Hi. OEM radio in my 1984 pontiac trans am. This past weekend when the car was out, the radio / display no longer works but the cassette player will play a tape and you can hear it perfectly. Just seems the display and radio are no longer functioning. Any thoughts on where to start looking? You can turn it off and on without issue....I want to keep the OEM radio....

 

In my experience: Some of the older (meaning 84 and earlier) Delco radios have a common problem with a bad display. In SOME cases ----> simply flowing some fresh solder on the display board solder joints ( Logic board side AND display board side of the harness) will get the display to appear again. The Display board is powered by the Logic board,....... so it's possible the Logic board itself is the cause of the display problem too.

I'm not very familiar with those pre-85 Delcos but it is weird to me that the radio FM tuner doesn't produce output - but the cassette player does. This leads me to believe that there is a problem with the "receiver" board in the radio and that the "AMP" board is probably OK.

In short; by your brief description I'd guess that the wiring from the dash to the radio seems OK & that about 1/2 of your radio will need repair or replacement.

 

Thanks John. Yes That was my thought..perhaps cold solder joints....just figured would get some advice...will take it out/apart and see what's what. thanks for the reply!

 

I have the UU6 radio in my '84 T/A. I had to ship it to a repairman in London Ontario to have the unit completely repaired/restored to make it function. He replaced all the capacitors & cleaned all the switches. The cassette required no repair. Cost me many $$$ but it was worth it.

 

Thanks. Yes I took my radio apart today and didn't see any thing obvious...i.e. capacitor puffed up , burn marks ,etc. so may be time for a professional. guess you can't complain after 40 years of service.....

 

Got any pics to share; just to see exactly what radio your messing with ?

 

 

That's not likely to be the original radio for an 84. The grey buttons didn't come until the 1985 model year. Regardless, since you want to keep the radio, might as well have it completely overhauled, and the place most people send their OE radios to or to purchase refurbished like-new OE radios is M & R Electronics.
Automotive Electrical Repair | M&R Electronics Inc. (mnrelectronics.com)

 

Thanks for the repair link !!

 

M&R are highly recommended on other classic car sites.

 

John in RI repaired my 90 radio and did a great job.
Pleasure to deal with and very reasonable
I highly recommend !!!

 

Somewhat similar story to my OEM radio from 1988. Cassette player always worked perfectly when I bought it six years ago, but the radio reception was very poor. Sent it to M&R. The re-soldered connections and replaced some capacitors. $150. Plus another $75 to add an AUX jack on a pigtail to plug in my phone. They had the radio back to me very quickly. I don't think it even took two weeks including shipping to and from.

 

I had a guy in the Facebook groups Noe Saldivar fix my radio. He’s in all the Thirdgen Facebook groups selling refurbished radios and he puts Bluetooth devices in the radio so you can synch your phone and play streaming music too. Radio and Cassette still work too. I also had a bad capacitor that leaked out and damaged the board. He sent pics and replaced my whole board with a refurbished one with new capacitors. I had crackling speakers on the driver side…

He’s in Oregon which was not cheap shipping from East Coast but 7 days to get the radio back and I think it was around $200 for the repair and the Bluetooth install.

The Bluetooth is invisible too… pair the phone and it just takes over. Disconnect the phone and it goes back to radio/cassette.

Well worth it IMO…

Ive heard John In RI is also good

 

Yup,... That's an 85+ Pontiac Radio.

I've been repairing and modifying factory Delco radios for members here @ TGO for 5-6 years now. If you want to get it checked out,... repaired,... or modified feel free to send me a PM. I know I've got a few radios exactly like that and I'm very familiar with them.




Edit: Thanx for the mention guys !

 

You wouldn’t be able to upgrade and refurbish C4 Corvette Bose radios would you? Works fine but the clock display lights went out and would love to add Bluetooth to this one?

People seem skittish of dealing with the Bose systems whether Vettes or Thirdgens

 

I've been inside the C4 radio a few times,..... always just to strip them for parts. ( I think I still have 1 C4 cassette radio left. ) If the remote head is just in need of bulbs I'm fairly certain I can handle that ! When it comes to adding Bluetooth; that modification takes place in the Receiver part of the radio that's mounted under the pass side of the dash. I've added Bluetooth to other CDM radios but not to the CDM BOSE units yet, let me crack open a BOSE Receiver to see if the same circuits are available to connect the bluetooth into. The Receiver looks like this:


P.S. I've done more BOSE work this winter than in all previous years combined....... Mostly 84-92 BOSE Radios and countless AMPs.

 

Very cool! Yeah the amps in those speakers always end up with bad capacitors I hear that leak out and the speaker stops working…. The Vette guys really don’t want to go aftermarket because you have to re-wire everything and the Bose system on the 90s cars actually sounds great when it works.

The lights for the clock backlight are tiny bulbs that need to be soldered in. There’s videos on how to fix it but doesn’t look super easy for a first timer…

I would think there’d be a market for fixing and improving C4 Bose systems and I think people in the C4 groups would go nuts for it.

Similar to the Thirdgen people though that really like the look of the stock stuff…. No one wants some modern, flashing colorful screen in a stock Thirdgen where everything else looks 80s…. I get it in the more modern builds…

 

I’m very interested in purchasing an OEM radio for my 1989 GTA. I just purchased the car and it has an aftermarket radio. I’m attaching a picture of the car - unfortunately it’s not great - that shows the original radio. Not sure if you have any for sale - if you don’t, please keep me in mind if you run across anything.

 

@89GTA-Alabama

Does your car still have a the Steering Wheel with the Radio Control horn pad ??

Would you be OK with a radio that had faded buttons,... or are you more interested in something that looks "mint" ?

 

@88IROCvertZ

I was able to get this C4 radio properly wired-up & plugged in and tested the other day,.... Is this the same style radio you've got ??

 

My car does still have the steering wheel with the radio control horn pad. I would be ok with faded buttons.

 

OK,..... I do have one and will try to get some pics for you ASAP.