HELP - Radio not working

nvr_enuf

Registered User
My radio in my 1990 had stopped working. Check the fuses under the dash as well as under the hood, all seem fine.

The power antenna works but nothing shows up on the radio display.

I removed my old radio and replaced with a purchased one from another member.

I am assuming the purchased radio is good.

If anyone has a schematic that states the power wire, I would like to check that.

I have a Hayes manual for the car but it does not provide a good schematic. Any help would be appreciated, I have another member coming to pick up the car tomorrow and I would like to fix the radio for him.

Thanks

Scott
 
nvr_enuf said:
My radio in my 1990 had stopped working. Check the fuses under the dash as well as under the hood, all seem fine.

The power antenna works but nothing shows up on the radio display.

I removed my old radio and replaced with a purchased one from another member.

I am assuming the purchased radio is good.

If anyone has a schematic that states the power wire, I would like to check that.

I have a Hayes manual for the car but it does not provide a good schematic. Any help would be appreciated, I have another member coming to pick up the car tomorrow and I would like to fix the radio for him.

Thanks

Scott

Your power wires should be: (from an 89 EVTM, but 90 is the same as far as I've seen)

Memory Wire Light Green/Purple
Main Power Wire Yellow/Black
 
It very well could be that the cd player is bad. In the jbl setup, a bad cd player will cause the radio not to work, although it should at least get power. I know for a fact that the radio woks, because I pulled it out of my car the day I sent it to you.
 
bad radio

I only have a premium sound radio, no CD player.

I should have stated this up front.

I will check the power wires stated in a previous reply - thanks

Scott
 
nvr_enuf said:
I only have a premium sound radio, no CD player.

I should have stated this up front.

I will check the power wires stated in a previous reply - thanks

Scott

If you are installing a Radio that came from a car with a Factory CD Player, and yours does not have a CD Player, then you will not get any audio out of the radio. Not a problem with the radio in this case.....it's just the way Ford designed these systems. There are two basic types of Premium Sound radios in these cars....ones that will interface with CD Players, and ones that won't. The ones that will MUST have a CD Player connected to them to complete the audio circuit. The only way around this is to install a special "bypass jumper" plug on the back of the radio where the CD Player interface cable would normally plug into.

If the problem is that nothing is showing up on the display, then chances are it's either a 12 volt supply issue or a radio issue. There are 2 separate 12 volt inputs to the radio. One for main power and one for memory power. BOTH must be present for the radio to power-up when the power button is pushed.

Good Luck!
 
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Radio not working

joker12552 said:
It very well could be that the cd player is bad. In the jbl setup, a bad cd player will cause the radio not to work, although it should at least get power. I know for a fact that the radio woks, because I pulled it out of my car the day I sent it to you.


JOker121552 - I am confident that you sent me a radio that does work. Please confirm if the radio came out of a car with a CD player or not.

Thanks,

Scott
 
nvr_enuf said:
JOker121552 - I am confident that you sent me a radio that does work. Please confirm if the radio came out of a car with a CD player or not.

Thanks,

Scott
Yes, the car it came out of did have a cd player. I know you are pressed for time, but if you want to pay shipping I can send you, or the person buying the car the cd player as well. The cd player in my car did not play cd's (it would just eject them) but it did allow the radio portion of the setup to work correctly. Let me know and I can send the cd player, and the wires that run from it to the radio. I have no use for them other than selling them anymore, because I installed an aftermarket cd/mp3 player this weekend. I definiltey aplogize for the confusion, and will do anything I can to help.

I also may have one of the jumpers that makes the radio work alone, but I will have to look in my parts car and see what kind of radio it had in it.
 
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im curious about my cd player

yeah, i dont know a whole lot about the audio in these cars, but i know that when i got my SC, there was a aftermarket radio/cassette in it, but the cd player was still there....from what i read, it has to be to hear the sound yadda yadda yadda, but i wanted to know if anyone had any clue about what was going on with mine, like...there is no display on the cd player itself, but when the interior lights are on, then the lights on the buttons of the cd player do come on, and if i am correct, it feels like there is a cd jammed in there, but i dont know how i would go about ejecting the the cd, when the cd player does nothing at all no matter what button i push, i would like to have the cd player work because the head unit in it at the current time is just fine, but doesnt play cd's, and i figured someone might have some sort of clue about what was up...thanks guys!

~Sean
 
19TbirdSC91 said:
yeah, i dont know a whole lot about the audio in these cars, but i know that when i got my SC, there was a aftermarket radio/cassette in it, but the cd player was still there....from what i read, it has to be to hear the sound yadda yadda yadda, but i wanted to know if anyone had any clue about what was going on with mine, like...there is no display on the cd player itself, but when the interior lights are on, then the lights on the buttons of the cd player do come on, and if i am correct, it feels like there is a cd jammed in there, but i dont know how i would go about ejecting the the cd, when the cd player does nothing at all no matter what button i push, i would like to have the cd player work because the head unit in it at the current time is just fine, but doesnt play cd's, and i figured someone might have some sort of clue about what was up...thanks guys!

~Sean
That is exactly what my factory cd player does.

No, you DO NOT have to have the cd player hooked up to run an aftermarket radio. All you have to do is buy the appropriate adapter harness. The one I bought was the Ford premium sound harness from Shosche (sp?) It was like $10 at Walmart

You can also bypass the factory amp if you ahve one, but that requires extra adapters.
 
radio not working

Heres the latest - The radio did not have power to the memory, once we rigged a wire to the fuse box, the radio turned on and so forth but very little sound was present. Almost like it was wanting an amplifier which maybe the CD player performs.

What is odd is that the back of the radio looks to be the same as my original.

I sold the car last night - I was trying to get the radio to work so the new owner could listen to tunes during his 8 hour drive.

I wil relay the information to him, sounds like if he adds a stock CD player, that the radio will work.

Thanks for everyone's help!

Scott
 
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