Recently tried to install kenwood headunit (ok not the best, bought it 9 months ago for a barina), into my 3rd Gen TJ.
Once all connected, No power, i mean no lights on the Hu turn on. So i'm asking you guys for some help please.

Used an aerpro adaptor, this connects to the car's own harness and leaves wires that are colour coded to the Kenwood HU. Wires all connected by bullet connectors, no shortage possible

Fuses are all fine, under dash and under bonnet.
Stock unit still works fine.

Not headunit, as it still powers on when separate battery 12 V, Ignition and negative connected to HU.

According to Kenwood manual, Hu switches off as a safety measure when it detects a spark or something, So i've pressed the reset switch a million times at various intervals with a variety of different lengths of time.

Grounded negative (the black one) behind three different screws. In the back of the dash on the left of HU; on the bottom left of the hu where a black screw sparks when stock HU is connected; underneath gear next to a phone plug thing.

Reread all wiring diagrams, to be sure,
cut my hand in 20 places reaching for a bloody clip, that took me a few hours

My friend is an autoelectrician and he will be the next step. But cause i've gone so far i want to finish the danm thing myself.

I thought I knew what do to but I admit i'm stuffed, if you guys can help me solve this you must be pro's or i am missing the obvious.

Really guys, any suggestion please?

Tom-k

I'd be checking the wiring harness, i know you said you've checked it, but it sounds like the only culprit that could cause this.

Those aepro contector aren't that great. Ages ago before I learnt how to connect the wires we got one for a mates car and 2 of the speaker wires didn't work so we bi-passed the harness contector and it all works.

Check to see if any of your speaker wires are not touching and that the remote turn on wire is not touching anything. You running any amps?

Thx for the quick replies guys,

I agree the harness doesn't look full proof with the connections in the adaptor. I'll try a volt-multi- meter thingy-me-jig to test if power is coming through the aerpro harness.
Is there something else i can use to test if there's power, without electrocuting myself?

No amps connected as yet.

I can totally dismantle the front dash, fiddle around and switch HU repeatedly, put dash back together in one piece, In less than 15 mins now, but doesn't mean jack when my Hu doesn't blip anything.
Still i hope to get this done and be proud of my amateur work.

Tom-K

Ok why dont you try hooking up the power / ignition / ground from your original harness to the harness you get from kenwood. Then try hooking up only one speaker and see if it works. Make sure that all other wires are not going to shorted out. For the time being you can ground the deck to one of the 4 screws that hold the main metal frame in.

You should be able to know what each of the wires are by the kenwood diagram and trace the wires back to see where they come from from your stock harness. :D

Come to think about it, it seems that everything can work except for the harness.
The headunit is good, my car is good, the stock HU is good the wiring harness with the kenwood is fine, that just leaves the aerpro wiring harness.

I didn't want to chop the factory harness, cause i wanted it easy to switch from stock to aftermarket to whatever and maybe back to stock.

But I may eventually hack my way through out of sheer frustation.

I wonder, does disconnecting negative terminal of battery do anything to my manual car?
Thx for your help guys, I'm gonna start hacking tonight if I can't figure it out by then.

Tom-k

You dont have to completely hack away, just be careful and cut the plastic jacket around the wire and peel it back enough to wrap the cord you want around it. If need be you can slide the jacket back and use electrical tape so that it will never be exposed.

It is really easy to just hack at the harness and hook everything up. Solder and heatshink all contections. I would blame the harness.

I ****ing hate wiring harnesses. I bought one for my bro's VN commodore so we dont have to cut anything up. Most of the main wires were in the wrong place.

If you dont want to cut up the original harness, just cut the one you bought and re wire it so it DOES work.

Yay! I've finished it. Stock unit out, kenwood in.

There was no problem with the aerpro wiring harness, it was the harness connecting to the actual kenwood. Fixed the dodgy wiring there. no problems now.

Well except the plastic border of the kenwood faceplate that doesn't fit.
plus i don't have a clock now.

But who cares, the music sounds better and i can play mp3's.

Tom-k

congrates on getting it working

:D Bit suss but good work champ.