Ok, bump time.


THERE HAS BEEN A BREAKTHROUGH!

Ok, I started the truck this morning to warm it up before I left, it had been running for about 3 or 4 minutes when I came back out, I noticed that the clock on the radio was on, and accurate, it said 7:38, so I decide to see what would happen if I turned the radio on, IT WORKED!!!. It worked beatifully, all the speakers worked, and sounded great. I could change stations, AM to FM, Volume worked, and I was tickeled to death.

Then about 3 or 4 miles down the road, it just faded out to static, the clock froze, and I couldn't turn it down or off.

I got to school and shut the truck off, and I turned the key on again just to see what would happen, the speakers popped, but the radio was blank.


Fast forward to lunch. The speakers didn't pop when I started it, but when we stopped at the bank to cash my friends check, the clock came on, and I was able to turn the radio on, and it again worked great, until a few minutes later, when it faded to static, clock froze, and couldn't be turned off.


On the way home it never did come on.

It might be worth mentioning that it did have memory, I had it on 94.7 in the morning, and it was on 94.7 when it started working at lunch.


This is huge improvement, but why is it fading to static?

 

How far away was the radio station?

Not that I think that's the problem.... running out of range of the station should cause the radio to freak out. Sounds like a bad radio to me.

 

About 50 miles, but that can't be the problem.
Its a pretty powerful station. Its not hard to pick up with anything.


Also, when I say fade, it fades to static in about a third of a second.

 

Had a similar problem on my moms old Pontiac Grand Am, radio stations would hardly come in, even when right next to the local stations nothing but static.

Turned out that the antenna cable was getting pinched behind the radio due to the lack of clearance.

Didn't read through the thread to see if you've checked on that but it might be worth a look, not sure how much room there is behind the radio for wires, etc...

 

Ok, I was over at a friend of a friend's house, and he had a 96 half ton 2wd Dodge, and it had an decent aftermarket JVC radio, and it worked in that truck, and he told me I could just have it, so I tried it in my silver Dodge, no dice.

I checked all the wiring again, the ground is good, the key-on had 12.9 volts, and the constant had 13.0 volts.

I pulled it out of the half ton, and tried it in the Cummins, and it worked fine.


Ok, so I double and triple checked the wiring, still all is good, then I put this JVC back in the half ton, it works! for about 3 minutes, then it just died, but not like the factory radio, it didn't fade to static, it just died, nothing.

 

Ditch the factory harness, run a wire from head unit power input ( usually red ) to battery +, Orange wire out of head unit to ignition on (ive used anything thats on when key is in on AND in acc position) a black wire to a BARE METAL (NO PAINTED METAL) ground, hook up speaker wires making sure pos. to pos, neg to neg, and be sure antenna is hooked up cuz 9 times out of 10 it also serves as a ground. Sounds time consuming but it can be done in less time than it took me to type this on my cell phone lol. Most aftermarket decks have wire diagrams on a sticker or labels on wires, its really easy, and judging by your troubleshooting skills evidenced in this post you should nail it first try brotha. If you have any trouble hit me up, I have my dash torn off so I can snap some pics if it will help...

 

Also forgot to mention, if any wires coming out back of deck aren't being used (remote power, rca plugs for amps, etc) make sure they are taped up and insulated so they don't short