Car Stereos: wiring trouble, continuity tester, blown fuse

Question
I have a boss mp3 4600r cd player, or which has a 'blown' remote wire plug-in. I am unsure if it is the wiring harness that is blown or the deck connection. Is there another wire i can attach the remote wire to so the amp will turn on when the cd player turns on.

Thanks!

Answer
Hi Tanner,

The remote is the only wire that will activate your amplifier when you turn the deck on and off, but a second-best choice is to activate the amplifier with the key switch.  You can do this by connecting the remote wire to the red accessory power wire behind the deck.  In this way the amp will turn off whenever you turn your car off.

Some CD players have a protective circuit on the remote output, which will cut the power if the wire is shorted.  Before you connect your amp's remote wire to the accessory power wire, make sure the remote wire isn't pinched or shorted anywhere along its length.  An easy way to do this is to disconnect the remote wire from the amp, then use a continuity tester (or the continuity function on a multimeter) to see if the remote wire has a connection to chassis ground.  If the wire is shorted to ground when you connect it to the accessory power, you'll end up with a blown fuse as soon as you turn the key on.

Thanks for your question.

Brian