I need a little help here guys. I have a 98 ram 1500 sport.
I have installed a radio with a flip up display along with a reverse camera. The camera receives power from the reverse power wire. So here are the two issues.

If the camera is hooked up (both the power wire and video wire) then i have issues with my headlights being on. When both are hooked up (truck is not in reserve, or is in reverse does not make a difference) the radio with flash when i turn on the headlights. However; if either wire at the camera is unplugged this does not happen.

The next issue comes with the actual camera itself and will probably lead to some more info. When the backup camera is on and working (truck is in reverse) and i turn on the headlights, then the camera will stop working. I checked the power wire for the camera with my volt meter and in fact there is no power for the camera.

Any ideas would be great.. Little frustrated at the moment.

 

Sounds like a grounding issue somewhere, but we're going to need a little more info.

Did you use a wiring harness or cut and splice into the factory harness when you installed the radio?

How did you wire the camera? Where is it grounded?

 

Something is seriously awry there, Headlights and reverse lights are two entirely separate circuits, and never the twain shall meet.

Grab the 01 service manual from the faq section, check the wiring diagrams, make sure you have the correct wire for the backup lights.

 

There had actually been another wiring harness installed before i installed my radio, so i did a lot of splicing and yada to get through all the crap that the guy before me had done. The radio is grounded properly though (the issue with the radio before this one was the fact he did not ground it correctly). I spent a lot of time making sure the radio was grounded well! The camera on the other hand not so much, the power wire is just spliced into the reverse line, so it should be grounded by the same place that the reverse light is grounded. Though, you have me thinking a little now about the ground for the camera. But i am unsure why the headlights are affecting the camera? (by the way the reverse light stay on while the camera goes out)

 

The only thing i can really think of that would somehow connect the headlights to the reverse light is the fact that when the headlights come on, they also turn on the running lights for the rear of the truck. But they should not cross at all in actual wiring, they are just close in proximity.

 

I don't recall if the the rear lights are as silly as the front lights, and the switch provides Ground path.... not power.... May wanna check that.

 

This really sounds like a missing ground. Are all of the wires for the camera accounted for? Is there a ground wire? It won't ground through the reverse light ground just because you got power there. The reverse lights stay on because the ground on that circuit is right.

 

I agree with the ground idea. The camera however does not have a ground wire. I will find it online so i can show you the camera itself, maybe i missed it somehow.. Gimme a minute. If there was a ground wire though, this would be a very simple fix..

 

No problem, just trying to cover the bases. Wiring issues nearly always come down to ground issues in the end.

Back to the radio. Was the factory plug cut off? Did you use butt connectors to splice in? Does the radio display dim properly when you turn on the headlights?

 

Looking online, it appears the newer version, which i actually do have because i just bought a new camera..a tow rope snapping broke the old one.. But i just used the old wiring, the new one here
Appears as if it does actually have a ground wire now. I just need to find the box and double check that.. Which is whole different issue of figuring out what i did with that! But if it does have a ground wire, that would help a lot!