Warning: I am female, so prepared for long boring story ahead.<br /><br />I am a single Mom and had to start learning repairs on my own. [Fear not, I was taught how to change a tire before all this. Lol.]<br /><br />I bought my Dodge in February of 2017. The radio stopped working two days after I bought it. It was after market. It just went to static. I eventually got it playing but it would cut off whenever I would raise the volume. My truck eventually killed it.<br /><br />Now the fun part.<br /><br />I was given another after market radio, which was the same one as the first, but the illumination was a different color. I bought a new wiring harness and rewired the internal stuff. I was told to ground the wire to a screw in the dash. I did. The radio was working great! [Yay. Tunes.] But the next day, I noticed I was smelling burning metal (like what you smell when operating a soldering iron on a motherboard). I pulled over, took the dash trim out, removed the radio and it was white-hot, to the touch, where the antenna wire was plugged in. I also noticed my battery in my truck was slowly dying and died altogether. I found out my alternator was fried in addition to the battery.<br /><br />I installed the new alternator myself. [Yay. Girl power.] But this is after my truck sat for a month, broke down. I have not put a radio back in, since.<br /><br />The pros in my area who trouble shoot that sort of thing charge an arm and a leg just to look at it.<br /><br />Now I have bought a brand new radio, but I am scared to install it. I am waiting on stuff to come i the mail, like an antenna that can be installed anywhere, a teeny little amp, teeny little speakers with wiring, RCA cables, a 12v battery to use as a power cell, red/black/yellow wiring extensions, wiring nuts, disconnect battery connectors, a charger for the battery, and something else, I forgot.<br /><br />But my question is how do I bypass the battery in the truck without sacrificing the speakers? Also, where is a good route for grounding the battery to the chassis? That information appears to be nowhere online.<br /><br />Any info is appreciated.

 

I can't even read that......