Hi,

I have an old auto audio amplifier from the early 80's.  It's a Hi-Comp
by Audiovox, model HCB-820.  I had it on the bench tonight but no joy
getting it to work.  There's one wire I cannot ID. Perhaps it's the
culprit.

On one end are the speaker outs (R+, R–, L+, L–), +12V and GND.  On the
other end are two RCA low-level inputs, left and right high-level input
wires, a black ground wire (which ohms to the jackets on the RCAs) and
two other wires.  These last two - pink and orange - are the question
marks.  The pink one is labeled "remote on-off".  With the unit powered,
I can hear the speakers pop when +12V is applied to the pink, but no
signal is getting thru.  Signal source is pre-outs from old receiver
connected to low level inputs.  I ran it all the way up to 300mV with no
audible speaker output.

The orange wire was left unconnected.  It has a female connector with a
plastic sheath as if it might be hot.  Inside the box, it connects to
the pink wire via an unidentified component.  This part is axial leaded
and looks like a white sphere about 1/8" in diameter, maybe a tad
smaller. It appears to be ceramic, and had a dark band on the sphere
next to one lead.  I've no idea what it is, but it's not a resistor or
capacitor or active component.  Any ideas what the component is?

What might the orange wire be?  And what should I connect it to?
Ordinarily, if this were a head unit, I might guess it's a connection
for dash lights or power antenna, but since it's a remote amp, I'm
stumped.  Any help you can offer will be sincerely appreciated.  And a
schematic or hookup diagram would be nirvana :)

TIA.

Doug