Well the mute wire along with the amp powerup wires were not on the RCA cable, so I went ahead and spliced the blue/white wire from the CHTO to the yellow/yellow bat + wires, amp powers up.
I did what you said about adjusting the potentiameter all the way up to max and I unpluged the CHTO then repluggedit back in and cycled the ignition to the on position twice before starting the car. When I did that and turned the D3 volume to the max I very faintly heard the music being played. Still isn't fixed but you seem to know your stuff...any other ideas man?