So I'm trying to hook up a brand new Kenwood stereo in my 79 camaro,I hooked up the power lead,the memory wire and the ground along with the two rear speakers.I checked all my connections a million times,and I cant even get the unit to power up! :( What am I missing here??

Is it possible that fuse in the unit is no good or missing.

I checked,it is good! It has power going in and a good ground,so I'm stumped!

You have 12 volts between the ground wire and the power wire?

take a test light and find a constant hot for the memory wire then with the key on acc find one that is hot when on for your power wire.... the cig lighter would be a good one for the power wire

So your sure you have power, a good fuse and a good ground.

Is it a Kenwood with the removable face plate? Sometims the faceplate electrical connector doesn't make good contact. Not common, but I have seen it happen on a new unit. Open and close the faceplate several times and try again.

Are you sure the wire connector is plugged in the back correctly and all the way?

Are you sure the blade fuse is plugged into the back of the unit all the way?

I assume you didn't connect the negative lead of the speakers to a ground right? You can't ground those leads.

Stupid question, but you never know...assuming the unit is in the vehicle, do you have the ignition key in the correct position to turn the power on the the unit?

ATM, Im not sure I understand your question!? I have it hooked up to the fuse box to have power all the time,so it will work with the key off! But that shouldnt keep it from working right!?!?

Simple solution.

Yellow and Red should have 12V+ with the key turned on.
See if you have 12V+ on both of those wires before you do anything else.

This is the typical car stereo wiring layout.
http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/4/151417.gif

FYI too, you better disconnect the battery before you start tampering with wires
that are 12V+ BAT even with the ignition turned off. If you accidentally ground that
out, you're in for some real problems.

I appreciate the feedback,I have it hooked up exactly as in the diagram,and the speakers are hooked up right as well! I just cant make sense of this,I even tried another stereo and it didnt work either,which makes me think its the wiring but I cant see where the problem could be.Oh well,maybe I'll just listen to the Flowmasters!!

Even if there's no speakers, the deck should turn on (it may say PROTECT on the face, but it'll still turn on! ). So that leaves several options as to what's wrong...

1. The battery's dead. Don't laugh, I've seen it more times than I care to remember!
2. There's no ground wire connection, although the radio would TRY to potentially ground itself through the antenna. If it's a newer Kenwood, it's isolated on the antenna lead so you can't count on that.
3. There's no 12V constant (yellow wire) power coming in.
4. There's no 12V ignition (red wire) power coming in.
5. The fuse is blown (there's usually a fuse on the radio itself built into the plug for the wiring harness).
6. On a scale of 1 to Fouled Up, the radio's way over on the Fouled Up side!

Notice that I put the radio being bad last? There's a reason for it. Today's radio's usually are pretty good as far as not messing up. I'd recheck the other things first and go from there. Hope that helps.

^ That's your Nastyz28 stereo Expert right there.

I appreciate the feedback,I have it hooked up exactly as in the diagram,and the speakers are hooked up right as well! I just cant make sense of this,I even tried another stereo and it didnt work either,which makes me think its the wiring but I cant see where the problem could be.Oh well,maybe I'll just listen to the Flowmasters!!

Bench test the radio against a known working battery. I even use a battery charger sometimes...on the lowest setting there is enough to power up a car radio.

Take the red and yellow wires and twist them together...attached that to the red side of the battery or charger.

Take the black (ground) and attach it to the black side of the battery or charger.

See if the radio powers on....if it doesn't it could be the fuse on the radio (most likely a mini-blade fuse in the back of the radio)

If all that checks out good and no power...then your radio is the culprit....

If the radio powers on...then it's in your wiring or the car wiring...

If you think it's the wiring I would run new power wires off the fuse box and a new ground to the radio, don't use the stuff thats in the car from factory.

With a test light it shouldn't be hard to find what you need there.