I've had two CD players for a long time now. One has been installed in my vehicle, but at one point just quit working. I figured I'd get around to fixing it at some point....probably just a fuse or bad connection as it wasn't getting power. The other player a fellow gave to me and I've had it sitting in my closet until I decided to swap my first one out with it. So, a couple days ago I decide it's time....to either fix the first or swap it out for the second. Both players worked just fine, but now neither will power up. I've tested and retested all of my connections with a volt meter using voltage and ohms. I have power to the player and two good grounds.....one to the battery and the other to the body. The red wire is the hot, the black goes to the body, and the yellow (with that little black plastic inline box) to the neg. from the battery. BUT!..neither will turn on! I'm no electronics wiz, but this isn't rocket science. Still, I figure I must be doing something wrong because I can't believe both are bad when both used to work. What am I missing..if anything? At this point, my power is coming directly through the battery and not the ignition or accessary circuit. What should I look for?

 

The red and Yellow are both power wires. One is for Constant power (memory, should be yellow?), the other is for switched power (on-off, red)

If you have the yellow hooked up to the negative, and the black to ground, you have two grounds and only one power, which is backwards.

Not sure what color the wires are in the factory harness.

 

Well, maybe it is rocket science..hehe.

Okay, right...that would explain it. Factory wires I could track down with my volt meter to hook into, but yeah....the memory is yellow. I'd read on some other forum it was supposed to hook directly to the battery ground, but that didn't make sense to me really. Then, I don't know a whole lot about these things, so I figure I'd go by it. Now look where that got me! Should have followed my own mind.

So, the red hooks into the ignition switch and the yellow goes directly to battery positive, then? Black, of course, to the body.

 

If yellow is memory, then yes, directly to battery since it is constant power.

the deck will not work without both power wires hooked up.

 

Yes, I'm aware of that.

I've started figuring the wiring out. Your piece of info was VERY helpful. Thank you. Now, all I have to do is find a wire to tap into the key switch. I'm thinking the clock since there are two factory wires dangling from it and into the stereo compartment. I even found the factory constant power wire. Hey! When you touch it to other things, you'll blow a fuse! How 'bout that?!

 

lol yea, generally too much resistance on a circuit casuses a blown fuse hahaaha at least you got it figured out!

 

Well.....mostly, anyway. The two wires in question go to the back of the clock, but not sure which one to use. Wait...duh! Maybe neither. The clock is working, so possibly the one to use is one of the two connected. There are four in total. Hmmm.....not sure, though. The loose ones HAVE to be for something, and I question whether I should actually tie into the clock. Don't want to fubar something up.

Hopefully someone familiar will read this and chime in. Of the two dangling, one is white w/ a black parallel stripe and red sequential, perpendicular stripes. The other is solid green with red seq. perp. stripes. I've tested both for voltage with the key on and I get "0". Then, I really don't know what I'm looking for or should even see.

Schitzky....I dunno. Somebody help....puuuhhleeease! I've been without tunes for over a year now. The sound of BFG's is just not that stimulating anymore......

 

I wired mine to the "ACC" wire coming out of the steering column, with a 15A inline fuse. Use a wiring diagram to find the "ACC" wire coming out of the key switch.

My two cents

 

Ahhh.....that would the accessory wire. I'll look for it. Thanks.