ill check that tonight. the speakers wires checked at 4 - 4.6 ohms
the guy who checked them said to use at least 10 gauge power wire to the radio and go straight from the battery hot. so ill buy more wire and try that ..I am using 14 gauge. dang thing has me agitated lol. I , like you , have installed tons of radios over the years..

that's weird.....

I'v never had to use anything thicker gage than the power wire coming off the main
harness and the head unit

running a Pioneer P99RS with the factory power wires and this thing has a full on
board DSP and the same in the wifes car with the 80PRS....flawless operation


double check your ground point too.....
with a bad ground some head units will pull the ground thru the radio antenna

results: good battery voltage 12.9..starter good 12.27 v...charging system no load 14.73 v..full load 14.71v..ripple 28mV..-0.24v

I have it grounded to the emergency brake bolt which goes to the chassis.. should I go straight to battery negative? the antenna is in the windshield..should i buy a external antenna and mount that ?

took the dash off and this is what i found. holy crap..https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...c3&oe=580F624E

I'd start with cleaning that mess up....

forget the antenna ... you DO NOT want the deck grounding thru it

the head unit should be grounded with the black ground wire off the harness

AND there should be a ground from the chassis
( little bolt hole on the ear of the head unit )

the factory ground wire on the vehicles wiring harness is usually sufficient
make shure the paint is cleaned off the bolt / bracket where you are grounded

there is one really small black wire, I assume its a ground.. but there is also a blue and a light blue wire with a bare wire wrapped around those wires and its wrapped with a foil covering. so, I think thats the speaker with ground also. i hooked the bare wire to my ground and everything works but it still gets hot. it never shut off though. do the kenwood decks get real hot normally?

most decks do produce heat.... my 80PRS gets really hot.. the 99 is not as bad

I would re do every connection with soldier and heat shrink...also try and keep
the wiring clean and pulled away from the head unit chassie so there is some air
movement around it...this will help some with the heat