Radio Gurus: See Inside

48snowman48

48snowman48

Plowboy
Joined
Nov 14, 2008
Messages
375
Can I hook an amplifier to a stock Dodge radio? The radio in my truck is fine, but I have an amplifier and a couple of 10" subs from my old truck. If possible, I would like to hook it up in this truck without losing the stock cd player.

Thanks,
John
 
If your amp has a high level input you can just tap the rear speaker wires and plug into amp. Or you can puchase a high level adaptor that accepts rca cables, tap the rear speaker wires behind the deck, and run rca to amp. Get beter sound and less interferance using rca. You will also need to run power supply to amp to turn on with radio, tap into ignition or fuse box.
 
Smoky said:
If your amp has a high level input you can just tap the rear speaker wires and plug into amp. Or you can puchase a high level adaptor that accepts rca cables, tap the rear speaker wires behind the deck, and run rca to amp. Get beter sound and less interferance using rca. You will also need to run power supply to amp to turn on with radio, tap into ignition or fuse box.
Click to expand...

x2 on this. Pretty much how to do it without an aftermarket headunit.
 
Thanks a lot guys. My brother is selling his truck (my old one) with the speakers in it, and I wanted to get them out for my truck if possible. I will go get them and check the amp.
 
Ok guys, I checked my amp, and it has a high level input port. The plug is kinda weird looking. So, do I just tap into my speaker wires and then get an adapter plug to go into the high level input? Or if I do the rca cables, where can I get an adapter to go from speaker wires to rca cables? Sorry for the ignorance on the subject.

Thanks,
John
 
My opinion here: the best way to do it is to buy an adapter you will wire into your existing system (front or rear L&R speaker wires, wichever is easiest to get to) that converts your signal into RCA cable leads. Then you run an RCA lead to your amp (remote turn on lead too if you don't already have one). These boxes are cheap $20.00 and will give you good control over volume levels. Any decent stereo shop should have one avalible for sale.
 
Your local car audio shop will have the converter box, you would have to order the plug form the amp maufacturer. You could also solder the leads to the prongs of the amp.
 
Impulse LCF-3F Line Level High Low Speaker to RCA amp adapter - converter

This what I need? Anything else? Sorry, again, I am radio stupid.

Edit: If I am looking at this right, and maybe I'm not (I'm tired) then the wires would get soldered into the high level output plug on my amp and I would need to get an adapter to go from speaker wire to rca? Is this correct?

Or do these wires tie into the speaker wires and connect to my amp via rca cables, foregoing the high level input?
 
If you tap the speaker wires behind the deck and hook up the converter box, you will need to plug rca cables into box and run to amp and you will also need to run a remote lead to turn amp on with ignition.
 
Great. Thanks for all the help. I am gonna do this as soon as I get started on putting the heaters in my seat. Do it all at once. I think I need to make a new box anyway.
 
If your Amp has high level inputs, you just need to hook speaker wires directly to those. You can tap into speaker wires to do this, no need to completly disable rear or front speakers. You will need to get the plug for the amp or solder wires to the terminals where the plug would go.
Most Chrysler radios were used in different models, some had retracting antennas. You can use the antenna retract function for a remote wire for the amp (to tell it when to turn on and off). that way the amp turns on just with the head unit, not whenever the ignition is turned on.
 
Great idea on the antenna retraction device. Thanks for all the great input, I am learning.

John
 
Well, I am finally getting around to doing my install (work has kept me very busy lately). I pulled the rear speaker today to tap into the wires to run my rca adapter to. There are 4 wires from my adapter for the wires R+, R-, L+, and L-. So, which wires should I connect to on the speaker?

efemillerhs.jpg


The infinity speaker has 4 wires from the plug, red, green, black and gray. Or should I connect after the small amp on the speaker? Colors here are white, blue, black and green. Which is the + wire and which is the - wire?

Thanks,
John
 
Guys,
Upon thinking about it for a few minutes, I hooked my test light up to the plug and turned the radio on. The plug ends corresponding to the red wire lit the light the brightest. The green and black wires lit the light, but it was fairly dim. The gray wire did not light the test light. I assumed that the red wire was a + and the gray wire was my -, so I ran my wires to the rca from the red and gray wires, pre-amp. Does this make sense, or am I wrong in my thinking? I ran out of time and just put the left side back together, so I haven't had a chance to test the setup yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top