1994 ram Infinity 4way rewire made easy
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Joined: Nov 2007
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1994 ram Infinity 4way rewire made easy
Howdy,
OK, I've been through this about a dozen times and couldn't find any threads that held the info I needed... so I did it myself and now I am sharing with you guys.
If you have the 2nd gen pickup with a 4-way powered infinity sound system and want to use the facotry speakers (if you're like me and just wanted to add an MP-3 player but don't need 1000watts in your reg cab truck) then here's a couple tips.
First, if you don't know what you have... the infinity speakers will be labeled and moreover they have an amplifier attatched to the speaker baskets and the plugs have 4 wires in them. Well, what I figured out is that they are taking power and ground as well as the speaker input through that plug.
It looks like the original tape deck acted as thepower distributionin the old configuration; so to overcome this I routed power and ground through the factory harness (behind the new radio) from a switched and fused 12v lead . It is important that it be switched with the key or it will have power on all the time. Bad Idea unless you like dead batteries.
I got a little fancy and used a20amp relay and the fused power comes straight from the battery via 12 ga wire.I'm sure there are other ways to do it, butI just don't want to be repalcing fuses all the time from tapping into an existing circuit. Plus, it takes about15 minutes to run a wire and connect the relay, so it's better than using the key switch or somethign from the fuse box that will constantly blow. ANYWAY...
Once I ran power, I just sent the head unit signal through the factory harness with an adapter from wal-mart (scosche). The speakers get loud fast... here's a tip that I didn't think about untill afterwards... consider using a line converter to reduce the AC voltage output (speaker signal) from the head unit to reduce the chance of overloading the amp input stage. I just don't ever turn up my radio very loud so as to try and prevent said occurence.
If you want to keep the speakers, but use an external amp... you just unsolder the amp wiring and go straight to the back of the speaker. If you have the tweeters like I do, then you can do the same thing, but don't bypass the hi-pass filter cap (about 6 inches down from the tweeter) or it'll sound aweful.
Something else to consider... Use the radio outs on just the tweeters in the a-pillar and the 5.25"s in the rear and add some hi-end 6"x9"s on an external amp. Would probably sound even better. I just wanted to see if these infinities were worth salvaging, and they are pretty good considering I didn't have to spend any money on them. I may experiment some more since I have a lot of odds and ends pieces laying around. I'll post more as this monstrosity of mine progresses.
I have built a number of high-end stereos in the past (as most of you DIY guys probably have), and I think I'll stick with a rewired stock system (for now). Hope this was helpful to anyone who (like me) pulled off the door panel and went "WTF?!?!?"...
OK, I've been through this about a dozen times and couldn't find any threads that held the info I needed... so I did it myself and now I am sharing with you guys.
If you have the 2nd gen pickup with a 4-way powered infinity sound system and want to use the facotry speakers (if you're like me and just wanted to add an MP-3 player but don't need 1000watts in your reg cab truck) then here's a couple tips.
First, if you don't know what you have... the infinity speakers will be labeled and moreover they have an amplifier attatched to the speaker baskets and the plugs have 4 wires in them. Well, what I figured out is that they are taking power and ground as well as the speaker input through that plug.
It looks like the original tape deck acted as thepower distributionin the old configuration; so to overcome this I routed power and ground through the factory harness (behind the new radio) from a switched and fused 12v lead . It is important that it be switched with the key or it will have power on all the time. Bad Idea unless you like dead batteries.
I got a little fancy and used a20amp relay and the fused power comes straight from the battery via 12 ga wire.I'm sure there are other ways to do it, butI just don't want to be repalcing fuses all the time from tapping into an existing circuit. Plus, it takes about15 minutes to run a wire and connect the relay, so it's better than using the key switch or somethign from the fuse box that will constantly blow. ANYWAY...
Once I ran power, I just sent the head unit signal through the factory harness with an adapter from wal-mart (scosche). The speakers get loud fast... here's a tip that I didn't think about untill afterwards... consider using a line converter to reduce the AC voltage output (speaker signal) from the head unit to reduce the chance of overloading the amp input stage. I just don't ever turn up my radio very loud so as to try and prevent said occurence.
If you want to keep the speakers, but use an external amp... you just unsolder the amp wiring and go straight to the back of the speaker. If you have the tweeters like I do, then you can do the same thing, but don't bypass the hi-pass filter cap (about 6 inches down from the tweeter) or it'll sound aweful.
Something else to consider... Use the radio outs on just the tweeters in the a-pillar and the 5.25"s in the rear and add some hi-end 6"x9"s on an external amp. Would probably sound even better. I just wanted to see if these infinities were worth salvaging, and they are pretty good considering I didn't have to spend any money on them. I may experiment some more since I have a lot of odds and ends pieces laying around. I'll post more as this monstrosity of mine progresses.
I have built a number of high-end stereos in the past (as most of you DIY guys probably have), and I think I'll stick with a rewired stock system (for now). Hope this was helpful to anyone who (like me) pulled off the door panel and went "WTF?!?!?"...