help putting a cd player in a boat

I am installin a sony cd player in a 87 bass tracker boat. the boat used to have a tape player. I have taken out the old radio and wired in the new one it is not turning on. I didnt ground it because nothing on the boat is grounded, do i have to ground it right to the battery? and will this make a radio not turn on? p[lease help i am out of ideas.

 

Depending on the model, the ground may be on the chassis of the equipment. There should be a ground strip on the back of your panel. That is where the black wire for the lights and gauges

 

That's right, there often is a stud on the back of the unit that will also receive a crimped lug.

For what it's worth, everything on your boat is grounded, or it wouldn't work. In fact this is a common issue when things fail and one of the first things I check when an electrical device seems to suddenly take a dump. I can't tell you how many times I've made a service call just to tight a 1/4 turn on a ground screw.

 

I don't know if there is an electrical difference between marine and automotive players, but I know in automotive players you need 2 power source to turn on your deck.

The yellow and red wires.
Yellow is the constant/memory wire, and red is the "ignition" wire. In the car world, if 1 of those is not connected the deck won't power on. If you are indeed running a car deck with those 2 wires, connect both to the + side of you battery and call it a day. And obvisouly check the ground too. Also, some decks won't power on if the antena is not connected.