QuestionHere's what we did while waiting for your answer. We pulled the head and hardwired it directly to the battery and output directly to the sub. We fireed up the CD source and voila, it worked. My guy started to suspect that the wiring harness I bought was incompatible. He'll get me one from the shop.
Now that we've read your answer, we watched the power amp as we selected the CD source. The lights on the amp go out when we select CD, so I think both of you are on the right track. I bought this Suburban used and am not sure if there is a factory amp on board. I do know there is no power antenna.
We won't be at work together for a couple of days. When he gets back to me, he'll have a new harness for me and all his metering equipment with him. I'll read any new info you provide, but I won't fiddle with anything on the car for at least two days.
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The text above is a follow-up to ...
-----Question-----
I installed a Sony CDX FW500 into a 2001 Chevy Suburban. Actually, a co-worker did the install and he is a pro installer doing mine as a side job. I have the head unit powering the factory speakers with the RCA out to a Sony amp (powering the sub-woofer only) and a 10-disk changer operated by a unilink connection.
The good news is everything works fine including amp, sub and unilink controlled changer. The only problem is that the system is silent when a CD is running. I exchanged the head at the store and the problem repeats. I installed the it at the in-store diplay wall, and it worked fine. I even had them install the one I exchanged and it worked fine in the store.
Whether I insert a CD into the head or select the changer, the readout shows the time counter, but no sound comes through. The changer is moving and can cycle through all disks and tracks. The head unit either runs silently or is not mechanically moving and can cycle through all tracks. The problem repeats whether I use a home-made compilation CD or a commercially produced CD
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wow this is weird. I have a strange guess here, I think what you may have accidentally done is somehow switched the "remote" wire with the power antenna wire? Maybe? here's what would happen in this situation. assuming you have a car that has a "premium" factory stereo that already had a factory amplifier somewhere in the car, this amp would need to be triggered to turn on just like your sub amp. if the 2 trigger wires (sub amp and factory door speaker amp) were tied to the power anntenna wire they would only turn on when the radio was on. as soon as you switch to anything other than AM/FM the cd player would want to put the antenna down, which would shut off power to that wire, which would shut off the amps, which of corse would make the sound stop all of a sudden.
I cant really see this happening any other way really.
So check that and double check that and if that's not it let me know and I'll stir it around in the grey matter some more for you!
I have a feeling that if you look at your amp there's a power light and as soon as you switch from fm to cd that power light probably goes out right? again that would confirm my theory here.
Good luck and please let me know either way how this goes, I'm curious!
Answercool, yah I figured that's what it was. I was going to sugest wiring it direct as a test but that's way too deep for some people, the problem I have on this site sometimes is you never know if giving detailed information is going to help or just confuse them more!
again, let me know how it goes!
