'99 Club Cab Infinity removal quirks: Rears Don't Work

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CovenStine

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Hey All,
I'm having some trouble with my stereo re-wire.
I have a 99 club cab with the infinity option.
I swapped out the head unit a while ago, and Everything (except the steering wheel controls, obviously) worked o.k. after doing the swap.
I also replaced as both (very blown) rear speakers (in the 1/2 doors), and ran new wire into the rear b-pillar (c-pillar? whatever.) because of the wiring issues that plagued these lil' suicide doors. NEITHER of the factory (marked Chrysler/infinity) 2-way 6" speakers had an amp (OR active crossover). There was simply a signal +/- wire set going to each.
Fast forward to today, for my birthday my wife bought me a pair of composite 6x9's so I could pull my blown-sounding level-clipping infinity speakers out of my front doors.
After much cursing, and the occasional dropped door panel (yeah, good luck not dropping one working with just 1 arm, lol) I got my new tweaters, crossovers, and 6x9's mounted and wired in. I made sure to run all new wiring between (I completely bypassed the factory harness for the front channels, running the outputs directly to the new crossovers) and removed the amps that came with the factory 6x9's.
{why the factory amps run only one output that's piped to both tweeter and mid-range, I cannot fathom, but whatever}
Knowing that I hadn't seen any amps for the rear speakers either on the speakers or anywhere aft of the front seats, I decided to stop supplying power to the relay that powered the infinity Amps.

Much to my dismay, I found that the rear channels do not work whatsover unless that amp relay is energized.
Everything I've read about the 2nd gen infinity system indicates that the amps are on the speakers, so I'm miffed. I hear the amp relay activating under the dash, but I don't see anything that screams 'amp!' under there.
I'd really like to take the aftermarket Infinity Reference 3-way 6x9's I discovered in the front doors and put them in the back after I re-foam them, but if I can't get a peep out of the little 5" jobbies that are in there, it's not yet worth the effort.

I really do not like the idea of energizing the relay without understanding what's going on as a result (to me, it's like energizing the diesel heater relay after an airdog install, just a bad idea).

Can anybody suggest where I can go/look or what I can do to bypass this relay/amp/whatever? I just want my 4x50 RMS head unit to be allowed to do its job, without having to drag new wiring from the head unit to the B/C pillars.

I know I ramble, but thanks for reading all that, and for any suggestions/ideas you might have.
Cheers,
~C
 

dodge dude94

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There are no amps on the rears, only front.
I would tend to suggest your head is wired incorrectly or the wiring between your head and speakers are bad.

When my Infinity amps weren't energized, the rears would work only.
 

dudeman2009

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They way the system is run, if the relay isn't energized, the front door speakers are not powered. There are two amps on each speaker, a low range amp for the rear two door speakers, and the other for both the front door speaker and the pillar tweeters. Without power to the choke relay, you shouldn't have sound coming from any speaker. In theory, in practice you could have sound coming from any one of them if components are out of spec.

The choke relay should just be hooked up to the powered antenna out on the radio.

To test the amps on the front door speakers, find the black and red wire coming off the relay under the dash behind the cigarette tray and jump it to battery positive. This will ensure your speakers amps are hooked to battery positive.

Then on your radio set it to front left and try for sound. Repeat on the other sides. If sound doesn't come from one speaker, test that speaker individually.
If the speaker is good, your speaker with the amp may be bad, or the wiring may be bad.

I'm short on time right now so i'll leave it here. Feel free to ask any more questions.
 
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CovenStine

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Hello, and thanks for the suggestions!
I'm quite confident that my aftermarket head is wired correctly, because when the amp-choke-relay is energized, all four speakers respond to their respective balance/fade commands as they ought.
So, are you saying that the front AND rear signals used to be sent to the 6x9 amps, which then discretely amp'ed the 6x9 signal, the tweeter signal, and the rear half-door signal? Or that the rears were amplified by the factory head?
Unfortunately, the front door speakers amplifying the rears doesn't really make sense to me, because the factory speakers/amps are disconnected at the ~10 pin plug on the door (and are no longer available). That being said, all four speakers work IF the amp relay is energized. I figure there's gotta be something I'm missing, but if the rear door speakers that I replaced do not work whatsoever if the choke relay is not energized, but appear to have had no in-door amps themselves, what's keeping the head unit's amplified signal from reaching the rear speakers?
Unless that 'choke relay' is controlling +12v for the amps AND signal +/- for all four channels (like, as a 9-channel relay...) I don't see how that's possible...
My other thought was that there was a weird rear-channel amp hidden somewhere in the dash during a small part of the 99 run, but that seems counter-intuitive.

Anyway, I appreciate your help!
Let me know if you have any further suggestions.
 

dudeman2009

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What i'm saying is, all audio signals should be run through the front door speakers.
 
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CovenStine

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Wow; you can tell life got REALLY busy...
So, all audio signal STOCK ran through the front door speakers.
I've replaced the head unit, and the door/pillar components, but as well as the rear speakers (which had no amps in the doors)
What's confusing me is that the rear speakers don't work without the 'amp' signal energized even though the front speakers have no amps anymore. Do I just need to completely rewire the rears to bypass this mysterious 'choke relay,' or can it be removed. if so, where on earth is the dang thing?
Thanks for your help (a year later... my bad)
 

dudeman2009

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You've replaced the front door speakers and the rears only work when the choke relay is energized? That shouldn't be happening, the choke relay doesn't come into any contact with the audio signal. All it does is supply fused 10A 12V to the black/red wires in the door panels, nothing else.

In the door panels, when you removed the factory speakers you not only have to connect the new ones to the proper wiring, you must also splice the wires for the rear speakers back together. The wiring for the rear door speakers runs into then back out of the front doors.

I re-read everything, and it seems you put aftermarket speakers in the front doors, and just ran new wires to them. Those seem to be working fine period. If i'm reading right, you just left the factory connectors sitting in the door there and left them alone. The only way that applying power to the choke relay would cause the rear speakers to work, is if you pulled the amps out of the old speakers and just left them in the doors still hooked up.

If you have run your own wires to the front door speakers, I'd suggest pulling the door panels again and cutting the specific wires off that harness for the rear doors, and splicing them together.

Specifically the wires you want are as follows:
All wires are to be cut from the 10 pin connector, or jumped with jumper links. Jump or splice the negatives and positives together.

Brown/Light Blue (left rear Neg.)
Brown/Yellow (left rear Pos.)
White/Dark Green (left rear Neg.)
White/Violet (left rear Pos.)

Dark Blue/Orange (right rear Neg.)
Dark Blue/White (right rear Pos.)
Tank/Black (right rear Neg.)
Tan/Violet (right rear Pos.)

Splicing these wires together will put the output of the head unit straight to the rear speakers.
 
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CovenStine

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You've replaced the front door speakers and the rears only work when the choke relay is energized? That shouldn't be happening, the choke relay doesn't come into any contact with the audio signal.
That, there is the entire reason for my confusion...
The previous owner replaced the 6x9's but kept the head & amp's; I replaced the head, pulled the amp's, and put in component's.
In so doing, the amps are unplugged & gone, but somehow the choke relay still controls the rears. Which makes no frickin' sense.
I'll jump the connectors as you suggest... I really appreciate your time! Thanks!
~C

PS: DodgeDude: Great avatar
 

dudeman2009

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That, there is the entire reason for my confusion...
The previous owner replaced the 6x9's but kept the head & amp's; I replaced the head, pulled the amp's, and put in component's.
In so doing, the amps are unplugged & gone, but somehow the choke relay still controls the rears. Which makes no frickin' sense.
I'll jump the connectors as you suggest... I really appreciate your time! Thanks!
~C

PS: DodgeDude: Great avatar

The front 6x9s have integrated amps, you cannot remove the amps from the speakers without tearing them apart. if thats what he did, then who knows what else he screwed with. All you can do is jump the connectors like you planned and hope for the best.
 
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CovenStine

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Now that I'm finally trying to get back to using my truck after some mechanical issues (thanks again Dudeman), and while I had the front door panels off to replace the mirrors (having a hard time separating the coincidence that the mirror holder fell off the day I brought it back from the shop, from the idea that it's the shop's fault somehow)...
I finally dug out my soldering iron and spliced the wires as directed- worked like a charm. Thank you very much!
Still don't understand the choke relay behavior, but it's working, that's all I wanted at the end of the day.
Later!
~C
 
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