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**redbird94** · 03-30-2005, 05:56 PM

any help greatly apprecited

**AmericanZ28** · 03-30-2005, 09:27 PM

Originally posted by redbird94

i matched the power and ground wires for each set of speakers right at the pigtail in the back of the radio. i matched the correct wires up with the power and ground to it IEC AULOC and plugged the rac cables into it ran them back to the amp turned on my hooked up the speaker i wired into the IEC and nothing the fuse blows. also yesterday the amp wasnt running, but i checked and had avery good ground and power going into the amp. could i have my remoted wire done wrong? what could cause this. did i do this wrong. anyone have a install guide for this? please help i need this done so i can put my car back on the road.

The wires that originally went to your speakers should now be wired to the module, which will provide the pre-amp RCA signal that goes to the amp. Then from the amp, you should have connected the speakers. Based on what you wrote, it sounds as though you got those backwards. If you want to check your amp, use a small wire to bridge the Batt. and remote post on the amp and listen for a click or see if the power light turns on. That will tell you if the amp is powering up or not. If it powers up, then your remote source will be the culprit. Which fuse got blown? Do you have a bose system?

**redbird94** · 03-30-2005, 10:48 PM

no i do not have the bose system, they are pioneer speakers, the fuse in the amp blew, i blew 2 of them, does my remote wire have to be hooked up right in order for it to work?

**fastTa** · 03-30-2005, 11:02 PM

After translating the grammar, it looks like you hooked up the remote wire to a constant 12V source (yellow wire). The remote turn on lead to the amp needs to be hooked up to a switched power source (red in the factory stereo pigtail).

How big is your remote turn on wire? It should be fairly small gauge as the amp only needs to see a very low voltage signal to power up the amp.

I have no idea what a IEC AULOC is? Can you be more specific?

**redbird94** · 03-30-2005, 11:18 PM

i used huge speakre wire for the remote wire, should i use the little blue wire like 22 guage that came with the wiring kit? the thing i was talking about has 6 wires and then the rca plugs to, i was told to hook the remote wire to the yellow 12v ignition wire

**MN6WS6** · 03-31-2005, 12:33 AM

I have been installing for 15 years and I have no clue what this adapter thing you have is. What we need to know is:

A) Since you are using the factory stereo, what model is it? Is it a Bose stereo, or the non-amplified kind? If it's Bose, it takes different adapters than the standard radios.
B) If it is Bose, did you run all new wiring to the speakers? If not, did you bypass the factory amps? If you did not, then that is why your amp is blowing. You are trying to amplify into something that is already amplified, and it's popping the fuses on your amp.

Fuses popping on an amp are a bad sign. That means that either the amp is bad, or their is a dead short on the outputs which is overloading the amp and blowing the fuse. The remote wire should be wired to your factory power antenna turn on lead, not the switched source for the radio. Unless your radio does not have that option, and then you'll have to hook it to the switched source. Also, the gauge of the remote wire is not all that important. 18 gauge or lower is fine. I've known people to run a 10 gauge remote wire, but they had it relay activated and were turning on 4 amps as well so it was necessary.

One final note, you really ought to dump that stock head unit. You've already cut the car up to put in different size speakers, so the stock unit in the dash is not going to make the car still appear stock. You need to go buy a new one that has more power and exponentially more features than the stock unit has. It also makes it a lot easier to troubleshoot as you are not trying to integrate old factory equipment into a new system.

**fastTa** · 03-31-2005, 12:56 AM

Definitely don't recommend using the power antenna lead as your amp turn on. That is a known "no no" among professional car audio insatllers. It will likely cause ground loop problems.

Even aftermarket harness adapters are pinned so that the blue/white wire lead(amp turn on) on aftermarket stereos is mated directly to the red wire on the factory stereo pigtail. It is designed that way for a reason.

The gauge of the amp turn on wire also is important. Too thin can be OK in most cases, but too thick and it can allow a power drop. The circuit that senses the low wattage 12V signal is very sensitive and can cause power up failures. People that have been installing stereos for 15 years should know this.

I will agree that blowing the amp fuses is not a good thing and sometimes points to shorted outputs, but can also be a bad ground, insufficient amperage, or shorting main power source.

What gauge power and ground wire did you use? What size amp?

**MN6WS6** · 03-31-2005, 11:02 AM

"Definitely don't recommend using the power antenna lead as your amp turn on. That is a known "no no" among professional car audio insatllers. It will likely cause ground loop problems."

fastTA, I know plenty of people that have used the power antenna lead to turn on 1 amp. That's the key, he's only running one amp, so you can do it. If you have a ground loop, that's an installer problem, because you should always run a separate wire along with the RCA's and remote that can attach the ground point of the radio to the ground point of the amplifier(s). This will eliminate any ground loop.

"Even aftermarket harness adapters are pinned so that the blue/white wire lead(amp turn on) on aftermarket stereos is mated directly to the red wire on the factory stereo pigtail. It is designed that way for a reason."

I have never seen an aftermarket harness wired that way. Ever. The only time I have ever seen a harness "jumped" is if the system was common ground to begin with, and that's only on speaker side, not a power jump to make something work.

"The gauge of the amp turn on wire also is important. Too thin can be OK in most cases, but too thick and it can allow a power drop. The circuit that senses the low wattage 12V signal is very sensitive and can cause power up failures. People that have been installing stereos for 15 years should know this."

I believe I specifically mentioned that the 10 gauge wire used in someone's system was relay controlled. I also said 18 gauge is fine. However, if you are trying to turn on multiple amplifiers (that means 3 or more) you need larger than "thin" wire, because you will HAVE to use a relay as the factory amp turn on wire or power antenna wire is only designed to run 2 components max, which is stated in the owners manuals of nearly every aftermarket radio on the market (some even say only one component may be activated using that wire). This was bonus information, because he is only turning on one amp. This was so he would be aware if he ever expanded the system.

Regardless of all that, the point here is that you are blowing fuses and we need more information to solve that problem. The remote wire hookup is way down on the list of things that need to be changed to make your system work correctly, based on the information we have right now.

**fastTa** · 03-31-2005, 11:55 AM

Originally posted by MN6WS6

fastTA, I know plenty of people that have used the power antenna lead to turn on 1 amp. That's the key, he's only running one amp, so you can do it. If you have a ground loop, that's an installer problem, because you should always run a separate wire along with the RCA's and remote that can attach the ground point of the radio to the ground point of the amplifier(s). This will eliminate any ground loop.

Lots of things CAN be done but it doesnt make them correct. The power lead for a power antenna was never designed to be used for a amp remote turn on. The nature of the antenna ground WILL cause problems.

Originally posted by MN6WS6

I have never seen an aftermarket harness wired that way. Ever. The only time I have ever seen a harness "jumped" is if the system was common ground to begin with, and that's only on speaker side, not a power jump to make something work.

Not jumped......correct. Go look at any wire harness adapter in one of your local stores. The Metra's, the Scosche's, the Stinger's are all pinned this way. It is correct electrical logic to use the switched power source intended for the radio. Again, the aftermarket wire harness adapters are all pinned this way for a reason.

Originally posted by MN6WS6

Regardless of all that, the point here is that you are blowing fuses and we need more information to solve that problem. The remote wire hookup is way down on the list of things that need to be changed to make your system work correctly, based on the information we have right now.

Agreed.

**MN6WS6** · 03-31-2005, 04:21 PM

"The power lead for a power antenna was never designed to be used for a amp remote turn on."

There are multiple aftermarket units that only come with one "remote turn on lead", and it is to be used for either power antennas, remote amplifier turn on lead, or both. Any more than 2 activated circuits requires the use of a relay to boost the signal output. Radios that have both a power antenna lead and an amplifier turn on lead typically cut power to the antenna one when a tape/cd/cd changer is activated so the antenna is not up while the radio is not in use. In those instances, you are to use the dedicated source or else your amp will turn off when these options are accessed.

"The nature of the antenna ground WILL cause problems."

I'd like to know how you figure that the ground for the antenna can backfeed up the remote turn-on lead and cause a ground loop. The power antenna lead going from the radio to the power antenna is a signal line to a relay. The power antenna motor has it's own power and ground that are separate from the power antenna turn on lead. There is NO WAY it can cause a ground loop, as ground is never "presented" to the power antenna lead.

"are all pinned this way"

Ehh, no. A GM harness is pinned so that the corresponding wires from the radio harness go to a color coding system that matches up with most aftermarket radios. You cannot "pin" a harness and make power go to a lead it is not intended to go to without some sort of jumper. Your original post lead me to believe that you were saying the switched ignition lead (red) was connected to the amp turn on lead (blue or blue/white stripe depending on manufacturer) which is incorrect. Remote turn on leads are a function of the radio, not a function of ignition source, so if the radio does not have a remote turn on lead, that wire will be dead, it will not be connected to switched ignition because of the way the harness is pinned. You have to manually do that, which requires a jumper.

**fastTa** · 03-31-2005, 05:25 PM

If anyone has ever used a jumper to run the amp remote turn ons, I would run as fast as I could and never let them near my stereo.

Let me put this into simpler terms.

Factory radio pigtails aren't designed to work with aftermarket harness adapters....aftermarket harness adapters are designed to interface with the factory radio pigtail. Now do you understand?? Every single aftermarket harness adapter that I have ever unwrapped in my life is pinned so that the switched power lead for the radio (not ignition

) plugs directly into or corresponds directly with the wire that is intended to be used with the remote turn on wire. Normally blue/white on the harness adapter. Additionally the wire on the aftermarket that is for the remote

Another reason it would be totally dumb to run the amp remote turn on wire to the power antenna lead, is that almost all head units (factory or not) DO NOT supply power to the power antenna unless the radio is ON.

Just for kicks, I just called a couple local big car audio places and asked them if they ever ran the amp remote off the power antenna.......they laughed.

Here is the factory GM wiring pigtail pin color vs any aftermarket adapter:

GM orange - adapter yellow (constant 12V)
GM pale yellow - adapter red (switched radio power)
GM pink - adapter blue (remote turno on)

So redbird, if you like your amps to be on when a CD is playing like I do, run it properly to the switched power lead for the stereo.

Let us know if you figure out the problem with the amp blowing fuses.

**MN6WS6** · 03-31-2005, 06:34 PM

OK, so the wire you are talking about is the factory amp turn on lead. What if the factory radio does not have one? Then that wire is dead, it has no pin in the factory harness (which means the aftermarket wire will connect to nothing in the factory wiring harness). That's what I was saying, so at least we are on the same page.

Here's the thing though, if you're factory radio has a power antenna lead out, and it does not lose power when the tape/cd is inserted, then you should use that wire to activate the amp. Older units (and if I'm not mistaken, his 94 should work this way) leave the power antenna lead hot even if a CD/tape is in, so the amp will work.

The problem here is that this particular guy is running the remote wire to the switched ignition source, aka red wire, which means that anytime the key is on, the amp is on. Totally regardless of whether or not the radio is on. That is supposed to be used as a last resort. So if the local radio shops are hooking up remote leads to amps to switched ignition, then they need to go back to basics of installation. Print this next paragraph and take it to them if they think they're right.

If the radio they are installing (factory or otherwise) has a DEDICATED amp turn on lead, use that wire. If it has a power antenna lead, and it does NOT go dead when the AM/FM section of the radio is not in use, they should use that wire. If the wire DOES go dead when the AM/FM section is not in use, ONLY THEN should they use the switched ignition source at the radio (aka red wire).

**redbird94** · 04-01-2005, 10:37 AM

this is alot of reading i am am confused, what exactly do i need to do

**imwlw83** · 04-01-2005, 10:43 AM

When i was faced with the same problem i just replaced everything. Got the wire adapter kit from Cruthfield and it was a piece of cake. Good luck.

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