perhaps one of the wires on the sled pulled out of the harness, is loose or otherwise causing problems

that's what i'm thinking at the moment. It's either that or the tuner...

Is it one of the wired remotes, sony-style, plugged into the tuner module?

nope. it's a Pioneer IR one.

Were you one of the folks who'd accidentally installed one of the tuner kit's components upside-down at first?

nope.

But then again, my kit worked the first time.

mine did too... sorta. i was only seeing problems with reception due to a bad grounding on my part.

I guess the next logical step would be to remove the tuner from the equation. Then if it's still happening check the sled wiring etc...