Base Radio on 1995 Mostly Not Working, Occasional Loud Pops from Speakers

[in_garage]

The radio quit. I didn't do anything prior to this. The only electrical issues I have is intermittent non-functional power windows probably due to a broken wire at the driver door bundle. And my battery runs down within a week of not driving. This was probably due to me not checking it often enough and putting a charger on it. Anyway the radio problem is intermittent - it came on for a short time the other day - but mostly it is dead. I get occasional loud pops from my speakers. A few per hour of driving. Like with some guitar amps where the amp is turned on and you plug an instrument/cable into it. So not popping often except yesterday when I started the truck it popped quite a few times. Enough so that I would not want to drive it that way.

The only other thing to mention is when the radio was operational the on/off/volume control would not switch off. I'd have to turn the volume off to stop the sound.

Any ideas?

 

[J_C]

The power supply board, or that subsection of another board, is a common fault. If your speaker wires are shorting out, that too, could cause a failure, more likely the output transistor(s) then.

If you're handy with a multimeter and can solder, then open it up and see if you can find the fault, and check the speaker wires for shorts while it's unplugged.

Otherwise, there are radio repair services but they tend to cost a lot more than a used radio at a junkyard (often the junkyards pull the radios ahead of time, so will be indoors on a shelf), or a new one if you don't care if it's the same, especially if your base radio setup doesn't have controls on the steering wheel so you don't have any concern of losing that feature. There are companies that make wiring harness adapters, don't know what they cost but I'd check Crutchfield to start with if you want one. I don't know if they actually make one for any specific Ford radio adaptation.

The volume knob might be a separate issue and if so, I'm not sure exactly how that is set up, I mean if it's a single potentiometer with an (axial?) switch built in, that might be a one of a kind part made for Ford and difficult to replace if there's no obvious problem like a broken solder joint or some spring that slipped or something, allowing to continue using the original.

If it helps, there are multiple radio wiring diagrams in the 2nd gen wiring diagrams linked in my sig below.

 

[toypaseo]

If you think the volume knob is the problem, I have one I pulled in the junkyard to try to fix a radio that had a bad volume knob, but it still didn’t work after swapping it out…

 

[in_garage]

The power supply board, or that subsection of another board, is a common fault. If your speaker wires are shorting out, that too, could cause a failure, more likely the output transistor(s) then.

If you're handy with a multimeter and can solder, then open it up and see if you can find the fault, and check the speaker wires for shorts while it's unplugged.

Thanks. I put this project on hold but want to resurrect it. Where is the power supply board for the radio?

Is there a separate power amp on a second gen or is it all in the radio? If separate where is it?

Forgot to mention that when the volume is working, sometimes it is on all speakers and then it will go to the right only. Back and forth every few minutes.

 

[J_C]

^ There are wiring diagrams for many, if not all the different radios offered, linked below in my sig, but I mean the vehicle power circuit, not schematics for the radios themselves.

A base radio has the amp circuit in it, while at least a couple of the higher trim radios have a separate amp behind the passenger side rear quarter panel trim.

The power supply board is in the radio, should be fairly easy to identify or open it up and post pictures and we can do that.

Having audo only on left or right, suggests either a dirty/weak volume potentiometer (which is also suggested by having that knob not work properly to turn it off), or a bad solder joint on the output transistor for that channel, or joint on the amp IC if it doesn't use discrete transistors for the output stage, or a wire or speaker voice coil shorting out on one of the left speakers.

 

[amj441]

you can always switch between any of the radio trims and upgrade your radio to stock+. if you like the base radio I understand.

If you needs some parts, I have a cd player am/fm unit with a cracked faceplate, but otherwise everything works. I also soldered some wires to the cd player to be able to connect aux. Let me know if youd like it because otherwise it will remain collecting dust in my garage lol.