newt5005

Its been quite some time since I dabbled in anything like this ( can you spell 8 track?). When my son asked me to install a new stereo and amp in his TJ, I thought why not? These things coundnt have changed that much and besides they come with directions-right?
Lets past forward past the " it should take about an hour but takes all day to not get finished part" and get to the issue I have.
The componets are all Kenwood so compatability is not an issue. The old Pioneer Stereo worked so I know the system wiring worked when I started.
The new stereo powers up but not the amp and I have no sound at the speakers. The way I understand the wiring the speaker signal leaves the head unit via the audio cables and goes to the amp. The amp is turned on via the blue power signal wire fed from the stereo but powered from separate leads. My first question is do the speaker wires from the stereo connect to anything or stay unconnected. The other issue would be powering up from the amp. Anyone have suggestions where to start?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Riznoy

I can answer your first question easily, the speaker wires in the back of your receiver DO NOT get used if you are using an amp. All the speakers must be wired into the amp. As for your second question, the amp not powering up can be several issues, make sure it's grounded properly, check the inline fuse by the battery, make sure you are actually getting power from the cable connected to the battery, make sure the blue remote line is installed properly. These are a few troubleshooting ideas, it can also be something as simple as going into the menu on your receiver and enabling external amp. Hope this helps.

Acer343

The door speakers and dash need to be hooked to the back of the stereo. And for the amp make sure u have a good ground and the fuse is good and the RCA and remote are hooked up, if all of those are good a lot of kenwood stereos have a amp turn on in the settings, also u can try unhooking your remote at the amp and use a jumper wire from your power to the remote and that acts like the stereo turning it on

Riznoy

From what I understood is he has a complete system and is using the amp for the component speakers. If that is the case, u do not hook up the receiver to the factory speaker wires, it will be useless because u need to run all the speakers to the amp.

newt5005

Thanks for your input. The biggest question I had was about the connetion of the head unit directly to the speakers. Thanks for clearing that up. The amp issue turned out to be...you guessed it, a bad ground. I thought grounding to the unpainted (and sanded) part of the seat frame would provide a good ground. Not so much. after scraping some paint off the floor pan and attaching there, all systems are go.

Riznoy

No problem, let me know if you have any other questions, audio/video is my strong point.