hambone

When I got my used '89 F150, there was no radio in it. The guy put something else in and removed it when he sold it. I went to a salvage yard to pick up an original Ford stereo with cassette.

The wiring that that came out from my dash matched the plugs that came with the used radio, with the exception of two pair that were left over in the plug that would go to rear speakers. My truck only has door speakers.

When I reconnected the wires from my dash to the ones in the two radio plugs, the display didn't light up, the signal was faint and faded in and out (apparently in AM) and I wasn't able to switch it to FM. The cassette players worked fine though.

I took my truck and the stereo back to the salvage yard and we tried a plain AM/FM Ford stereo and they also pulled another AM/FM cassette player from another truck and it did the exact same thing no matter what we plugged in. They weren't sure what to think.

They said that I can bring it back for a refund if I can't get it to work.

Anyone out there have any ideas? I thought it would be a simple reconnect to the existing wires to the two plugs that were on the radio.

wde3477

Well, it should be just that simple, however, this is not your case.

Have you checked the applicable fuses? Did the P.O. do any 'custom' wiring?

Offhand, sounds like the continuous power feed isn't there - the one that keeps the clock running while the radio is off. Don't know what color that would be.

With three radios doing the same thing, suggest the problem is in the wiring or power / grounding. If you could find a diagram, perhaps there's one stuck on the radio, that would help.

Did the cassette play through the speakers?

hambone

Gee, I haven't checked this for a while! Crazy Holidays!

I can't tell if the PO did any alterations to the wiring harness. I pulled back a good amount of the harness tape to see if there were any slices. none found so far.

The cassette player worked good. Good sound.

The radio with it's connectors is still in my basement until I have time to dig deeper for the correct diagrams online.

bellj

Did the display light when the cassette was on? If so, you probably have a bad radio. I've done stereos for a long time and factory radios just don't last that long. 5 or 6 years seems to do it, and you're dealing with a much older unit I'm sure.

One thing you might consider is the antenna. A lot of times antennas provide grounding to the radio (in addition to the ground wire). And antennas do go bad. So that could be your problem.

I can't think of anything else that would be different between cassette mode and radio mode.

However, if you are saying the radio won't even switch to FM then you have a bad radio. No wacky wiring should allow you to have crappy AM, fine cassette, and no FM whatsoever. That just doesn't make sense.

If you want to be sure, get a multimeter or test light and find your constant power, switched power, and ground and make sure they all test correctly (a multimeter would be better for this) showing about 12volts. (There is probably some way to test the antenna too, but I don't know how. It should have a certain resistance I would think.) See if the radio seems to operate with just those wires connected. If not, then you know it is bad or your antenna is bad.

You might consider pulling a newer radio and wiring plugs and rewiring those plugs in.

Good luck!

dockman

Had the same problem, sort of. I changed out the radio with a new Kenwood and when it didn't work right off, I changed it back to the original until I had time to mess with it. The original now worked like you described. Problem was the 15A fuse in the #8 slot in the fuse box under the steering column. There are (2) fuses that control the radio and both must be working. One hint is if the dome light doesn't come on or you don't get the dinging with the key in and the door open. Other than that, you are probably looking at a bad radio. Hope that helps.

hambone

bellj: No lights were on as far as i could tell when the cassette player was playing. I'll test with the meter and keep the antenna in mind. The strange thing is, that the salvage yard where I got it had tested two of the radios that we tried and they all acted the same way when we plugged in the two connectors. That made three total that did the same thing. I have a friend that has an' 89 Bronco. I'm going to see if he'll let me pull his out and hook mine up. That should at least tell me if the one I have is good or not.

dockman: I know where the 15A is that you're speaking of. I was curious about that early on and it looked ok when I checked it. Where is the other fuse that you're talking about?

Thanks for all of the advice guys. I went online to try and find the stereo connector wiring. Not all of the colors seem to match the one for the gray connector. I have a green/yellow stripe, empty space, yellow/black stripe, light blue/red stripe, orange/black stripe, solid red, and two more empties.

I think the black connector was mainly for the speakers.

The pdf that I downloaded also said that Ford made a couple different stereo connections around that time.

I'll see how I make out.

dockman

The other 15A is also in the fuse block in position #11 (I think)

What you need to do fro the connectors is to buy an adapter for the year truck you have. If you already did then sorry, I didn't read that. If you didn't, it'll make life a lot easier. Wire the adapter to the plug for the new radio and plug it into the existing plugs.

Oh, and get a decent radio. I bought a Kenwood from Waly World that sounds great and ran about $80.

Good luck, riding with no tunes sucks.

hambone

Well, the radio finally came to life!

The problem apparently was ... a fuse! As Homer Simpson says "D'oh!"

What a simple fix in this case.

Thanks for all of the help!

NGM

Glad it was simple for ya.. Always remeber K.I.S.S..... Keep It Simple Stupid. My wife has to remind me of that from time to time.

F150 Mom

Hey Guys need your help, single mom here - 17 yr old son has 89 F150. Tail and panels lights went out so I decided that while we were at it we would change all fuses. Now radio will not work. It just so happens that he has a OEM Kenwood radio in it- as discussed here. I have checked and double checked fuses - any idea what the problem could be?