Strange radio problem.

[brianwb53]

I have a 95 XLT. When I bought it, it had an aftermarket radio that was installed poorly (being nice). They messed it up so bad it was causing electrical problems where the car battery would drain completely. I found a new head unit from a 98 Sport. It is the premium radio with cassette and CD.

I wired it using the harness from the 98 Sport and the Scosche adapters to match the wiring (i also powered the blue wire for the amp). The amp in the back was bypassed, but the installer cut off the factory plugs, so I went to the junk yard, got the connectors and fixed it. I also wired in the bypass in case I needed to use it.

After attaching the radio, it powered up perfectly, but no sound comes out of the speakers. I re-bypassed the amp, and still nothing. I wired one of the speakers directly to the head unit and still nothing. A friend had another radio without the RDS button (clock instead). Repeated the process, and still nothing. I beleive the aftermarket radio had new speakers installed, but I do not know why that would be a problem.

I checked for vlotage on the speaker wires, and I am getting an output of @ 6 VDC.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? This no radio thing is killing me, and I would love to have this factory radio instead of another aftermarket.

Thanks,

Brian

 

[fixxxer]

If you are getting straight DC on the output to the speakers, the amp in the radio is fried. There should be no DC there as this will cause the speaker coils to overheat and burn up. The spkr out should have modulated A/C only.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! I've moved your thread to the audio & navigation section.

 

[Nixthebomb]

I have a 95 XLT. When I bought it, it had an aftermarket radio that was installed poorly (being nice). They messed it up so bad it was causing electrical problems where the car battery would drain completely. I found a new head unit from a 98 Sport. It is the premium radio with cassette and CD.

I wired it using the harness from the 98 Sport and the Scosche adapters to match the wiring (i also powered the blue wire for the amp). The amp in the back was bypassed, but the installer cut off the factory plugs, so I went to the junk yard, got the connectors and fixed it. I also wired in the bypass in case I needed to use it.

After attaching the radio, it powered up perfectly, but no sound comes out of the speakers. I re-bypassed the amp, and still nothing. I wired one of the speakers directly to the head unit and still nothing. A friend had another radio without the RDS button (clock instead). Repeated the process, and still nothing. I beleive the aftermarket radio had new speakers installed, but I do not know why that would be a problem.

I checked for vlotage on the speaker wires, and I am getting an output of @ 6 VDC.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? This no radio thing is killing me, and I would love to have this factory radio instead of another aftermarket.

Thanks,

Brian

If I remember correctly the Premium audio systems have a amp installed so f you just bypassed it the headunit has like zero wattage that's why your not getting any sound.

 

[brianwb53]

I tried using the amp (had to fix the cable to it from the radio). Did not fix it. I would hate to think that both radio's have bad internal amps. The one with the clock button came from a friend who removed it to install an aftermarket, and it worked when he removed it.

 

[brianwb53]

Also, i will check the outputs again a lunch time. How much AC should I be seeing on the meter?

 

[brianwb53]

I figured this out. I went to Best Buy and bought the Scosche connector for the back of the radio. Wired that into the Scosche adapters I had for the factory car harness, and voila! It worked. The wiring on the Scosche adapter did not have 3 wires that the factory wiring harness for the 98 radio had. Connecting those wires somehow interfered with the speaker signal.

Brian

 

[BrooklynBay]

Thanks for the update!