I just got my first cb and am trying to install it. I have connected the red wire in the fuse box( to the radio) and grounded the black wire. turned the car on and I cannot get any power to the CB, but the radio is still good to go. Help!

It is very simple . Connect the black/red wire to chassis ground (the body of the truck). Then connect the red wire to your fuse box. The truck battery would be the best place to make connections as it acts as a filter to filter most engine noise that may occur. Connect the red wire to the positive side of the battery and the black/red wire to the negative side of the battery.

How did you disconnect it?? Antenna wire?? Power supply?? Microphone?? May be that you have a short in your coax in back of radio. Try taking it loose and screw it back in. Try new coax. Turn up Mic gain knob or change microphone. Make sure power wires are connected RED to RED(+) and Black to Black(-). Try grounding radio to metal ; if inside house ground to metal water pipes, filing cabinet, breaker box or meter box or 8 foot rod into earth. Measure SWR it should read 1.1 to 1.5. Measure power supply with Voltmeter it should be 12 to 15 volts. Check antenna plug in back of radio is my guess or microphone itself.

Hi. The red wire is your real positive wire and goes to your fuse box on a fuse with 12V only when ignition is turned on.

The orange one needs to get steady 12V. Plug it on an always alive 12V fuse.

The black wire is the ground. Put it on a screw attached to the frame, you can find one inside your fuse box.

If your are not familiar with all of these just twist your red and orange wires together (positive) and plug it to your battery positive + pole. Put the black one on the negative pole - of your battery. This is the easiest way to go if you have enough wire length.

Hope it helps!

first thing is to make sure the power leads to your CB are hooked up. The black wire from the back of your CB need to go directly to the car battery "minus" "-" or to a metal screw which is actually touching metal not plastic. The red wire needs to go through a fuse. Sometimes there are inline fuses, that is to say built into the red wire that you can remove and check. If not the the red wire should go to a wire that is coming from your cars electrical fuse box. Using a multimeter to check voltages, set it to read DC and to be able to read at least 20 volts. attach the black lead of your meter to the same screw or point where the black wire from your CB is at. Next if your red CB wire has an inline fuse remove it. we will test it in a minute. Now where you have removed the fuse, with the fuse out touch the red lead of your meter to the red wire of your CB but the half that goes the opposite direction of your CB. Is there 12 volts there? oops turn on your ignition and test again. you should have 12 volt reading on your meter, or close to that. If so that means you have power up to the fuse. Turn your ignition switch back off. Now set the meter to read ohms or if you have a buzzer symbol, set it to that. Now touch the red and black leads of your meter together, note what happens. something should happen, meter goes to almost zero and probably makes a tone, if you have it set for buzzer. Now touch the leads to the fuse while it is laying on a table. One lead to one side the other lead to the other side. Doesn't matter which lead goes where. You should see or hear the same thing you just did a second ago. If so then the fuse is good. Put it back in the red wire where it belongs. make sure both ends are snug when you fit it in and tighten up.Try your radio again with the ignition on. does it work? It should if what I said checks out. If not then you will need someone to look at your radio internally for a bad solder joint where the red wire comes in or even a bad switch. If you have made the check I suggest and you don't see anything on the meter when you check for voltage. set the meter for DC voltage, touch the leads up to your car battery just to see if the setting is right on your meter and it does work. If it does then continue on. You will need to do this: touch the red wire of your meter to your cars battery "+". You might need a longer wire to attach to the red lead to be able to reach the battery, because I want you to touch the black lead to the black CB wire at the point where it hooks to your car. Do you see 12 volts now? If not the black wire connection where it makes contact with the screw is not really grounded. Find another ground and try it again until it works. If that all checks out and the radio still doesn't work we are in trouble. The basis of this is that the red wire has to end up making a connection to the car battery "+" one way or another and the black lead of your radio needs to go to the car Battery "-". If your red wire has an inline fuse you could just run the wire directly to your battery "+" and the black wire to your battery "-" It will work if the fuse is good and your radio works. If not then your radio needs help. The drawback of running the wires like that are , would be the radio would not go off and on with the ignition switch. woopie!

Hi, my name is John. Welcome to FixYa. First try to locate a place where the unit will be out of the way of operation of vehicle. Some people mount them under the dash or on the floor board. Run your wiring strait to battery if you like or to fuse box. Red is the hot wire and black is the ground wire, make sure you get a good connection. Then your antenna, a good magnet mount is a great antenna, place it on top of vehicle or trunk. Good luck and thanks for choosing FixYa....John

From www.Cobra.com


"Where do I connect the three power wires? (radios with 3 power leads)
Answer: Connect the black wire to chassis ground.

Connect the red wire to a switched +12 volt source, such as the fuse for the AM/FM radio.

The orange wire is for the memory retention of your CB radio, and should be connected to a constant +12 volt source. The fuse for the brake lights is usually a good choice.

With the radio wired as above, the radio will turn off when the ignition is turned off. The orange wire will provide power to the radio so that it remembers the channel.

If you are installing your Cobra CB radio in an application where you wish to utilize a cigarette plug to power the unit, connect the black wire to the negative lead (side terminal) on the plug. Connect both the red and orange wires together to the positive lead (center tip) of the plug. Your unit will function properly this way but will not retain the channel memory. When power is applied your radio will come up on channel 9."

yes the problem is a diode on the input of the rig. this is black with a silver band at one end it will need replacing as it has shorted out.

black is ground orange should be connected to a positive battery source and red to a positive switched battery source

The red wire is the power wire which can be wired to your fuse box to turn the radio off buy your key.The orange wire is a memory back up which must be wire to a constant 12 volts(this will keep the radio on the same channel when you shut the car off) The black wire is ground.

Twist red and orange together and hook to power then put the black to ground