Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Trying to replace an old cassette deck with an updated CD/Ipod Deck. Problem is that I labeled all wires from the old steroeo except the groung which it didn't have. I rewired everything to the new harness the same way and ran the ground off a jumper labeled GRD from the instrument panel. Still no power. Tried with the ignition on "RUN" nothing! Switched the red and black wires which are "power" and "fuse/ignition" nothing!!! The old stereo would work by just pushing the "stereo" button on the dash and powering it up. I brought the new unit back to Best Buy and the tested it and said it got power. Part of the problem is under the steering looks like a plate of spagetti and I can't make heads or tales of what is what. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

What brand/model is the stereo?

Switched the red and black wires which are "power" and "fuse/ignition" nothing!!!

Usually the black will be the ground. Red to ignition 12v and yellow to constant 12v (memory).
If you have a volt meter, try and confirm that the wires you are connecting to actually are power and ground.

We installed a non marine unit on our toon this spring and because my power runs through an accessory switch and not ignition as was shown we put red and yellow together and now when I turn on accessory switch I can turn on radio.

lakerunner wrote:We installed a non marine unit on our toon this spring and because my power runs through an accessory switch and not ignition as was shown we put red and yellow together and now when I turn on accessory switch I can turn on radio.

You could connect the yellow wire to the other side (hot side) of that switch and retain your units memory. That's if it has a clock and/or station memory. And that's if the switch is hot with the ignition off.

for an amp with serious power, you should run a low gauge (thick) power lead directly from the battery. it can go through a battery isolation switch (on/off) if you have one (which you should). without the heavy lead, the amp will drop out when trying to draw enough power (will lose oomph on powerful parts of the music). most people have heard this on poorly installed car stereos.

i doubt that's causing your problem, but now's the time to consider running the right lead.

toondog wrote:

lakerunner wrote:We installed a non marine unit on our toon this spring and because my power runs through an accessory switch and not ignition as was shown we put red and yellow together and now when I turn on accessory switch I can turn on radio.

You could connect the yellow wire to the other side (hot side) of that switch and retain your units memory. That's if it has a clock and/or station memory. And that's if the switch is hot with the ignition off.

I don't want any power being used when boat is not in use. I only use MP3 player anyway so channels don't matter

Always check for 12v, you may have popped a fuse either removing the old unit or as you say somewhere in that "spaghetti", there's a loose connection somewhere. Always use a voltmeter or test light to confirm 12v and a good ground.

check for a mini fuse on the back of the head unit. they will usualy blow if they're hooked up with the power(red) and ground(black) backwards(reversed polarity)

I know what ya mean about dash wiring and spagetti. I wired mine myself and still cant remember what goes where untill make a spark and start cussin

I second that if you want good all range sound, re-run the stereo wires from scratch with thick wire.

keep it loud and proud

yellow=costant power
red=switched power
black ground
blue=usually amp turn on or antenna actiavation

pm me your number and i can walk you thru it...

if I was your neighbor, I'd have it done for ya in 5 min

If you were his neighbor, he'd never get any sleep with that stereo of yours...

Second Brandons fuse on back of radio....Took me 4 hours one time trying to figure out why radio no worky and sun of a bitch there is a fuse on the BACK of the radio!!!!

WaltF wrote:If you were his neighbor, he'd never get any sleep with that stereo of yours...

yep that fuse is somtimes hidden behind the wire harness too

Thanks for everyone's help. I know the fuse on the back of the radio is fine. However, the red wire that was conected to the original radio had a fuse housing in the middle of it and I did blow that fuse yesterday. Unfortunately there is a yellow wire coming out of the the new wiring harness but I didn't see one in the mess under the dash. I'm gonna give it another shot tomorrow when the weather is better. One more thing is that there is a "stereo" switch on the dash. The old stereo would play with that switch on and no key in the ignition. I don't know if this changes anything. Once again thanks for the help.

The switch will do the same as it did before if you are useing the old wireing. as for the yellow just connect it to the sam as your red power wire if you do not care about the time or presets if you do then you need to run a wire from your battery to the yellow wire it does need power to it for the radio to turn on constant power to keep the presets and time If the boat and previous stereo has some age then i would recomend runnin new wires to ensure a good install also run through your stereo switch if you want to keep useing it also make sure to use some kind of heat shrinking but connectors when installing this will be used around water and moisture will get in a normal connector and cause them to corrode