AreSpkr Neg & chassis gnd the same?

HELP !! I'm trying to put an amp(Walmart) & FM cd player (Sony)in a 96 Chev truck with very little luck.

Can you sub the negative side of the OEM feed for the chasssis ground to the amp? After trying this and then playing musical wiring, there is great sound from only 2 speakers no matter which channel they are hooked up to at the amp....

Also tried another shortcut...by combining the constant power feed from the battery to both units from the same source wire, and then ran the REM wire back throuth the rem terminal on the amp to the rem terminal on the remote CD deck. When it was turned on, they were both powered up from the battery, but there was no power to either rem terminal. Checked the source and discovered the power was getting as far as the diode, but no farther. After running a second line to the amp, the two speakers worked. 

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks 

Bob, you have created a monster, post up the make and model of the equipment you have so people can look it up and give you correct info on how to wire it. Should you continue on the path you are on you run a 50/50 chance of doing damage to either the vehicle or the equipment, so basically stop the shortcuts, if you are not sure, ask clearly with detailed desctciptions or head into a local specialty shop for professional installation. I won't be back to the site today but maybe bberman, dyohn or stephen may pop in for further help.

I am totally not understanding what you are doing.  But I fear that if you keep going, you are going to end up with results like what Forbidden warned about. 

So here's what you do.  Wire the head unit (CD player) into the factory wiring.  You will find your power wires and ground wires for it in there.  If you have RCA outputs on the head unit, run them, along with a remote wire back to your amplifier only.  Don't run any power or ground wires for your amp from your head unit.  Just the RCA's and remote wire.  To get power to your amp, run a large awg wire (depending on the amplifier) from the battery to the amplifier.  Make sure to put a fuse inline close to the battery.  Now take the same size wire and attatch a ground from the amplifier to the chassis of the vehicle.

Now if you are using a head unit with no RCA outputs, I recomend getting a different one.  Those vehicles are notorious for noise problems when you try to use the high level inputs on an amplifier.

Thanks for your sugestions guys,

The equipment is a Rampage (Audiovox) 604 amp and a Sony CDX 565 MXFR

I rewired the amp and it appears to be fine. Still working on the head unit, which appears to be reading the discs but after going through the loading process gives a "reset" message and shuts down.

I talked to the tech at Future shop on Sunday who offerred to take a look at it if it continued to not function. He is a good guy and appeared to be very knowledgeable. If anyone has a suggestion, I will give it a shot before taking it in.

Thanks again for your earlier comments. They were quite helpful.

To be honest, I didn't get his name. We did talk about trucks and he just sold his 94 Chev if that helps.

Hi Guys,

Just to let you know, the tech I talked to who was very encouraging at FS was Lloyd. There was a problem with the head unit and when it was replaced and the new one plugged in..magic ...it all worked.

In response to the road noise question, can't say how the Rampage works in a car but with a diesel pickup it works like a charm. Can't even hear the engine.

Thanks again guys.

Bob