Car Stereos: saturn sl cd deck, saturn sl, power antenna

Question
i have a 2001 saturn sl
so i got the right harness that plugs right into the car but i still cant get it to work...i finally bought a brand new deck after trying to put 4 other ones in
the coulrs have to be right...my speaker wires are all together...the whites,blues,greens, and greys...i didnt have the proper plug things so i just twisted them and put electrical tape on them. Sooo what i have left after the speak wires are,,red yellow, black, and blue with a white strip which is the amp turn on or power antenna i think.....so black in ground, red is 12 volt ignition constant and yellow is the 12 v battery constant right? okay well i have all the wires together so you think it would work? still no luck...in my car it has like the braided  cable ground wire so i tried connecting my 2 black ground wires to that and still when i turn the car on there absolutly nothing...and yes my fuses are good..
do you have any idea???

Answer
Hi Tyler,

First step is to remove the twist & tape.  That will not hold and will not give you a clean enough connection for a stereo.  You're going to need to solder and heat shrink or at the very least, butt-end connectors and heatshrink or tape.

Next, get a multimeter and test the DC voltage from yellow and red to ground.  Each should read 12V when the car's on, and the yellow should continue to read 12V to ground when the car is off.

Once you've verified those are working, test your black ground wire using the continuity/impedance setting on the multimeter.  There should be nearly 0ohms of resistance between the black wire and a chassis bolt.  (It won't be quite zero, but < 1 should be fine.)

Once you've verified those, you just have to remake your connections and it should work.  I've done installs on Saturn SL1s, and they're pretty straight forward.

Justin