Dead Radio from battery backward jump

[GCumbee]

Well, even being an electronics guy does not help from being stupid at times. My old '97 XLT had been sitting most of the winter. So when I tried to start it the battery was totally dead. I jumped it and it ran. I drove it for awhile, then stopped to pickup something from my storage bldg. Shut it off and it was dead again. Called my neighbor to come help me. That is where the trouble started. We were rushing to get ahead of a storm. I looked at his Toyota battery and the red/black covers were gone. +/- was hard to determine. I thought I looked at the right wires, but did not. I hooked it up backwards. Got a big arc. So I swapped the cables. Then it jumped fine, BUT...the radio was dead. Nothing. I went to a local auto store and had the battery checked. Dead cell. New battery installed. Still no radio....

I checked all fuses. Everything seems OK. I went back to the store and got the removal tool for the radio. Took it out. I got a voltmeter and found +12V on the vertical flat plug. So I figured the radio was dead. I found one just like it on Ebay. From a radio shop. They say it was checked and worked fine. I got it today. Plugged it up. Nothing. Still dead.

So what do I do now? Chance that I still got a bad radio from them? What about these theft codes. I have a factory anti-theft system. I do not get this CODE indication on the display. Nothing, no clock, nothing.....

Is there anything else I am missing? Other fuse locations? I have checked under the hood and the side panel boxes.. No bad ones. What about the plug in diodes ot relays. Any of those have anything to do with the radio?

Everything else works. Just the radio is dead....

Thanks in advance for any help with this....

George in KY

 

[Trebor]

i would check your fuses with a meter, sometimes just looking at them isnt enough. they may look good to you but in fact they could be bad. and since u hooked the battery up backwards im guessing if your radio was on you shorted it out, first check the fuses and then check your wiring

 

[GCumbee]

I swapped out the #20 fuse that is for the radio. No joy there. I checked all other fuses and they were OK. I checked the main connector to the radio with a voltmeter and found +12 on the center pin to ground. Like I said, now the replacement radio is still dead...

 

[oplitic]

Did you check to see if you have 12v, switched, and ground? I saw you said 12v only so far. I think the wire colors are..

12V - Green/Yellow or lt. green/purple
Switched - Yellow/Black
Ground - Black or black/lt. green


Those were pretty common colors in that tiem of explorers (and are for my 98).

 

[GCumbee]

Well, finally got to the bottom of it....I found a fuse that was not labeled as anything to do with the radio that was bad. It did not look bad when I first went through all of them. Then it started just checking everyone of them with an ohmeter and sure enough found an open one. It was a 10a and there was a 10a spare on the cover so I popped it in a there it was.....joy...
I put the old radio back in a it worked also....

So now I have an extra radio/cassette/6 CD changer control I guess I will list on Ebay. I hate to send it back and with return shipping it is just not worth it. They do have a 30 day refund, but I think I will just list it myself or keep it for a spare since Ford wants 400-500 for a new one. I plan to keep this XLT as a second vehicle for awhile...It has over 250K on it and still runs great and I have never tuned it up. Go figure. It is the best vehicle overall I have ever owned. My 2nd Explorer. I also have an 03 Mountaineer as my primary vehicle...

Thanks for all the advice and help on this one. It got me going in the right direction to troubleshoot it. I went to a dealer Sat and they were not very helpful. THey did suggest checking voltages on the small plug which I was getting ready to do when I started checking fuses...

At least switching cables can or does blow a fuse, thank goodness...

Appreciate the help guys. This is a great forum for Ford owners...

George