1993 Maxima Radio Replacement

My Bose radio died a few years ago and I'm just getting around to
replacing it with a radio / cd player / mp3 player that I bought at
Wal-Mart this morning, Virtual Reality Sound VR3 CD Player.

I bought the wiring adaptor and the converter for speaker level to line
level and hooked everything up. But the radio won't come on. I know
there's switched power since I can turn on the amps and I can play
music via my mp3 player directly.

I'm thinking that the problem might be with the ground. My questions
are:

1 - Will the lack of ground prevent the radio from powering up?
2 - If I need to find a ground where's the best place? I tried
connecting to the screw that held the old radio in place and the
outside of the cigarette lighter.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,
Joe

Joe wrote:

My Bose radio died a few years ago and I'm just getting around to
replacing it with a radio / cd player / mp3 player that I bought at
Wal-Mart this morning, Virtual Reality Sound VR3 CD Player.

I bought the wiring adaptor and the converter for speaker level to line
level and hooked everything up. But the radio won't come on. I know
there's switched power since I can turn on the amps and I can play
music via my mp3 player directly.

I'm thinking that the problem might be with the ground. My questions
are:

1 - Will the lack of ground prevent the radio from powering up?
2 - If I need to find a ground where's the best place? I tried
connecting to the screw that held the old radio in place and the
outside of the cigarette lighter.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,
Joe

Yes, it won't come on without a ground. But the outside of the cigarette
lighter is always ground as is likely the screw holding the radio in.
You said you had switched power, but do you have the constant +12 wired
as well?

JimV wrote:

Yes, it won't come on without a ground. But the outside of the cigarette
lighter is always ground as is likely the screw holding the radio in.
You said you had switched power, but do you have the constant +12 wired
as well?

Yes, I have both switched and constant. I have the constant wire going
to the radio's memory wire.

So you're saying that either location should be a good ground?

Thanks!
Joe

JimV wrote:

Yes, it won't come on without a ground. But the outside of the cigarette
lighter is always ground as is likely the screw holding the radio in.
You said you had switched power, but do you have the constant +12 wired
as well?

Yes, I have both switched and constant. I have the constant wire going
to the radio's memory wire.

So you're saying that either location should be a good ground?

Thanks!
Joe

Another quick question:

If I wired up the radio without a ground could the radio be damaged?

Thanks!
Joe

Joe wrote:

Another quick question:

If I wired up the radio without a ground could the radio be damaged?

Thanks!
Joe

No, that won't hurt it. If you have power to both the constant and

switched and a ground connection, I'd say it's probably defective. Take
it under the hood, tie the constant and switched leads together. Hold
them on the + battery terminal and touch the case of the radio to the -
terminal. If it still doesn't come on, it's bad.

Thanks Jim!

I already returned one today to Wal-Mart because I thought it was
defective. Might be it was just a ground problem.

Joe


JimV wrote:

Joe wrote:
Another quick question:

If I wired up the radio without a ground could the radio be damaged?

Thanks!
Joe

No, that won't hurt it. If you have power to both the constant and
switched and a ground connection, I'd say it's probably defective. Take
it under the hood, tie the constant and switched leads together. Hold
them on the + battery terminal and touch the case of the radio to the -
terminal. If it still doesn't come on, it's bad.

In my Nissans screwing the radio in (mounting) grounded it, also the antenna
connection would ground it.

Gary K

"Joe" <mail (AT) ruthandjoe (DOT) com> wrote

My Bose radio died a few years ago and I'm just getting around to
replacing it with a radio / cd player / mp3 player that I bought at
Wal-Mart this morning, Virtual Reality Sound VR3 CD Player.

I bought the wiring adaptor and the converter for speaker level to line
level and hooked everything up. But the radio won't come on. I know
there's switched power since I can turn on the amps and I can play
music via my mp3 player directly.

I'm thinking that the problem might be with the ground. My questions
are:

1 - Will the lack of ground prevent the radio from powering up?
2 - If I need to find a ground where's the best place? I tried
connecting to the screw that held the old radio in place and the
outside of the cigarette lighter.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,
Joe

Thanks Gary. Were these Bose radios or replacements?
Joe

gary wrote:

In my Nissans screwing the radio in (mounting) grounded it, also the antenna
connection would ground it.

Gary K

"Joe" <mail (AT) ruthandjoe (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:1153609274.252191.262390 (AT) i3g2000cwc (DOT) googlegroups.com...
My Bose radio died a few years ago and I'm just getting around to
replacing it with a radio / cd player / mp3 player that I bought at
Wal-Mart this morning, Virtual Reality Sound VR3 CD Player.

I bought the wiring adaptor and the converter for speaker level to line
level and hooked everything up. But the radio won't come on. I know
there's switched power since I can turn on the amps and I can play
music via my mp3 player directly.

I'm thinking that the problem might be with the ground. My questions
are:

1 - Will the lack of ground prevent the radio from powering up?
2 - If I need to find a ground where's the best place? I tried
connecting to the screw that held the old radio in place and the
outside of the cigarette lighter.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,
Joe

Note that some stupid CD players consume up to 0.14A in sleep mode. That means dead batt if parked for weeks... (Two pwr supply wires, one for mem settings, one run-pwr via ign key ...is one indication. Manuals were ashamed of warning about pwr consumption.)

Ol radio was connected directly, no need for key to get player on. My new USB player one cannot be, or batt will die: to listen, always ign key has to be turned.

Good ground is also found on the surroundin dash metal structure.


--
Wiikinki
www.cardomain.com/ride/748507/1
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