Replacement radio doesn't work

[ibroussard]

About five years ago, I bought a replacement Delco radio/CD player/EQ from Kirban to replace my original radio/cassette player/EQ in my CS2 system ('87 GN). I didn't get around to installing it until about a year later. I couldn't get it to work, so I put it aside. Four years later, I'm back to messing with it.

The unit's serial number is 16170214. Kirban provided a plug adapter with the radio. I checked all the wires on the adapter end-to-end and all of them are good.

Pressing the power button has no effect. The only time I can get the display to show anything is by pressing RECALL, and that gives the time for a few seconds. I can insert a CD, and it grabs it and pulls it in correctly. It will also eject the CD correctly. If I turn on my parking lights, I can see an orange illumination inside the unit, and the RECALL display is dimmer. The heat sinks get a little warm.

Other than the above...nothing. No sound, no static, no radio station display. CD transport keys don't do anything. It's acting as if the POWER button isn't turning it on. Pressing the POWER button doesn't bring up the power antenna either.

Everything works correctly with the original unit (before and after trying the replacement unit).

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Ira

 

[turbopete]

Look up Gary K

He is a moderator for the Car Audio section. He is a wizard and will help you figure it out.

 

[ibroussard]

This problem is fixed. It turned out that the adapter harness I got from Kirban with the radio was wired incorrectly. The adapter's ten pin plug and four pin plug that plug into the radio were both wired correctly. However, the big twelve pin socket that accepts the original black, white, and blue plugs was wired wrong. For example, the wire that goes to the top, furthest left pin was on the bottom, furthest right pin. All wires were exactly opposite of the way they should have been. I'm lucky I didn't blow the radio and/or a speaker or two. I rewired the socket the way it should be and now everything works correctly.

On a side note...at one point, thinking that the radio was bad, I was considering buying another radio off of eBay. I had some questions about the unit that was for sale so I asked some questions of the seller, and explained my situation. A few emails, a wiring harness diagram, and some pictures later and I figured out that the problem was the adapter harness. The seller uses the eBay ID "ccc87gn". He's very knowledgeable on these units and is a good guy to work with. Looks like he usually has a couple of these for sale on eBay.