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Just picked up a 1984 trans am, radio clock displays fine but no matter how many buttons I click the radio/ cassette player will not turn on/ work. I have a power antennae and it will not activate. I took apart the radio and found a suspicious unplugged female adapter with no male input. Fuse is good. Anyone have any input? greenish white wire is the mystery wire everything else looks good and connected
That wire is not the reason your radio will not power-up. The most common reason a mid eighties radio will not power-up is a bad power button, a common problem and probably why Delco returned to **** controlled ON OFF power.
I don't know what that wire is for,....... I find it on 84-87 Buick and BOSE head units but I've never seen it plugged into any dash harness. It is a switched ground circuit, but not a 'normal' ground.
If you have battery voltage at 12.5, the ignition key in the OFF position and probe that wire with a voltmeter for ground it will show about 9.5 volts. If you turn the key to RUN or ACC that voltage will jump to 12.5. BUT,....... if you probe that wire with a test light ( key in RUN or ACC ) the test light bulb will not illuminate. So; I connecting the voltmeter first (key in RUN or ACC ) and got a reading, but as soon as the bulb was wired simultaneously to the same power source and the plug was checked for ground,... voltage was 0. When probed with a voltmeter that wire shows ground, but when probed with a bulb there's no ground. I don't know what the purpose of that extra wire is but it is NOT responsible for a radio that will not power up.
The power button in that radio is a basic 2 wire button,.... Voltage going into it ( from YELLOW wire on radio plug ) and voltage passing thru it when pushed. Make sure the radio has good ground, make sure your radio FUSE is good, make sure the YELLOW wire has battery voltage when key is in RUN or ACC, then probe the 2 wires connected to the radio POWER button. 1 should have voltage and the other should not; press the button and the other wire should now show voltage. If not,... the power button is suspect. If the button is bad you can temporarily JUMP the 2 power button wires together and the radio should power-up; if both wires show voltage and the radio still doesn't power on than the problem is deeper in the radio.
