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Head Unit install, no sound HELP!
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<blockquote data-quote="Carbon Summit" data-source="post: 5206996" data-attributes="member: 603964"><p>Ok, I’ve messed with this simple install for more hours than I’ll admit at this point!! I’ll try to outline what I have and what I’ve done up to this point. Sorry it turned into a small novel but I figure the more details the better. I’m hoping someone sees the obvious I missed and this will be an easy fix.</p><p></p><p>The horror started when I decide to buy a cheap car to drive to work and save a little wear and tear on my truck and of course save gas. I purchased a 1986 Chevy Spectrum. The prior owner took out the entire stereo he had in it so I got it with cut up factory harness and that’s it.</p><p></p><p>I went to Best Buy and bought four cheap speakers and a cheap head unit. A JVC KD-G140 if that helps.</p><p></p><p>I used the battery that I took out of my camper for the winter as a power source and bench tested everything and all worked fine and went to install the system in the car.</p><p></p><p>I decided to avoid the factory harness. I taped off all the cut wires and don’t think my problem is with the harness. It isn’t hooked to a radio on one end and there are no speakers on the other end. Just wires sitting there. The two hot wires in the harness are now taped off but were hot when I taped them. My thinking there is if they were grounding out the fuse for that line would have popped so that must be ok. If I’m missing something here please let me know.</p><p></p><p>I ran new speaker wire to the four new speakers. At first when I installed the first head unit I tapped in to the hot wire attached to the cigarette lighter. It’s on the same fuse as the radio and it was conveniently located so I used it since it was switched by the ignition. I ran another wire from the fuse box that was always hot for the memory. At first I grounded the head unit underneath the dash. When the weirdness started I tried a few other spots including the negative wire that was hooked to the cigarette lighter. When I plugged in the harness to the head unit the display would work but no sound. I assume there was a problem with my quick wire job so I check everything from the harness to the speakers. Nothing was wrong.</p><p></p><p>My thought was other than the two hot wires and the ground really there should be no difference between the system sitting on my bench or in the car unless a speaker wire got nicked and was grounding out. I unhooked the two hot and ground wires and hooked them to the camper battery again leaving everything else installed in the car and all work like it should. I thought maybe I didn’t have a good ground when in the car so I messed around trying different things and in the end when the head unit is hooked to car power it wouldn’t play music but it does everything else like load the a CD, etc. I wired the head unit directly to the battery both hot and ground and the same problem. The pre amp outs work but the speaker wires don’t. If I unhook the battery from the car and wire the head unit directly to the battery it works fine.</p><p></p><p>Somewhere along the line I noticed that when I hook the antenna to the head unit it the music stops coming from the speaker wires too. The antenna goes up the windshield/door pillar and comes out a hole in the roof. I unscrewed it to inspect it thinking that it is cut somewhere and grounding out. It isn’t. The screws that attach it to the roof ground it out. If I take the screws out and pull up on it so the base isn’t touching the car and it works fine again.</p><p></p><p>I messed around trying to figure out what was going on and then the head unit wouldn’t even work when hooked directly to a battery without the car. I figured that something must have been wrong with the head unit and it finally died. When I say won’t work I mean produce sound. It always did light up and function like it should other than sound. Even the pre amp outs worked in the end just not the speaker wires.</p><p></p><p>I brought the head unit back and got another figuring the problem would be solved. Same problems with the new head unit as with the old one.</p><p></p><p>I’ve got an old Alpine amp so I got that out and hooked all the speaker wires too it and powered it with my camper battery. I used my laptop as a source and everything worked great. If I remember right if something wasn’t hooked up right the amp has a square led that usually lights up green would turn orange and shut the power off. Next I hooked the amp directly to the car’s battery with the battery connected to the car. Everything worked fine??? This is what I can’t figure out. Why will the amp work connected to the car’s battery but not the head unit? Next I hooked the head unit to the amp with the preamp outs and everything works like it should.</p><p></p><p>Everything working gave me hope so I unhooked the amp from everything and hooked the speakers back to the speaker wire outs on the head unit and…</p><p></p><p>NO SOUND!!!!!</p><p></p><p>So I’m at a loss. The amp works hooked to the cars battery but the head unit doesn’t??? I don’t want to install the amp in the car because I want a basic cheap setup that when I sell the car I just leave everything in and walk away. At this point I’m about ready to give up and a. install the amp or b. put my camper battery in the car as a second battery independent of the car and charge it from time to time. Ok, the second battery sounds like a pain so maybe I’ll just install the amp if worst comes to worst. The second battery would be nice because if I ever figure out what is causing this problem I then can just move the power and ground from the extra battery to the car battery and be done with it but if I install the amp I’ve got to rewire everything again under the dash.</p><p></p><p>Anyone have any ideas? This should have been an hour install at the extreme most but it has turned in to many hours and trips to the store. As for the suggestions the head unit doesn’t have the power ic setting and I’ve check the resistance both before I connected the speakers to the harness and after I hooked the speakers to the harness and both are good. Two head units with new harnesses so the problem isn’t with the head unit. Its something in that evil car!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Carbon Summit, post: 5206996, member: 603964"] Ok, I’ve messed with this simple install for more hours than I’ll admit at this point!! I’ll try to outline what I have and what I’ve done up to this point. Sorry it turned into a small novel but I figure the more details the better. I’m hoping someone sees the obvious I missed and this will be an easy fix. The horror started when I decide to buy a cheap car to drive to work and save a little wear and tear on my truck and of course save gas. I purchased a 1986 Chevy Spectrum. The prior owner took out the entire stereo he had in it so I got it with cut up factory harness and that’s it. I went to Best Buy and bought four cheap speakers and a cheap head unit. A JVC KD-G140 if that helps. I used the battery that I took out of my camper for the winter as a power source and bench tested everything and all worked fine and went to install the system in the car. I decided to avoid the factory harness. I taped off all the cut wires and don’t think my problem is with the harness. It isn’t hooked to a radio on one end and there are no speakers on the other end. Just wires sitting there. The two hot wires in the harness are now taped off but were hot when I taped them. My thinking there is if they were grounding out the fuse for that line would have popped so that must be ok. If I’m missing something here please let me know. I ran new speaker wire to the four new speakers. At first when I installed the first head unit I tapped in to the hot wire attached to the cigarette lighter. It’s on the same fuse as the radio and it was conveniently located so I used it since it was switched by the ignition. I ran another wire from the fuse box that was always hot for the memory. At first I grounded the head unit underneath the dash. When the weirdness started I tried a few other spots including the negative wire that was hooked to the cigarette lighter. When I plugged in the harness to the head unit the display would work but no sound. I assume there was a problem with my quick wire job so I check everything from the harness to the speakers. Nothing was wrong. My thought was other than the two hot wires and the ground really there should be no difference between the system sitting on my bench or in the car unless a speaker wire got nicked and was grounding out. I unhooked the two hot and ground wires and hooked them to the camper battery again leaving everything else installed in the car and all work like it should. I thought maybe I didn’t have a good ground when in the car so I messed around trying different things and in the end when the head unit is hooked to car power it wouldn’t play music but it does everything else like load the a CD, etc. I wired the head unit directly to the battery both hot and ground and the same problem. The pre amp outs work but the speaker wires don’t. If I unhook the battery from the car and wire the head unit directly to the battery it works fine. Somewhere along the line I noticed that when I hook the antenna to the head unit it the music stops coming from the speaker wires too. The antenna goes up the windshield/door pillar and comes out a hole in the roof. I unscrewed it to inspect it thinking that it is cut somewhere and grounding out. It isn’t. The screws that attach it to the roof ground it out. If I take the screws out and pull up on it so the base isn’t touching the car and it works fine again. I messed around trying to figure out what was going on and then the head unit wouldn’t even work when hooked directly to a battery without the car. I figured that something must have been wrong with the head unit and it finally died. When I say won’t work I mean produce sound. It always did light up and function like it should other than sound. Even the pre amp outs worked in the end just not the speaker wires. I brought the head unit back and got another figuring the problem would be solved. Same problems with the new head unit as with the old one. I’ve got an old Alpine amp so I got that out and hooked all the speaker wires too it and powered it with my camper battery. I used my laptop as a source and everything worked great. If I remember right if something wasn’t hooked up right the amp has a square led that usually lights up green would turn orange and shut the power off. Next I hooked the amp directly to the car’s battery with the battery connected to the car. Everything worked fine??? This is what I can’t figure out. Why will the amp work connected to the car’s battery but not the head unit? Next I hooked the head unit to the amp with the preamp outs and everything works like it should. Everything working gave me hope so I unhooked the amp from everything and hooked the speakers back to the speaker wire outs on the head unit and… NO SOUND!!!!! So I’m at a loss. The amp works hooked to the cars battery but the head unit doesn’t??? I don’t want to install the amp in the car because I want a basic cheap setup that when I sell the car I just leave everything in and walk away. At this point I’m about ready to give up and a. install the amp or b. put my camper battery in the car as a second battery independent of the car and charge it from time to time. Ok, the second battery sounds like a pain so maybe I’ll just install the amp if worst comes to worst. The second battery would be nice because if I ever figure out what is causing this problem I then can just move the power and ground from the extra battery to the car battery and be done with it but if I install the amp I’ve got to rewire everything again under the dash. Anyone have any ideas? This should have been an hour install at the extreme most but it has turned in to many hours and trips to the store. As for the suggestions the head unit doesn’t have the power ic setting and I’ve check the resistance both before I connected the speakers to the harness and after I hooked the speakers to the harness and both are good. Two head units with new harnesses so the problem isn’t with the head unit. Its something in that evil car! [/QUOTE]
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