tehzack Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 The factory radio in my car won't pick up any stations. The power antennae works, and is hooked up in the back by the hatch. But when I hit seek on the radio it just goes on forever, and If I try to use the step button to manually find a station it won't pick anything up. Any insight into this issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burton Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 antenna unpluged at the back of the radio. or antenna wire cut somewhere. Otherwise the tuner went out on the deck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tehzack Posted October 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 That must be the case. I got one station to come in clear. I took the wire loose where it plugs into the the antennae in the back and sanded it a little the plugged it back up, that didn't work. So I pulled it back apart again I noticed that if I just laid the very tip of the antennae on the cylindrical thing it plugs into the stereo will pick up that one station, but if I plug it in how its supposed to be it picks up nothing. Idk, i'm just gonna throw another deck in it, I just wanted my steering controls to work lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitsu_fan Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 Something you might want to try is replacing the antenna lead that comes from the antenna up to the radio itself. I had to replace mine on my 87 quest and 89 starion both. It seems that over time they degrade and the signal just gets worse. After replacing mine, the radio picked up signals just fine. It has been a while, but I picked my cable up at Circuit City (now out of business) and it was very cheap. I think it was like $10 or so. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jettajody Posted October 28, 2009 Report Share Posted October 28, 2009 Odds are the tuner went out for sure, it's 20+ years old. I have a nice stock deck from my 89 Conquest. All the lights work and picked up stations just fine. Speakers were trash so I just pulled it out during my R&R. I have no use for it and will set it very cheap. Shoot me a price!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikec Posted October 29, 2009 Report Share Posted October 29, 2009 Get several feet of plain old wire - 6 to ten feet or so. Strip about half inch insulation from the end and twist the wire strands together. Stuff this into the center hole of the antenna socket on the stereo - make sure it touches ONLY the inner (center) part, not the outer ring or stereo case. Toss the other end of the wire out the window. See if your tuner picks up anything this way. If so, you've proven it's a problem with the car's antenna or antenna coax cable. In the Los Angeles area, I can slip a short screwdriver into that socket and pick up many stations - not much of an antenna is necessary. I do that while testing/repairing the stock stereos. If that works, re-connect the antenna cable in the car. Pop the rear hatch and get to the factory antenna. There is a connector a few inches from the antenna to this same cable... unplug it from the antenna and stuff in your plain old wire to the car's coax cable. Now see if the tuner works. If so, the coax cable is okay - your bug is in the antenna somewhere. No stations? The coax is crap. I have seen the skinny wire from the antenna socket on the stereo break - inside the stereo. Popping the covers off is all it takes to see this. Loose/damaged ribbon cables between the various circuit boards inside the stereo are common too - if the stereo was ever opened up/disassembled previously. Those ribbon cables are fragile - they can be unplugged 2 or 3 times before they start busting apart. The "wires" on them generally have a hard crease/fold in them from the factory; flex it a couple times and they break just like flexing a paperclip will bust it. Once busted... the ribbon cable is junk. It's almost impossible to repair them - I've tried. If you open up the stereo covers, you'll see: * top of stereo: cassette deck, cassette pre-amp board. The pre-amp also has the small connector for the steering wheel controls. An odd combination...* Underneath the deck and pre-amp is the cassette controller board.* bottom of stereo: power supply board, logic board, and main amplifiers. This board is the one with the main wiring harness connectors.* Between the cassette controller and power/amp board is the AM/FM receiver.* Attached to the front panel is a switch board and the digital tuner module. Look at the ribbon cables connecting these last three boards. Also check the fuse(s) on the power supply/amp board. Some have 3 old style glass tube fuses, some have a single modern blade fuse. If this stereo has never worked since you've owned the car, look at the corners of the various boards. You'll see where they attach to the main case. If the screws are missing, that board may be missing its ground wire. Also look carefully at the sides of the cassette mechanism. You'll see dinky sensor switches - two thin bits of copper colored metal touching. There are a couple such switches. One tells the tape mechanism "a tape is being inserted." This switch also feeds the logic boards to make it switch from radio mode to tape mode. If those contacts are bent or dirty your stereo could be in a "no man's land" between radio and tape mode. I don't remember exactly what/how the unit operates if just this switch is OPEN while the rest of the cassette deck is in the "no tape loaded" position... but it's possible the logic board could be in a half-tuner/half-tape mode. mike c. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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