[V8] Stereo Install Question

[daves745t@optonline.net]

Group - 
I spent last weekend and several nights this week gutting,
 rerunning wires and installing a new stereo in the V8.
  However, when the moment of truth arrived I was
 met with deafening silence!! I was crushed and
 figured I'd throw it out to you to see if anyone has
 suggestions.  Here is a summary of the components
 and what I did:

1. Pioneer 3700 Head Unit
2. Infinity Kappas - 5.25 up front/6x9 rear
3. Clarion 400W 4-channel amp
4. Crutchfield Wire Harness Adapter
 - for power, antennae and ground

I did not use any existing wires and instead 
re-ran wires from the dash, front doors and rear
 deck to the trunk where the amp will be.  The Pioneer
 Unit has two sets of RCA plugs for the front and 
rear speakers, it also comes with a wire harness that
 includes speaker wires, ground, power, turn on lead
 for the amp and maybe some others I'm forgetting.

Because I was utilizing the external amp I crimped
 off all of the speaker wires from the Pioneer harness
 and only utilized the RCA plugs.  I connected
 the RCA plugs to the amp at the locations indicated.  

For the Infinity speakers I also connected them
 directly to the amp at the locations indicated.

The Crutchfield Adapter Harness had several 
additional wires that were associated with 
speakers, but since I had re-wired the system 
and was utilizing the external amp, as well 
as the RCA plugs, I removed them from
 the harness leaving only the power,
 ground and antennae wires.

I attached the positive lead for the amp to the
 battery and the negative lead to the chassis.

When I plugged everything in and turned it on
 here is what happened:
- The Pioneer unit came on without a problem,
 it accepted and played a CD (you could hear the
 laser and see the track on the readout);

- The power light for the amp also came on, but
 absolutely no sound whatsoever was coming out
 of the speakers. No hiss regardless of volume,
 no pop when you turned the radio on (not that
 I'd want that), just dead silence.

- I checked the fuses on everything (radio/amp/power
 lead for amp) and nothing was blown.

- I flipped the wires for the speakers and still nothing.
I would think that even if I botched up one speaker,
I'd still get some sound out of one of them.
I couldn't have messed up all four - it's a PITA,
but it isn't rocket science (although right now
I'm feeling pretty dumb).

- I did connect both the thicker gauge yellow 12V 
wire and thinner red power wire together 
so that the unit may be turned on whether 
the car is on or off.  I thought that maybe
 b/c the car was not running would have been the
 problem, but it did not matter. Car running or 
not produced the same result (or lack thereof)

I'm no electrician and I am racking my brain trying
 to figure out whats wrong. The only thing that
 I can think of is the ground for the amp - I attached
 it to the chassis, but it is a painted portion and I
 did not strip any of the paint. But would the amp
 still turn on if that were a poor connection? Or could
 it be that the connection enough to turn the amp on, 
but not enough to power the speakers. However, 
I'm still confused b/c the Pioneer unit has an internal
 50X4 Mosfet amp which should certainly be enough
 to get some decent sound out of the speakers,
 but is that lost when you use the RCA connections
 and/or external amp? 

Ahhhh! Sorry for the long post, but as you can
 see this is driving me crazy! As always thanks
 for any/all advice or suggestions.

Two more things: 1. I don't have a volt-meter
(but may need to get one) and 2. If anyone
is looking for the Bose Deck/Speakers drop 
me a line.  The speakers were in various
stages of failure to produce sound and 
the head unit seemed to have a few of the
springs for the buttons gone-but it worked
fine. I also don't think the PO gave me 
the Radio Code and considering he's 
82 I don't think I'm getting it.

-Dave
90 Pearl