The blue wire from the sled and the blue wire from the tuner should NOT be connected to each other!

Scout's honor, no smoke, no funny smells, no nothing, and I was driving it around for quite a while! We really did work carefully to do the measure twice, cut once thing here. I really should be able to explain this properly, so let's see if I can redeem myself here:

The blue wire from the tuner that comes out the tuner extension closest to the tuner module - the one shipped with some shrunken black tubing on it ... THAT isn't hooked up to anything right now, and that's the as-yet unused power antenna lead. Meanwhile, the blue wire from the connector that goes to the sled is, indeed, connected to the Amp and is the amp remote.

There. That's the way I have it. (Did I win? )

I probably mentioned the wiring harness before and shouldn't have. Doesn't enter into it. I appreciate you speaking up in any event - this definitely isn't a toy (well ...). Amazingly, after all this, the AM radio is working just fine, good signal and everything. Ever since I removed, examined, and reattached that extension and antenna running to the tuner ...

The thing is, I looked at it while it was all CONNECTED and it looked great, solid, clicked in and everything. I kind of wish it was something more obvious that I could've pointed to and said "yeah, THAT was it" but no such thing.

I haven't put it all back together in the dash yet. I want to see if the issue manifests itself again. I'm also going to be very VERY careful about how I stow the cables inside that space. Not that I wasn't careful before, but I wonder if something got caught and it jiggled just enough to cause some grief with the wires that was not necessarily visible.

I'm still enthusiastic about this despite all the hiccups and reality checks, so let's see how things shape up tomorrow.

Continued thanks to everyone for their support. A fine group it is.