. I search the world over and all things pointed to the "amplifier", so I found one of those on Ebay as well. The location for the amplifier is supposed to be behind the passenger side kick panel, so pulled off the the sill trim and panel and.... nothing back there. Huh? Well, I guess I didn't have an amplifier after all. At least not located 'there.'

So now I'm stuck. I don't want to rip the entire dash out to see if I can find an amp elsewhere, so here I am, looking for some help. There is a fuse for an amplifier, which checks out.

So wuts up with this thing?

 

On a 98 the amplifier is mounted to the back of the speaker. Each speaker has its own amplifier, it is kind of a metal half-moon shaped thing that has extra wires going to it. Ram trucks, Caravans, Plymouth Voyagers all had the same style of amplified speaker and they all had this same problem. The amplifiers did not last long in the doors, that is why Dodge quit doing their amplified system that way. You would be better off just replacing the speaker itself. You can use the two input wires to the amp as input wires for the new speaker. It has been a long time since I worked on one but I believe the signal wires from the radio are green for positive and black for negative. Each speaker should have a flat 4-wire plug on it and the green and black wires will be in the center. You can connect a known working speaker to the wires to confirm the speaker outputs. It may also be possible to un-solder the factory speaker terminals from the amplifier and solder a couple of short jumper wires from the speaker terminals to the green and black wires. That way you could still use the factory speakers but at 15 years old, you are probably better off with new speakers.

You don't necessarily have to go broke replacing the speakers. I recently put 2 pairs of Pioneer TSG1644 6 1/2's in my truck and they sound great. I am using a Sony radio/CD player but still the Pioneers are a good cheap replacement speaker. I bought them at Advance Auto Parts. Regular price was $49.95 per pair. I paid online, threw in a cheaper part to raise the total price to over $100.00 and used a $40.00 off a $100.00 purchase online discount code and got all 4 new speakers for $60.00. If you decide to get new speakers at Advance, the discount codes can be found at http://www.retailmenot.com/view/advanceautoparts.com The 40% code this month is TRT41.

Jimmy

 

That was excellent information. Tnx! What I wonder, though, is when a single speaker/amplifier fails, do they all fail? From the description, it seems that I should still hear something from one of the remaining amplified speakers. Is there a central control circuit for all the amps, or are they simply amplified speakers on their own?

 

It has been a long time since I worked on one of the old amplified speaker systems. Seems I remember there was some sort of remote on wire that went to the front speakers that was somehow connected to the rear speakers too. I remember somehow the fronts triggered the rears or something like that. The Dodge amplified speaker system was kind of primitive to be honest about it. I think it was 1999 or early 2000 when they changed over to a regular separate amp in the kick panel. You can still find the amplified speakers on Ebay, but unless they have been re-coned I would be hesitant to buy them. Personally I think it would be more reliable to just put in new replacement speakers. Even the bulk OEM type speaker you can buy at Autozone would probably sound OK on a factory Dodge radio. I still like my new Pioneers a lot though, they are a great speaker for the price I paid.

Jimmy

 

If the power locks quit at the same time the speakers went out, check your fuses. Check the fuse panel inside the truck and the Power Distribution Center under the hood too. You may just have a blown fuse. If I remember it right the door locks and amp circuit may have been on the same fuse. If there are no fuses labeled door lock or amplifier, you can go old school on it and disconnect the negative battery cable, then remove, inspect and replace each fuse out individually until you find the blown fuse, if there is one.

Jimmy

 

Tnx. It's not a power problem on either. Both door locks (now) make a grinding noise like it has stripped a plastic gear. I was hoping I could just replace the gear, but it looks like you have to buy the assembly and it's $$. I'm going to try and find a schematic to see if there's a relay or some other component prior to the speakers. It's hard to imagine all speakers went out if they're individually amplified.

 

I can't seem to track this problem down so if no one else has suggestions, I might have to go the aftermarket route.

 

Back in the day we had to fix one of the old amplified speaker Infinity systems in a Dodge Caravan. The remote on part of the circuit was toasted. You may have the same problem in your truck. Pull the radio out and check the voltage out of the radio on the remote on wire, on later model Dakota's it's dark green with a red stripe, yours may be a different color but it will be at the same location, it is at either the left or right end of the black speaker plug in the back of the radio. It's at one end or the other of the plug. See that it has 12 volts when the radio is on and no volts when the radio is off. Test it by turning the radio itself on and off, not the ignition switch.

If you have power from the remote on wire, pull one of the front door speakers and see if there is a remote on wire there, you may need to go by process of elimination (find power, ground, signal + and - and the last one left should be remote on to the amp circuit). I am sorry but I do not know the wire colors at the speaker itself but it should not be hard to decipher, or there is probably a diagram online somewhere. Maybe try checking www.the12volt.com.

If you have no voltage on the remote on wire at the radio, try cutting it and splicing it to switched power, that will be either the red or red/white wire on the gray plug at the radio location. See if you can trigger the amps that way, it won't hurt anything to test it like that.

Jimmy

 

I should have added to that last reply, all we had to do was run a new remote on wire from the accessory 12 volt wire at the radio up to the remote on wire for the amp on the right front speaker. When we connected it that way it somehow made the other 3 speaker/amp assemblies kick on as well. Never did quite understand how it was wired but it fixed the radio problem in that customer's van. This was about 17 years ago when I worked in the car audio installation shop at Circuit City.

Jimmy

 

That sounds excellent. I will give that a try. Tnx!