cant figure it out
 

I have a 99 Lightning. I need to know if anyone knows which color wire is pos and neg going to back speakers if they are all the same. I hooked up an amp and tapped into rear speaker wires for the input but it keeps cutting all my speakers out. Dont know if i hooked up backwards or what, I didnt think it really made any difference which way it was hooked up. I'm running mtx truck riders off my amp. The only way to get any of th speakers to work is to unplug the input plug from my amp, then cut the truck on then plug the input wires back in and cut the amp on. Sounds weird but I sure cant figure what may be wrong. Any suggestions on this one would be greatly appreciated. Thanx in advance.

Disclaimer: I am not a pro installer but I know my way around electronics and I've done a few installations including my truck.

"I need to know if anyone knows which color wire is pos and neg going to back speakers if they are all the same" Usually, the negative wire has a black stripe on the plastic sleeve.

"I hooked up an amp and tapped into rear speaker wires for the input but it keeps cutting all my speakers out" Probably this is the first thing you did wrong. Does your amp accept speaker-level signal? If it doesn't you can't hook the speaker wires directly to the amp. You need a signal converter (from speaker level to line level) in order to make the amp work. Or if you have an after-market unit most likely it comes with at least one set of pre-amp outs.

"I didnt think it really made any difference which way it was hooked up" By no means I'm trying to be rude here but if you don't know what you're doing let someone who knows do the job. I'm sure you had to work hard to buy your toys, spend an extra 100 bucks on a professional installation and have peace of mind.

Alf

What ALF said!! Good info ALF.

Yeah I would look into buying the converter box. It's a box that converts speaker outputs to RCA inputs if I'm not mistaken.

Are you running a set of RCA's right now?

No I'm not running the RCA's. They are for low input and I tapped into the rear speakers using the amps high input. When I cut the radio on I have to unplug the high input from the amp and then plug it right back in for the speakers to start working. Can't figure it out but we have never had this problem before and have hooked it up just like I've got it now on several other vehicles.