Truck electrical problem..

Hey guys,

So today bein such a nice day (HAHA) I decided to pull my 1986 Ford into the shop to fix some stuff..

I swapped out the brake booster and master cylinder, the old booster had a major leak.

I then swapped the steering column.. Automatic transmission, but the shifter and the ignition key have been faulty since shortly after I bought it, and I could really use the vice grips back, so I found a column at a salvage yard and did the swap today.

I have now developed a new issue: My radio does nothing.. Fuse don't appear blown.. connections all seem ok.. Everything else seems to work just as it did before.. I'm at a loss.. I don't know what else to look at other than the fuse and connections, which I already have done.

It's a aftermarket radio, not the stock 2-knobber..

Any ideas what I might look for as my problem?

Thanks in advance,

Brad

If it has a aftermarket radio most of them have a fuse in back of the radio or a glass fuse in the 12V wire also check your fuse panel I think there is also a fuse in there for the factory radio and something else on that circuit.

You don't say in your post, but have you checked the 12 volt source with a VOM meter on either side of the fuse ? The fuse may not be blown but there may be an open circuit on the 12 volt side. If 12 v. is ok check the ground to the radio. HTH, Pete

Brad,

I know that it sounds stupid, but maybe there is a very remote chance that the new column wiring isn't compatable to the wiring in your truck. Especially , if you mean that it won't work in the accessory position . There is also the chance that your radio has an anti thief feature and you activated it somehow . There is also the chance of a loose connection , broken wire ,a wire that you forgot to put back on ,bad ground ,etc. There is also the chance that you hooked the wires ( + / - ) backwards and fried the radio ,as well as a shot fuse. Best bet is to find a wiring diagram for your radio as well as one for your particular truck . I don't know your mechanical or electrical abilities , but these ideas are just for thought .

Whizkid

I can't help you specifically but I do a lot of trailer wiring and 90% of electric problems are due to a bad ground..and thats the truth,electric brakes, signals, lights etc that malfunction are the result of bad ground in 90% of the cases.

Try to research info on the radio. some have a built in anti theft device that when loosing power for a period of time , Make the radio think its stolen rendering it useless till reprogrammed to a factory code.

Guys,

Thanks for the ideas so far.. I forgot about checking the fuses behind the radio.. I'll look into that tomorrow. I'll look into a way to add a ground as well.. seems like once before I had a similar problem, but radio would work "intermittently".. That time it had lost ground somehow and was grounding through the antenna co-ax.

I did not check the fuse with a VOM, but did use a test light on ALL in the fuse box (as I didn't have the fuse box diagram right handy) and ALL checked ok that way.

The radio don't have the security crap that I know of, I bought the radio new 6 or 7 years ago from Wal-Mart I think, after the factory radio died. I bought the cheapest radio I could find, as it's mainly just my farm truck. I THINK the book (and box) are still on top of a cabinet in the shop, so i will look into that as well.

I don't think the column is the problem, as it is out of a 85 Ford truck (IIRC) and I put it into a 1986. According to the Chilton/Haynes book (forget what publisher my particular book is by) all the wiring on the columns are the same from I believe 82 to 86.. But, I could always change the actual switch from my old column to the one just installed if it comes down to the switch being suspect..

I'm just having a hard time thinking it's in the column because everything else seems to be working fine. I don't recall the ignition switch having a contact just for the radio.. But, I will look into that as well in the service manual.

Looks like I'll tear a tad deeper in the dash tomorrow.. Thanks again, I'll keep everyone updated as to what I have managed to overlook LOL (The simplest things often slip past us, which is why I asked what I thought was a silly question)

Brad

I had an elect.problem with my f350 diesel,if it sat for several days the batters would die both of batt.were less than a year old,sent it to the shop,$600 later doing the same thing,so I started checking,turned out to be 2 NAPA BATTERS,no more for me.

Les,

Napa and I just went around Thursday about that exact thing.. My batteries are a touch older, but what I found was a suspect solenoid on my starter..

My batteries would show good voltage, but the truck would hardly crank.. Sometimes even after driving, So, I figured we had a problem.. The problem turned out that the threads on the battery post of the solenoid had stripped, creating a bad connection.. creating what acted like a bad batteries.

Brad