[Shotimes] JBL amp wiring problems - sad story!

[Edward Mazurek]

Hi,

I have a 95 MTX with the JBL audio system. I've been having problems
with the sound completely stopping from my radio. It's intermittant and
if I hit a bump it will start again. Then it will stop for a while.

I traced it down to the connector in the JBL amp. The AMP has three
connectors. One (small) goes to the sub amp. The next largest one goes
to the radio head unit and has the speaker inputs. The largest one
(it's on the right as the amp is viewed installed from an open trunk)
contains the power and the speaker outputs. This is the one that if I
wiggle it I can make the sound go on or off.

I visually inspected the plug and it looks OK. I then took apart the
amp and looked at all the connector solder joints. That looked OK too.

I then pulled out the yellow insert in the plug and (after writing
down the wires and their colors) and started to remove each wire. Here's
where things start to go bad... :(

I forgot that the ignition was on and the radio was on because there
was no sound. Duh! As I inserted by pointy tool in the plug to release
the clip something shorted out for a second and I actually saw a small
whisp of smoke! The smoke"looked" like it came from the wiring harness
near the amp or right rear speak. I removed the tape covering the wiring
but did not see any problems or eveidence of burning.

I determined that I blew a 40amp fuse under the hood. I replaced it and
now I get 12V at the yellow wire. But now the radio doesn't play at
all. I noticed that the yellow wire (which supplies the amp with power)
was a little loose between the connector (which is crimped to the wire)
and the pin it goes over in the amp. As I was wiggling it the connector
broke. Not the pin but the crimped-on connector.

Does Ford sell these connectors?

Anyone had problems like this and any fixes?

Does the chassis of the amp have to be grounded for it to work? There is
a ground wire in the plug but I wonder if the amp itself needs to be
screwed to the car. Currently I'm testing it without the cover and just
loose.

The amp wasn't connected (at least by the large plug I was working with)
so I don't think I would have damaged it. Maybe I damaged a the right rear
speaker but  I now get no sound.

Help!

Thanks!

Ed Mazurek