Thank you in advance for all those that will help in my situation...

Ok I am driving 4 members of a wedding party 1hr 30min from where we are meeting to the church in the MORNING.... now my Cherokee has no radio... I didnt care before but 4 guys drinking on and long *** car ride with no tunes is going to be a nightmare....

PROBLEM:
I am getting power from the Batt wire all times..(normal i think).. Acc wire only when key is on...(12v i checked with my volt meter)... and i have what for all the tests i no how to do a solid ground... these 3 wires are the only ones i have messed with so far because at first i was given a radio plugged in those 3 to see if it turned on and got nothing... i went to the store bought a new radio same thing.... am I just an idiot?? i figured to test the radio all i would need to do is hook up the ground and the two power wires and wallah... am I missing something??? I my just be over looking something stupid because i am worried and in a rush... I searched online and found the wire diagram for this YR so i dont need the colors (PS harness is just cut off.... so yeah just going by color and testing) but do i need to hook it all the way up for it to even turn on??? My buddy swears that his radio works and i would love to return the one i bought... but i can test with new so i can eliminate that.... but eventho i am getting 12 is there still a fuse blown? or is it something worse??

SOLUTION:?????

 

look for a blow fuse, there is a fuse map on the box cover relating to what each fuse is for.

 

Look for a blown fuse or try wiring it directly to something you know is working and bypass the factory wiring for now. Snip the wires coming out of the radio then get some lengths of the correct gauge wire and run them off the radio wiring harness to a known good hot/acc/grnd on the fuse panel etc. If it doesn`t work then you know it`s the radio itself.

 

if you have power, and you can use a tester from power wires to the radio ground wire (and it says you've got power) you've just ruled out blown fuses, power wire issues, and ground wire issues.

my immediate guess is you're hooking it up wrong somehow...double check your head unit wires and your dash wires...it should work with them three mains though, just with no sound

 

that was my thought....

but anyway problem solved... although it raises more questions than answers....

If i ground it to the body... nothing.... ground it to the Neg terminal... boom have power... all i can think is maybe that is why my trailer lights dont work even tho tester says good??? but at the same time is the body is not a good ground.... HOW THE HELL IS THIS JEEP STILL ALIVE??? every thing else seems to work fine but body deffenately does not ground.... I will be doing more tests on sunday when i have time...

 

Are the ares on the body that you are trying to ground heavily painted or bedlined? I have had that problem in the past trying to ground wires on my body but my bedliner weakened the connection enough that it wasn't effective but after I took a wire brush to it then the connection worked fine.

 

look at the back of your engine at the firewall. There should be a ground strap there, don't remember which side. Then right by the battery there should be a ground to the battery from the fender. After that I would have to see it to fix it. Radios should be chassis grounded not battery.

 

also if you have body ground issues, take a look at all your main grounds under the hood...it could lie within that also

 

yeah i was looking and i cant find a ground strap at all.... not one from the batt.. or one to the firewall.... but this confuses me just as much because logic dictates that no ground means that nothing should work... so why do all the lights and gauges and everything EXCEPT the radio ground and trailer lights work? and the radio ground was screwed into the firewall with a sheet metal screw so there shouldnt really have be a paint issue as far as metal on metal contact.. but oh well i will pick up some ground straps on sunday it is running and the radio works... so I am good for tomorrow