Well, it seems that I do have a bit more luck then I first thought. My replacement head unit arrived much faster then I thought it would. So I consider today Round Two of the great truck stereo battle.
Same routine as the other day. Take the entire dashboard apart and start unplugging and plugging back in. All seemed well. I had everything hooked up, but not prettied up and installed back into the dash. A few more connections and then came the test.
Same problem. No sound from the auxiliary input jacks. I said a few kind words out loud and grabbed the phone. Again. While being on hold while “Cody” was researching the problem, I started to get a bit hot under the collar. He finally came back on and discovered the problem. There were two mistakes. First, it seems that my model of Durango already has its own internal amplifier installed somewhere. Lord knows where. With the old stereo, there was a small connecting wire that lead from the main unit to that amplifier that basically told it when to turn on. That was nice. It seems that this wire was not included in the wiring diagram I got from Crutchfield. He “looked up a few manuals” and found out what wire was what. After a few snips, strips, and crimps, all was working wonderfully.
Now, I just need to read the manual and figure out this thing’s crazy menu system. But, in the end, the list of features make it all worth it.
Now, what should I buy next?