Aftermarket Deck installation for Noob

[damagecase13]

Hey everyone, not sure if i should of posted this in here but ah well lol. My friend just picked up an 89 Grand marquis and we were trying to install an aftermarket deck. First off we bought the deck, and adapters. The first wire harness we bought from future shop came with a wide black connector, and a wide grey connector. We had everything hooked up correctly, all colours matched. yet we had nothing, the deck would turn on but the disc wouldnt go all the way in, and the radio stations werent working at all. So we returned the deck, tried a new one, still nothing. So i found online that theres different harnesses for the "premium sound" edition, so we went to future shop to get that one and try it. The one with a wide connector, and one small square connection. Wired that up, still nothing. Its almost like the deck isnt getting enough power to it. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks so much in advance, Tom

[marquisman]

does the car have the black box JBL amp? if you have your wide power suply connector and the little square speaker connected properly, i would look at the amp. through my experience, ive changed 2 of em over the years and they do weird things when they die.

[damagecase13]

If the amp died would the stock deck still work though? because the stock deck still does work.

[zoomie]

hard wire the front speakers and wire the back one in regularly it should work then .thats what i did for my merc and what ill be doing for my linc if you have premium sound the front speakers are common ground but the back ones run off the amp and will wire in correctly.
http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthread.php?t=28758
this is the diagram that i have for the lincons and im guessing its the same as the merc too

[86VickyLX]

If the amp died would the stock deck still work though? because the stock deck still does work.

If the stock amp died, you would only get sound out of one of the rear speakers, I forget which. I just did a aftermarket radio for my friend with an '88 Grand Marquis. I hard wired all of the speakers, because the amp was a pain and liked to make the stereo hot, and the quality was shitty. By completely unplugging the amp wiring, I was able to have the radio work properly. Sounds better than the stock stereo. It wasn't too hard to run the wires. And I did it all proper like, I ran it under the carpet like all the other wires run. Can't tell anything was done! If you find a power, a ground, and a switched key power, you're good to go. I wouldn't cut into stock wiring if I were you. Adapters for the win. I just had to change the wire set up ( it was different than the adapter's configuration).

[marquisman]

i used the stock amp and 6 speakers with my new deck in my 88 merc wagon and it sounds great, better than hard wiring 4 speakers. there are 2 system. base premium sound and the JBL premium sound. the base system uses common grounds and sucks balls lol does the stock deck have a vol. knob or button?

[87_crown_vic]

sounds more like the common ground setup which would be reason stereo dont work...

you might have to run new speaker lines from the stereo.