Dodge Solid State Radio

Garp · Post by **Garp** » Wed Jul 19, 17 7:05 pm

Hi all,
So the next little thing on my list is to get my radio working. The dash speaker is still in-situ and looks fine.
i have two rear speakers to fit below the rear window ( 200W each is slightly more powerful than factory spec' but I had them lying around from my old VW camper).
Question is this:
Currently unconnected I have a block with RED and ORANGE - I believe this to be power and the RED to be Positive - sadly the block that mates with it is nowhere in the birds nest under the steering , so I'll just have to splice her in.
Ariel is brand new and has correct input for the ariel plug at the rear of the radio.
Then I have another block with a green wire and a black wire - my guess here is that with two wires, we are talking a MONO signal
I will have to split it to go rear, is the black the COMMON or the green ?
After I have figured this out, I am planning to solder a jack input direct to the volume pot so I can use an ipod/old phone on longer journeys.
Has anyone done anything similar - I know, I could just go to Maplin and buy a new car stereo but I want it to at least look original.
Answers on a postcard to .......

Gareth · Post by **Gareth** » Wed Jul 19, 17 7:27 pm

You can download a wiring diagram from this link to help work out which wire to cut

http://www.mymopar.com/index.php?pid=28

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Wed Jul 19, 17 7:29 pm

All I can tell you for sure is the orange connects to the dash lights. I don't know much about these things but I didn't think it was just a case of plugging in an iPod to an old radio, will it be able to understand the signal? Watching with interest, I wanted to do something similar.

Garp · Post by **Garp** » Wed Jul 19, 17 7:41 pm

Blue wrote:All I can tell you for sure is the orange connects to the dash lights. I don't know much about these things but I didn't think it was just a case of plugging in an iPod to an old radio, will it be able to understand the signal? Watching with interest, I wanted to do something similar.

Blue
That'd make sense as the dash lights all run off the orange and earth locally.
I guess it's for the light at the radio front ?????
The iPod plugs into a female jack which you solder/wire direct to the volume pot behind the front knob - no digital trickery, basically just making an aux/line in to the radio preamp. In theory (I'm more sound engineer than mechanic) plugging in the external source locks out the radio signal and feeds direct.
Obviously, I'm yet to try this ......

db · Post by db » Wed Jul 19, 17 8:01 pm

The orange is for the lamp.
The red is positive to the radio.

Garp · Post by **Garp** » Wed Jul 19, 17 8:16 pm

db wrote:The orange is for the lamp.
The red is positive to the radio.

Is there an earth to the radio or is it the connection to the dash metal like everything else ?
Any news on the speaker wiring ?

db · Post by db » Wed Jul 19, 17 9:56 pm

Oh yeah sorry!
Green and black are speaker wires, black is earthed to the radio chassis.

Garp · Post by **Garp** » Wed Jul 19, 17 10:16 pm

db wrote:Oh yeah sorry!
Green and black are speaker wires, black is earthed to the radio chassis.

" and the radio chassis is, in turn, earthed to the dash?"
Sorry to be a pain in the arse - so black would therefore end up Common to all speakers ?
That would mean in order to run both one dash and two rear speakers i'd have to take green three ways as well as black ?
Totally understand that this will just be a mono feed ....... unless there is a wire i've not found yet ??

db · Post by db » Wed Jul 19, 17 11:06 pm

By my limited understanding yes. Presumably you could just chassis earth one side of each speaker but I bet you'd get interference.
I've only learned this much as I had a box of old Mopar radios I was trying to fix, with varied success...