Testing radio off car?

[WmWatt]

Is there a way to test a radio off the car? I took the old ratio out and hooked up the second hand replacment but it won't turn on, ie won't light up. So I hooked the old one back up and it won't turn on either. So I used a voltmenter to check the power line on the car was good (both the always hot and the key-on/ACC hot wires) and I connected just the power and ground but neither radio will light up. I trieed the ground wire and grounding directly to the metal the radio scews onto. I have a battery charger. Would it be safe to use that as a power source to test if the radios light up? Other ideas? I don't need to connect the speakers yet, just see if the radio powers up.

[badbeardbeast]

the charger would most likely kill the radio.

This may be simple, but did you check the fuse?

As for testing, simply connect the red wire (turn on) and the yellow wire (+12v) together, along with a 10amp fuse to the battery and ground wire as well. if both radios are good they should turn right on.

[ricko1966]

I wouldn't test a radio without hooking up speakers.Not sure if it is still an issue but used to be running a stereo or amp with no load, as in no speakers would burn up the output I.C. learned the hard way once, did it twice but learned on the second one.Even argued with a guy that told me that would happen, because in my mind I figured if nothing shorted nothing would be hurt.And. I have used my battery charger many tomes to check stereos I just wire them up like they were going in a car, speakers amps and all the substite the battery charger for a battery.Never did that for more than a minute or so but for testing that's how I've done it.

[jurrejonker]

What i'm using to power a car amp for my sub thats hooked on to my home cinema set is a computer power supply, open it up and try to max the 12v rail (often 13.1v max)