If the red light is on, and you have to plugged into the radio, it should work.

The lighter is just a convenient place to plug in the antenna power and ground.

 

i give up then? i will take it apart tonight and make sure everything is pushed in all the way

 

Where did you connect the wires?

 

there was an empty hot plug and black ground plugged it straight into those

 

Did you meter test them to make sure they were hot? The antenna leads were designed so you could piggyback the lighter connections on them and then connect them to the cigarette lighter. Of course, they can connect anywhere, but you need to ensure the power is on at the connection point. From the description of your problem, it's all good, you just need power. I also recommend turning the radio on and making sure it all works before you button it all up. The other day I changed out my fairing speakers, had the right one done and tested it, then someone came over to talk to me while I was doing it. Simple job, right? Well, I installed the left one, buttoned up the fairing, went to go for a ride and only had sound out of the right speaker. DUH! When I was talking, I had hooked up the tweeter, but never connected the stereo outputs. Good thing that fairing removal is so easy .........

 

That's what I used. The two wires with connectors on them in the harness that
goes towards the headlight. It is switched and works fine with my $20 Metra.

 

NVsteve you switched it to the cig lighter and it worked fine?

 

After some looking the light was red saying it was getting power but some how the fuse blew, i only knew this cause today i noticed my turn signals were not working looked everything up all on the same circuit replaced the 15 amp fuse now i have radio!!!! thank you all for the help!!

 

No, I used the 2 unused wires in the harness.

 

had one and reception sucked. local station i listen to is only 35 miles away.