I'll be making a run up to Silver Lake sand dunes this weekend so I'm trying to get these things finished before Saturday. The first thing that needed to be done was replace the front speakers because they sounded horrible, and the front left speaker didn't make any noise at all.

I picked up a pair of Alpine 6x9s and went to work. Because I have the "premium sound" package this turned out to be a little harder than I would have liked, but it turned out pretty good. I ended up running new wires to all four speakers (huge pain in the butt). The new 6x9s sound amazing, they compliment my Pioneer HU nicely, WAY better than stock.

Rats nest organized as best I could


Here's where I spliced into the stock harness to power the rear speakers. It would have been a lot easier of Chrysler would have stuck with one color wire instead of switching it up every time there was a plug.


I found this jammed in a hole behind one of the interior trim panels. THIS is Chrysler's way of insulating the cab? Nice...


Next I wanted to install a set of pillar gauges. I wanted to be able to keep track of my tranny temp while cruising around at Silver. (I know more than a few people that have cooked a tranny on the dunes, I don't want to be one of them) I couldn't find a full pillar that had a space for a single gauge, so I had to get a dual setup instead. I ended up getting a vacuum gauge because it was the cheapest and easiest to install, plus it will come in handy when I decide to fix the multiple vacuum leaks my truck has.

Here's the new pillar waiting for the glue to dry.




I already hooked the vacuum gauge up. It was simple, only took about 5 minutes.




I can't wait to get this finished, I think it's gonna look great. Hopefully I'll finish up the gauge install after work tonight, I'll update this as I progress.

 

how many gauges are you doing and for what ?? looking good man !

 

I don't see speaker wire? Pulling new wires was the easy part. Ask laramie what happen when I did mine.

 

Whereabouts in michigan are you? Silver lake is a fun place to wheel. Been there several times, but, not in recent memory. Usually went up to around St. Helen's and the trails there. Was driving a beat to crap Full Size Blazer at the time. I paid 300 bucks for it, wailed the tar out of it, and out of four vehicles that went up, MINE was the only one that drove home under its own power.

 

Now THATS what it's all about! A friend of mine payed $200 for a '89 regular cab long box GMC sierra. We drove it up to Silver the day after he bought it, and literally beat it to pieces. I've never seen a truck airborn that many times and survive. It ended up blowing an oil line as we crested test hill just before we were about to leave. We grabbed a role of ducktape, wrapped it up, and drove it 120 miles back to his house, topping the oil off every 25 miles. I say it was 200 bucks well spent!

I live about 20 miles south of Grand Rapids, 3 miles west of US131. Not a bad drive up to the dunes.

dodge15004x45.9, I didn't use "speaker wire". I just used 16awg stranded copper wire (the red and black twisted wire in the pic).

lastrights, I'm going with a vacuum gauge (just for kicks) and a tranny temp gauge, for obvious reasons.

 

cant wait to see that pillar done

 

thats a bad a$$ looking pillar where did you get that from? i want to do a tranny and a mini-tach.

 

You'll get bogus vacuum readings from downstream of the check valve where you've tapped the line.

I guess it's okay where it is if you want to know what's happening at your cab air vents, but if you want true manifold vacuum you'll have to move that tap to be upstream of the first check valve.

 

My truck looked like that for most of the afternoon today, panels off and wiring everywhere lol....

I'd love to add at least a tranny temp gauge to mine, same as you are doing. Where are you tapping into for that?

Can't wait to see what it looks like all together good job

 

The pillar and gauges are made by Auto Meter. I ordered them from Summit Racing.

UnregisteredUser, I do have the "possesed vent" problem, but that really isn't why I installed the gauge. Thanks for the tip.

Maxx, I'm plan to just thread the temp sensor into the front servo port on the tranny. I know it would be better to tap into a cooler line, but I didn't feel like spending the extra $40 and dealing with the hassle of installing it that way.

I just finished painting the pillar. I highly recommend the interior paint that Dodge dealerships sell. It was a perfect match for my Agate interior.