03 Ram Cummins with Infinity sound...

PoweredByDodge

What's the deal with the 03 Ram (the new body style - first year the HD got the new body) that has the Infinity head with the 7 speaker deal...

It has 3.5's in the dash stock, 6x9's (or at least I think they're 6x9's) in the front doors stock, and then 6.5's or whatever in the rear doors stock... Supposely there's a 7th speaker somewhere... where? I don't know.

So... Can I wire a deck right into this thing, or is this a funny 'factory amps are hidden somewhere' thing?

And what the hell is the 7th speaker ?????

I'm trying to just swap out the head unit - keep the stock speakers (all of them - unless there's a sub somewhere, I'd like to disconnect it) and then dump a 10" sub under the seat...

Just need wisdom on the head -- it's not my truck, so I want a little info before I rip it apart.

exalted512

some you have to bypass the amp, some you dont. You have 6x9s up front, 6.5s in the back, and the rest of the speakers are in the panel thats close to the windshield. That panel just pops off all the way across. 7th speaker should be in the middle of that panel if i remember right...

If you do have to bypass the amp, its behind the glove box.
-Cody

LF Speaker +/- lt. grn/red - lt. grn/grn
RF Speaker +/- lt. blu/pur - lt. blu/blk
LR Speaker +/- wht/red - wht/blk
RR Speaker +/- tan/pur - tan/blk

PoweredByDodge

cody - problem is, they're roughly 2.5 ohm speakers ... and its a 6 speaker system rather than a 4 speaker system -- what i mean is that the dash / front door speakers aren't on the same 'channel' -- rather, they are crossed over inside the amplifier and then the amp has 6 outputs instead of 4 ... the center speaker takes the (-) from the right channel and the (+) from the left channel and gives a mono center channel sound (weird).

i found a wiring diagram - believe it or not - in the shop manual.

everything looks simple to tie into the amp except one thing.

there is a wire called "PCI BUS"... apparently there is a multiplexer that ties into the radio and the amp and does something -- god knows what....

MacLeod

Glad to see ya back Vinny! Ya shouldnt stay away so long.

My guess would be the 7th speaker would be a sub. Only place I can think they would put it would be the center console maybe.

The rear speakers are 5.25's

exalted512

are you sure the door speakers arent tied in with the dash ones?
Disconnect the speakers on the dash and see if the front doors still play.
-Cody

jroberts_101

my friend and i just installed a mtx thunderform sub box perfectly under the back seat. you can buy it from crutchfield and its 2 10" MTX subs pre-amped and everything if you want.

Custom Jim

I can't remember what year but it was either a 2004 or 2005 Dodge Ram Viper and the customer originally wanted to keep the factory radio, add some Polk amplifiers, subs, and replace all the factory speakers except the dash ones and it seems to me I used a harness adaptor (BHO1818 from Aamp Of America) to get into the factory radio to power it up and also have speaker outputs off of it and then used another adaptor (the BHA1818 also from Aamp) to plug into the factory radio harness end for power and grounds to connect to the BHO1818 but since we were running amplifiers I had to bypass the factory 6 channel amp behind the glove box (picture link below) and the factory 10" sub and amp was simply unplugged and removed. I also used line level adaptors to knock down the signal from the factory radio to use with the C400.4's input (the C400.4 "says" you can run high level speaker lines into it but you cannot so the external LOC's were needed and used).

If I were to make a confident statement about the factory radio I think the outputs of the factory radio are around 6 watts or so just like the older Chrysler radio's that were tied into coax speakers like in the door that had the amplifiers on the speaker frame (first generation Infinity systems). The power of the radio went to the tweeter and then was Y'd off to go to the small amp on the speaker frame that was then wired to the woofer portion.

I would do this, get the harness adaptor (Aamp part # BHA1818) and the correct dash kit and antenna adaptor and wire up the new radio's speaker outputs to the adaptor and I'm pretty certain it will work (don't forget to hook up the power antenna wire even though the truck might not have one as this is to turn on the factory amp). If it doesn't work we can do some more research into the installation but at least nothing has been cut and the factory system can be made to function again easily.

Here's a picture of the plugs and how I tapped into them on the amplifier behind the glove box:

http://image63.webshots.com/63/9/45/0/426794500HyuRzO_ph.jpg

I also have some more pictures at home that I can post later of the install.

Jim

dudeinaroom

some of the dodge/infinty setup have amps right on the back of the speaker, might wanna give it a look

Vestax

dudeinaroom wrote:

some of the dodge/infinty setup have amps right on the back of the speaker, might wanna give it a look

That is true, I have run into a few with the stock amps right on the speaker. This would make it easier to bypass the amp if you ever to decide to install an aftermarket HU.

PoweredByDodge

i looked in my trusty factory service manual (which since i have a 2003 also, works for his too)... and this is what i found.

factory speaker impedance is " ~2 ohms" -- ya -- "about" 2 ohms. go figure.

the 7th speaker is actually a center channel speaker in the middle of the dash - it is a 2.5" that is run off the + left channel and - right channel.

the factory radio has 4 outputs to the factory amp ... + and - for front left, rear left, front right, rear right.

the amp takes the radio's high level signal and knocks it down, then it has a crossover built internal that provides about 1000 hertz to the 3.5" dash speakers at left and right (and the middle one) and below 1000 hertz to the door speakers (6x9's). the rears are full range. the amp is behind the glove box.

the amp has two harnesses going into it... just speaker inputs, 12v power, ground, speaker outs, and then the 12V remote turn on from the factory radio and a 'datalink' wire.

now the radio has a data link wire too -- these go to a multiplexor and bus... the one going to the radio is for the input of steering wheel controls - but he doesn't have wheel controls so its a dead line... the one to the amp is actually a error code wire... if the amp takes a ****, it'll spit out an engine code telling you that the amp has overheated or whatever. the radio's link wire and the amp's link wire are in no way connected...

so -- i should be able to rip out the factory deck, use the aftermarket deck's remote turn on wire to trigger the factory amp, leave factory amp and speakers alone, and then use the RCA's from the aftermarket deck to the amp and subwoofer.

we mounted amp and sub today - and ran the lines... its a 250 watt amp and a 12" sub mounted into the two "cubby holes" under the rear seats.. looks like it "belongs" there... i'm really hapy with how that turned out -- i'll tackle the deck once the dash kit and antenna adapter shows up in a couple days -- sounddomain only wanted 16 bucks for both whereas circuit city wants over 40.... so i figure we can wait a few days.

i'm going to use a 1st order cap on the front door speakers at about 125 hertz... that'll give me a realistic cutoff of around 60 or 70 - that should keep them from vibrating the panels to hell. the rears dont produce enough bass to rattle the panels so those will be left alone...

i will definately let you guys know how it turns out

thanks.

raminator157

Can you post your pictures? I have a 05 Ram with the Infitney system. And mine does not have the amp turn on wire and I can not find it.

Custom Jim wrote: »

I can't remember what year but it was either a 2004 or 2005 Dodge Ram Viper and the customer originally wanted to keep the factory radio, add some Polk amplifiers, subs, and replace all the factory speakers except the dash ones and it seems to me I used a harness adaptor (BHO1818 from Aamp Of America) to get into the factory radio to power it up and also have speaker outputs off of it and then used another adaptor (the BHA1818 also from Aamp) to plug into the factory radio harness end for power and grounds to connect to the BHO1818 but since we were running amplifiers I had to bypass the factory 6 channel amp behind the glove box (picture link below) and the factory 10" sub and amp was simply unplugged and removed. I also used line level adaptors to knock down the signal from the factory radio to use with the C400.4's input (the C400.4 "says" you can run high level speaker lines into it but you cannot so the external LOC's were needed and used).

If I were to make a confident statement about the factory radio I think the outputs of the factory radio are around 6 watts or so just like the older Chrysler radio's that were tied into coax speakers like in the door that had the amplifiers on the speaker frame (first generation Infinity systems). The power of the radio went to the tweeter and then was Y'd off to go to the small amp on the speaker frame that was then wired to the woofer portion.

I would do this, get the harness adaptor (Aamp part # BHA1818) and the correct dash kit and antenna adaptor and wire up the new radio's speaker outputs to the adaptor and I'm pretty certain it will work (don't forget to hook up the power antenna wire even though the truck might not have one as this is to turn on the factory amp). If it doesn't work we can do some more research into the installation but at least nothing has been cut and the factory system can be made to function again easily.

Here's a picture of the plugs and how I tapped into them on the amplifier behind the glove box:

http://image63.webshots.com/63/9/45/0/426794500HyuRzO_ph.jpg

I also have some more pictures at home that I can post later of the install.

Jim

exalted512

The factory amp is above the glove box, you can bypass it there. There is a harness that has RCA preouts that you can plug into your aftermarket radio as well.
-Cody