Ok, so i have a 2001 Dodge Ram 1500. She's my baby, heated leather seats with the Infinity sound system, my dad has this truck custom ordered for him and then wound up getting a company truck. It's only got 50,000 miles on it and it runs great.

However, for the past year or so (when i didnt have my license yet) the stereo almost broke completely. Only the speakers on the front passenger side work, i've tried fiddling with the fade/balance but it does nothing. I had one of the other speakers replaced and it didnt do anything which is why i am almost positive that it is a problem with the wiring directly behind the dashboard deck.

My questions are:
How easy of a job is it to remove the radio? ( my Dad is an electrical worker if that helps)
Could i just replace it with this deck as I use my IPOD A TON? http://www.crutchfield.com/S-jN1KdpP...;s=0&cc=01
How hard would it be to install this?
and could i just hook up already existing speakers to this deck as i'm almost positive that they still work great?

 

if it s a factory radio im not sure how to remove it but just by scanning over my manual it dont look to hard, the stereo from crutchfeild should fit u mite have to purchase a bracket http://www.installer.com/photos/99-6229.jpg that goes around it and screws into place where the factory radio was screwed in, to install it u may also need a wiring harness http://www.hookedontronics.com/sales...ra_70-1817.htm, or just re wire ur suff if u no what ur doing, and ur old speakers will work ( if good ) u just wire ur new radio wires to the harness and plug the new harness into ur 1 that comes from the dash, most of the speaker wires should be color coded, black is ground lol, red is hot, blue is ignition, and whatever is left if any shouldnt be to hard to figure out

 

Not necessarily correct. Chrysler/Dodge (and possibly others) doesn't always follow that pattern. I'm not an automotive wiring expert, but when I did the custom wiring job for my 1995 Dakota's new deck (to replace the factory one), there were many different wires of many different colors and combinations of colors (blue with red stripe, green with brown stripe, etc., etc.). I don't believe there was one "hot" red wire, for example, although I might remember one black ground wire.

Of course, yours may be different. If you can get an adapter wiring harness inexpensively, I suggest you do it. Save you a lot of time. Otherwise, do a search online for a diagram showing what color/color combination wires do what. Thats how I got my Dakota's done right the first time.

Another example: take a look at the wiring coming out of your headlight bulb sockets. No black ground, no red hot, several different color wires with different colored stripes.

 

well 2 out of 3 aint bad lol

 

Removing the radio is a piece of cake. You need to remove the black bezel carefully so it doesn't crack (learned my lesson) but after you get that off, it is two screws to remove the radio. pull her out and your left with two connectors, and the antenna wire.

 

Pretty much sums it up here. After you get that black bezel off you should see the two bolts just remove those and the radio comes straight out. IT's super easy. I also learned to be very careful with that bezel it just pops off but seems to break easily.


As for the bracket and wiring harness if you buy it from Crutchfield they give you the wiring harness and dash kit you need for free. A lot of other stores don't do this but Crutchfield does. They also give you a master sheet with instructions on how to install it.

One other thing you would need to do with the new radio is solder or crimp the wiring harness adapter crutchfield gives you onto the harness that comes with the new radio. Not hard at all. Really this is a pretty simple job.

As far as your problem hard to tell. It may be the H/U but it may very well be a wiring problem somewhere else or it may be the factory amps gone back or I would say a speaker but you said you hooked a working one up and it didn't work. It may be the radio like you said but I wouldn't be surprised if you changed it and they still didn't work. Worst case you could with the new h/u or even this one rewire the truck for the speakers from the h/u. I've done that in a few cars.