Installation: 1999 Dodge Durango with Infinity Amp

Just got done installing my friend Tod's player into his 1999 Dodge Durango. This one has the Infinity sound system, meaning it's got a factory amplifier built-in to the car. We used the PAC OEM-1 to connect the Rio Car to the factory amp and it worked like a charm. It was ridiculously easy.

Photos and notes are here.

One thing: We were hoping that his steering wheel controls could plug directly into the tuner module. However, when I hooked up my digital ohm-meter to the connector that I thought was his steering wheel control, it seemed to read random values as opposed to being steady values which changed with the button presses. So the direct approach is out, we're going to need to order a Soundgate interface to get his steering wheel controls working. So, soon enough we'll get that, too, and it will be perfect.

Nice job. To bad about the steering wheel controls. It's great they make a soundgate adaptor though. Tod, enjoy your "new" wheels!

Glad too see that this went smoothly. Yet one more piece of evidence that makes me wonder why pro install shops won't do this unless you practically hold a gun to thier heads.

Great pictures. Turns out that my Ram has the infinity speakers too, so I'll be doing the same basic install. One question though - in the pictures you said there was some confusion with the blue wire and the antenna/amp remotes.. Can you clarify what the problem/solution was? I can't quite figure it out from the picture captions. Thanks..

Can you clarify what the problem/solution was? I can't quite figure it out from the picture captions.

On the OEM-1 wiring harness there were two blue wires. One of them was pure blue, the other one was blue with a white stripe.

The instruction sheet on the OEM-1 harness very clearly stated that the pure-blue wire was the "Amplifier trigger" (sic). The Blue/white wire was said to be the "Power antenna".

Tod's car does not have a power antenna. In fact, the opposite-side harness on the OEM-1 had only an amp remote wire sticking out of it, not a power antenna connection wire. So I assumed that the power antenna wire on the OEM-1 was unused in Tod's particular case.

It seems as though the instruction sheet had them backwards. When we hooked it up, there was no sound coming out of the amplifier, because the blue-white wire was not connected to anything. Connecting the blue-white wire to the empeg's blue wire made everything work. It appears as though the blue-white wire was the amp remote wire, despite what the instructions said. So I re-soldered it so that both of the OEM-1's blue wires were connected to the empeg's blue wire (just to be absolutely sure), and now all is well.

Might be relevant

http://www.go2pac.net/pdf_files/oem1-2/oembull8.pdf

Yes, I think that's a description of the problem I encountered, and their solution is correct.

However, in their description in that bulletin, they are glossing over the fact that the instructions were flatly mis-labeled. The bulletin hints that the fault is with the head unit not having a separate antenna wire. This is not true. If I had hooked up the blue/white wire to the tuner module's antenna wire, we would have gotten no sound except when the radio was on. As I said, the instructions simply had it backwards.

Thanks, that clears it up.

By the way, I might have gotten it backwards, what I just said about the wires. I was going from memory regarding which was which (pure-blue vs. blue-white) when I made that post. In any case, I clearly remember checking the instructions and soldering the one that the instructions said was "amp trigger" to the harness, and later discovering that I needed to also solder the one that the instructions said was "power antenna" to the harness.

actually, the oem-1 is correct, it's dodge/chrysler that's wrong. I have a Sebring Conv. with the infinity sound system (my stock amp is actually under my passenger seat). It turns out they (dodge/chrysler) power the amp with the power antenna line, and don't use the 'amplifier' line. I [censored] you not.

Interesting....