1998 Dodge Ram 1500 Extended Cap (Rear half doors.)

When I got this truck as a gift from my Grandfather in Law the radio didn't work. I thought it to be in part due to the hack job install of an after market CD changer. I promptly gutted all the after market stuff and got everything hooked back up in stock form.

No radio, just static when turned way up.

I ordered a used AM/FM/CD/TAPE/EQ unit from a parts recycler and installed it. Success, radio works. BUT...the speakers up front are blown bad and the rears aren't taking much volume.

Pull the panels and pull the speakers. All are the original paper cone factory speakers and they're all warped and moisture damaged badly. No surprise, they're 14 years old.

I do not have extra 6x9" speakers to replace the fronts so I have to order those. No big deal.

However, I do have an extra set of 6.5" round speakers and they were too big to fit the openings in the rear half doors. Are the factory speakers some kind of goofy 6.25" round speaker or are the baskets just so different that I would need to enlarge the holes to get my 6.5" speakers to fit?

I found a set of the speaker plug adapters in case I want plug and play, however I am not against terminating the factory wires to connect to after market speakers.

I guess my main two questions:

Are the rear speakers classified as 6.25" or 6.5"?

Which of the two speaker wires color code is POS and which is NEG? I want to keep the correct phase.

Thanks.

 

rear speakers are called 5-1/2, and aftermarket speakers of that size are available. check Crutchfield as a starting point, but beware, they will recommend 6-1/2 for the front doors, because of the shallow depth to the window frame. i have and old thread over in the radio section with a lot of pictures and info. unfortunately, nobody ever goes over there...

 

so you pulled out the aftermarket system and reisntalled the crappy stock setup? It would have been wiser just to reinstall the aftermarket setup properly.
The Chrysler stereos are known to have the tuners fail as well as the volume control go funky... plus they are like 7watts at full distortion which isnt very good by todays standards..

 

^My factory Infinity system sounds pretty good for an original 14 year old system.

 

The only after market parts were the CD changer. It was mounted under the back bench behind the driver's seat.

The head unit was factory...which was dead, and the speakers were all factory, which are paper and blown.

I replaced the factory AM/FM Tape with the full option CD head unit like I had in my 1998 Durango and I really enjoyed it. It was simple and stupid.

I have been putting after market stuff in my cars and trucks for years and quite familiar with car audio but in this case it's a weekend project truck and I sure don't need to waste a lot of time and money building a system for it.

The replacement head unit was only $30. I'm not looking to spend more than $200 on speakers front and rear. Hell I may delete the rear speakers all together and just drop some new front speakers in.

I know the RMS output of the factory head units are low...they always are, but for this type of a truck I don't need anything more. I can always go in and re-do things later if something changes but at this point stock is fine and anything better is a bonus.

 

For $200 you can get a great set of speakers for the front and the rear. For 50 more you can get a descent enough head unit to run them. Crutchfield.com is a great place to start. I am with dodge_dude94, my infinity speakers are running strong.

 

I understand the concept you guys are trying to insert but the pricing argument is off. Sure, I could delete the rear speakers and invest in a nice set of front door speakers. Components even. But then I have speakers that handle a LOT more than the factory head unit.

Okay, so then the obvious thing is to replace the head unit. Even the expensive Kenwood and Eclipse head units won't put out more than 25 watts per channel max RMS. That's fantastically low.'

On top of the cost of the head unit I would need the adapter to get from the Dodge 1.5 DIN to the 1 DIN opening.

Then I would be unhappy with the power the speakers are seeing and I would need an amp and an amp install kit. Then, if I'm amping my front speakers and getting lots of nice mids and highs I would be needing lows...

...and then I would either need a second amp and a sub, or a bigger single amp to run both the fronts and the sub/s.

Trust me...been down this path. My Durango has a beautiful Kenwood Excelon. I have a an amp pushing my front door components and my rear door coaxials. Another amp powers my 4 x 10" subs in a custom enclosure in the back.

I'm not trying to climb that ladder. I want to replace the warped and blown paper cone speakers and I want to do it cheap and without extra modifications.

Really my question was answered a few posts ago, in that the rears are listed as 5.5" and if I do replace them that's what I'll get.

I still need to know what the color coding on the speaker wiring is though I can correctly phase the after market speakers I get to replace the fronts.

 

I completely get what your saying now that youve explained further... on the speakers I believe the factory plug has a thin and thick spade at the plug if I remember correctly.... the thick one would be the positive... theres often also a mark on the speaker thet you could follow to find which is which..... if its the wires at the head unit you are concerned about then just google "(97 ram stereo wiring diagram" and you should find your answers... thats what I did.

As far as the rms value of a aftermarket radio they are usually 25 watts rms and 45 to 50 max with distortion.... the stock stereo is like 7 watts rms... there is a huge difference with three times the power ... The trick is to buy speakers that are matched to lower rms power and NOT the the commonly sold 150-300 watt ones you find everywhere... all you need is the cheaper 50-120w max speaker and it will sound better because they dont need the extra wattage to move the cones and control them properly... otherwise it will sound flat and distort easy...

another trick to check phase is touch the live speaker wires to the speaker with the volume turned down...if you can see the cone move in initially your good if it moves out when it thumps then its reversed... this works better with sub woofers on amps though..

 

That may very well be true but
A. Not everyone has the premium infinity system in thier trucks...it was an option.
B. Even though they sounded good todays infinity factory setups are much better as they improved... I had the bose system in my vette and it sounded terrible compared to the now 10 year old system I put in back then to replace it..
also speaker dont last all that long in extreme conditions such as vehicles...the cones get brittle and amps sometimes fail on those infinity setups... I have a pile of old high end speakers that are crumbling I pulled out of vehicles and that I keep saying I'm going to "rebuild" with new rings for the cones...

 

for the front: http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113KFC6...930.html?tp=91

for the rear: http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113KFC1...54S.html?tp=97

decent head unit: http://www.crutchfield.com/p_070XHD6...84#details-tab

Total Price $149.89 plus shipping. My friend has this similar set up. After a year or so he added an amp and woofers and that was another 200 for 2x12 mtx and california 1000 watt peak amp. it sounds great. Can't beat that. His dual head unit is great. Awesome features and his has lasted fro 4 years now. I have gone trough 2 sonys and am on a pioneer now. Mine was grounding issues though.