A Question about Stereo Wiring

[forbestx]

Greetings. I have a new Catalina 309 and am tryig to install a CD/AM/FM Stereo. The speakers were easy to hook-up since the boat came pre-wired fore and aft. The Nav Station had a precut location for installing the CD unit, so that went well.Unfortunatley, after attaching the power and grounding wires as instructed in the stereo manual,the unit does not turn on.I assume it is because I am hooking the wires up to the wrong locations behind the Nav Station.I hooked the yellow wire (for memory and back-up lead)directly to the positive buss (where all the other wires going to it were Green or White).I hooked the red wire (the Power lead) to the male plug connector next to the "Stereo" accessory switch on the DC distribution panel.I hooked the black wire (the Ground lead) directly to the negative buss (where all other wires going to it are black).But no power! Any ideas about how I screwed up?Thanks!

 

[Cactus Jack]

Meter it

forbestx - Get yourself a multi-meter, if you don't already have one, and check the hot and ground points you wired to on your distribution panel. Make sure you're getting 12 volts there. If not, start tracing back into the panel from the hot connection point, until you find the problem. If you DO get 12v at the connection point, then it could be a radio problem. If the red lead has an inline fuse, be sure to check that. It should be fairly simple to track down the problem. Good luck!Jack

 

[Rob 1981 Cat 3019642]

try this...

tonight at my boat I couldnt get my stereo to turn on. I thought it was another problem I was going to need to fix. But then I decided to turn the battery selector switch on...

 

[CM]

Fuse system?

I just read a review on the 309, it mentioned the fuse system being similar to that of an automobile with removeable fuse rather than circut breakers. I do not know what your boat has but could your problem be a blown fuse in the panel or in radio itself ?By the way the article was nearly all positive about the 309.....I think you got a good boat !!CM

 

[forbestx]

Finally figured it out

I used Cactus Jack's idea and took a Volt Meter down and found that I had attached the black wire correctly (to the ground buss), the red wire (power lead) correctly to the male connection at the DC distribution panel, but had been trying to attach the yellow wire (for constant power, remembering stations, etc.) to the 110 AC grounding buss.I finally attached the yellow wire to the battery switch, where the house battery connects to that switch.It works!!!!!!!!!!!!!Thanks for all of your ideas!