200ci66

We're in the process of putting the interior of our 1966 Mustang back together, but we're having problems with the stereo that came in the car when we bought it.

I don't know if this is the exact one, but it looks just like it.

http://www.mustangsunlimited.com/ite...asp?T1=CAR3+01

Before we took out the radio, it worked fine. Now that we're trying to get it back in, it's not working properly. When you turn it on, the screen glows green as if it's turned on, but there's no digits on the screen. It's not reading a signal, and this is with the antenna plugged in.

Has anyone else had this problem?

MustangBradley

Remember the radio has two power wires. One that has a constant (non-switched) supply, and the other has a switched supply. The non-switched supply is to keep the clock and memory powered. The switched supply runs the radio itself.

Usually the constant powered wire is yellow, and the switched wire is red. Confirm you have these wired correctly. Also, check that you have a good ground.

andrewmp6

If its a custom audio sound like in that link its probably dead they are known for making crappy radios.

200ci66

Sorry about the late reply, we just started messing with the interior again.

yes, we have both wires hooked up correctly, and we have good ground. The radio is still only glowing green, no digital numbers are showing up.

And yeah, it is a custom audiosound.

noroof66

Often when the digits do not display it is the constant (yellow) wire not hooked up. Check this one again and be sure fuse is okay. If powers are truly good and ground is good, then there cannot be anything else.

200ci66

We've checked both wires and the ground today, many times, both behind the dash and on the floor. We've seen exactly how everything should go, and hooked it up correctly. We've checked and changed the fuses. You can hear a hum in the front speakers, and the stereo gets hot after it's been on for a while. Is there ANYTHING else that could be causing this problem?

Something else we noticed today is that the car antenna has to be plugged in for the stereo to turn on. When you unplug the car antenna, the stereo turns off. Is this at all unusual? There's a yellow wire looped off and covered with electrical tape that's marked "antenna", but we haven't touched it since we got the car, and the stereo worked fine without it.

Another quick question, do all speakers have to be hooked up for the stereo to work? I didn't think that was a possibility until today when we saw that it needed an antenna to work. We have new front speakers hooked up, but we're in the process of getting back speakers because the ones that were in the car are junk.

We're about to give up and say that the stereo's a piece of junk and move on, but it seems strange that it worked perfectly before we took it out, and now that we are trying to put it in it isn't working. Is there anything else that could be wrong with it?

MustangBradley

Some lower cost amps (your radio has a built in amp) are not capable of handling unbalanced loads or low ohm loads. By that I mean that if the amp is expecting to drive four speakers and you are only driving two, that could cause a failure. Most radios have instructions for wiring it for two speakers OR four speakers, but you can't mix and match.

JMD

I have a customers car (Chevelle) in the shop right now with a Custom Auto sound radio, one of the speakers was breaking up a little, turned the volume up to 35 and BAM,,, silence.... now every character on the display is lit, and still no sound....

I told them exactly what I did, I am not sure they believe me..... I offered 1/2 to replace the POS, but I am not sure what they want to do....

IMO, those radios are trash...

JMD

That means the radio IS NOT grounded, it is grounding through the antenna cable.

There is no telling what happened to it when it was "hunting" for a ground....

noroof66

Pull out the speakers and try it, I bet one connection is touching metal and grounding out.