How to Replace Stereo 1994-2002 Dodge Ram 1500

Hey friends, it's Len here at 1A Auto. Today we're going to be working on our 1996 Dodge Ram 1500 and I want to show you something fairly basic. Removing and reinstalling an automotive stereo. Can be super easy. I can do it and you can do it too. As always, if you need any parts, you can check us out at 1aauto.com. Thanks.

Okay, friends, so we're inside the vehicle. We have a clear view of our dash plate here. Plastic. You can give it a little tug. The majority of it will break free just like that. Okay. But you'll notice as you get along to this side, it seems like it's kind of stuck in there, isn't it? Huh? It's not that big of a deal. Just grab this, pull it out of here. You're going to notice you have a Phillips head and a Phillips head. We'll remove those. One, two. Both of those are the same. Put those where we can't lose them. Pull this right out of here. There's going to be a couple more screws up here. These ones are a little bit harder to get to, but can be done. Same as the others. There's one on this side, of course. Just going to pull out this whole unit here. There's our little cup holder tray. Awesome.

All right, so now we're just going to run our fingers along the side. Awesome. Okay. Pardon the noise. Get that out of the way. This should lift right up. Awesome. Just got a little bit of wiring here. Just disconnect that one. So now we'll just take this off. Just grab this little tab and this little tab. Come on baby. I lift one, the other one goes on there. Oh. Okay. There's that. Awesome. Let's get this out of the way.

All right, so now that our face plate's off, we have a clear view of what's holding the stereo in. You have a mounting bolt here and another mounting bolt there. We're going to use a 10 millimeter, something just like this, and we'll take these right out. That's what one looks. Bolt number two, same as the first. Awesome. We'll set these aside, grab our stereo, give it a nice little wiggle. We want to be careful because it does have electrical components plugged into it. See how far it can come out to show you. Awesome. Look at that. Cool. So you have your electrical back here. The antenna is right here. That doesn't really come out very far, so that's why I kind of stopped. But it just plugs into right there. It's very basic. You can disconnect your electrical connectors. There's a little tab right here. I'm just going to lift up on that. Give this a nice little tug. It should want to come right out. We'll do the same thing for this one. And it's nice because this is a gray. This is gray. This one's black, that's black. Can't mix them up.

Pull that off of there. You have your ground wire. Use your 10 millimeter again. There's our bolt. Just going to put it here so I don't lose it. And that my friends is how you take out your stereo.

So we're going to take our bolt, go right through the ground wire, right to the back of the stereo. Snug this up. I'm just going to put it so it's kind of [inaudible 00:04:53] off to the side a little bit, just because when I tighten it up it turns a little bit. That's nice. Black to black, gray to gray. This is going to be the hard part. We're going to slide this in, but now we need to get the antenna cable onto the back of the stereo so you're not going to be able to see what I'm doing, but you're going to have to imagine I have my antenna cable in my hand. I'm just coming through the ashtray area. It's right here. Okay.

I'm going to feel around, I'm going to find the hole in the back of the stereo, which is just up on the top right. I'm just going to slide it in. Once we get our stereo in a little bit. There we go. I can feel right where it goes. I'm just going to slide it in, make sure I get it in there as far as it can go. It might feel like it stops, but you need to make sure that you get it in all the way. So just give it a little extra. Slide this into place, just like that. That one's lined up. That one's lined up. Grab our mounting screws. Start one in.Do this one. Those are tight. Awesome. Can move on to the next step.

All right, so it's time to get our face plate on. I'm just going to go right over here. Just bring it down. We'll rest it there for a second. Come right over here. We'll connect this in. It's very basic. You just line it up. Give it a squeeze. Locks right in. We've got this one, it'll go right like that. That slides in, easy peasy. Take the face plate, carefully line it up with where it belongs. That looks pretty great. Give it a loving bonk. Love it. Let's get a couple of screws in. We can move along.

All right, so let's get this in here. Just going to slide it in. Theoretically, it should want to just go in there. Two mounting screws. All right. Some people call it an ashtray. It's more of a change tray for me, but everybody's got their thing. Awesome. All right, so we've got our cup holder. You've got the little tab right here. That tab has to go under this right here. So as you slide this in, you just pay attention to the bottom. That looks pretty good. It looks as though the screw holes are lined up. That's great. Oops, they were lined up. Try again. Just got to get it in there. Get that one started. Get this one over here. Both are started. Let's snug them up. Awesome.

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