the install from hell

Well my cdchanger->rca order came in from crutchfield today so I decided to go ahead and attempt to install the rio into my car. I already have an aftermarket kenwood hu in there so I took the whole thing out, brought it inside and connected the necessary rio wires (I actually cut off the iso connector) with wiretaps to the kenwood's right behind the wiring harness. After connecting ground, memory, and whatever the other one is I brought it back out to the car, popped all the connections back in and turned on power to the car (with the rio in the sled). Nothing. Turned off the power, disconnected everything and reconnected it back to the way it was before the rio. Still nothing. I checked the fuses, they're fine. I even went as far as replacing them with my spares. I even took the old factory casette (it's a 95 villager) out of the closet and tried that. I managed to get the dim lights to come on but nothing else, still no power. So now I'm left with an audioless car. I'm lost at this point, I don't know what else to do. Crutchfield said to check the car's wiring with a multimeter however I do not posess one. I'm thinking of giving up tomorrow and taking it in to a Strauss (can they even help me?) or this local car audio shop called ultimate audio but I'm afraid of really getting hit in the wallet. Can anyone offer me some helpful advice at this point?

Thanks,
Evan

Since you cut off the ISO connector...

Did you happen to use the colors of the wires as your connection guide? That could be the problem, since the colors on the empeg connector do not match the colors on other US stereos. You might have connected the orange wire to the headlight-sense line (a common mistake).

For further suggestions, please post as much detail about your wiring diagram as possible.

Nope. I wired Ign sense to ign/acc, mem to 12v battery/mem, and earth to chassis ground

Can anyone offer me some helpful advice at this point?

Seems like you are at one of those junctures in life where you can take the problem to somebody else and give them potentially significant $$$ to deliver a black box solution or grapple with it yourself and perhaps accrue some intimate knowledge of you car's wiring. In your shoes I would probably go to Radio Shack and buy a cheap multimeter -- make sure you have volts coming out where and when you think they should.

Side note:When you say you checked the fuses, I assume you include the Empeg/Kenwood fuses... is your Kenwood also fused in the back? (Mine is) ..

An update:
My dad was smart enough to figure out that the fact that I wasn't connecting the antenna cable into the hu was causing none of the units to function. (Once again, not very familiar with this stuff, but could that be because my van requires a chassis ground?) The rio still doesn't work, I think I bought wiretaps that were too big for it's tiny wires...that can be easily solved.

I think I bought wiretaps that were too big for it's tiny wires...that can be easily solved.

Used the blue ones, eh??

Sounds like you are on the road out of Hell!

Used the blue ones, eh??

Why oh why didn't I take the blue pills^H^H^H^H^Htaps?

I went and bought a pack of reds but it looks like they'll cut right through the kenwood's thicker wires. I'm going to try to get the blues to pierce the rio's wires as they have for the kenwood but I'm doubting they will. Am I using the right size and just missing something?

I try not to use vampire taps unless I have to since I have had flakey results with small wires. You're probably best off with the smaller, red ones, though. Carefully try one on a Kenwood wire. Even if the jacket is a lot thicker, I can't imagine the conductor is much bigger than 16-18G (I could be wrong!). Red taps are for 18-20G, I think, and IIRC the Empeg sled wires that you care about are between 18-22G. If you use the blues (made for 14-16G) you'll wind up with a poor connection if any to the Empeg wires.

somehow...it worked with the blues :-)!
so I'm gonna run down to radioshack, pick up two rca connectors and listen to my newly install rio *car*

Solder and shrink-tube, dude. I can't stress it enough.

That is one good way but it is hell if you goof things up or want to change things later. Lately I've become enamoured of the white screw-terminal blocks they sell at Rat Shack. It's simple enough to use a short wire between adjacent terminals for when you need to Y-off a power or ground line and you can easily keep the power/ground wires separate from the signal & speaker level lines. Tinning the stranded cable is preferable but not required. Besides, you can re-use these without shortening your wire each time as you cut off the soldered or crimped on length. No trips across town for that one last missing crimp connector, no soldering required for those of us less skilled in that black art, and no burned fingers from the hot lighter from shrinking the tube.

YMMV of course...

-Zeke ---stepping of soap box---

If you do things properly by using the proper connectors (for instance, you don't cut off the ISO adatpter from the docking sled, JEEZ), then you can still disconnect things to make changes later even if you have soldered the wiring. It just takes some forethought and planning.

Of course I'm not recommending cutting the ISO connector off, but I think you may be confusing forethought with premonition. I don't think anyone ever thinks they're doing things incorrectly, until of course thing don't work as they've thought they should. In that case loosening & tightening screws beats cutting, removing shrink wrap, re-fitting with shrink wrap tube, resoldering and re-shrinkwrapping.

I make no argument that soldering & s/w can be beat for reliability and longevity. I think the screw termimals are more reliablle than crimp connectors long term and if they do fail they only require a screwdriver to fix, not _another_ trip to Rat Shack to get more because you can't find your last batch in the junk drawer.

Since I had the off 'Thump' as well as some ground loop noise, I've rewired my car at least four times and I've done it all three ways.

-Zeke

Of course I'm not recommending cutting the ISO connector off,

Of course not, I was just responding to the statement at the top of this thread that it was exactly what he had done.

I have had enough bad experiences with screw terminals and crimp connections (over a long period of time) to finally come to the conclusion that they are more trouble than they're worth when compared to soldered connections.

Keeping my soldering and shrink-tubing supplies stocked up, and getting well practiced at making those kinds of connections quickly, is a much better investment of time and money for me than having to troubleshoot the inevitable failed connections and wiring problems caused by crimps/screws.

This doesn't mean I don't use connections that can't be unplugged. I often solder my wiring to male/female snap connectors specifically because I know I might need to disconnect it in the future for re-work. And I often use screw terminals when dealing with very heavy gauge wire, such as the wire run from my battery, because my soldering iron doesn't generate enough heat to solder to those super-thick wires.

I looked at my wires, and decided to solder them. I figure I lose about an inch of wire every time I transfer the empeg to another car. At my current rate of getting a new car ever 6-7 years or so, the wire length will last just up to the point that I'm too feeble to drive anymore

You can always solder in a piece of wire with a "permanent" connection to the empegs wires and then solder the car wires to those instead of the empeg "original" wires - just in case you live longer than expected or increase your rate in getting new cars... Should quadruple the number of times you can switch...

/Michael

Quality opinion.

Better contact, stronger, and they won't saw through over time.

Vampires are just that. You may live a long time, but you look like [censored], sound like [censored], and you end up with a steak through your heart. Ummmm, nm.

Just solder it.

Yummy...I've always wanted to try a wooden steak. Make mine hickory-flavored please.