What the f...?

[crvc]

http://i1325.photobucket.com/albums/u63 ... 8398f8.jpg

http://i1325.photobucket.com/albums/u63 ... 4f5099.jpg

My radio quit working several weeks ago. Then it would come one for a minute or so now and then, usually after hitting a bump. I figured a loose wire somewhere.

I took the plastic protector off that covers the glove box and radio. Since I drive the bug all winter I had stuffed old sweat pants into the spaces around the radio.

When I pulled out the sweatpants chucks of mouse duff fell out. Also the pants had ragged holes. So a mouse had been living in my bug. But I didn't find any signs of nibbling on the wires.

Any suggestions what to do with the radio? It was a cheap knockoff I found on ebay.

TIA,

kevin

[Ol'fogasaurus]

http://i1325.photobucket.com/albums/u63 ... 4f5099.jpg kevin

Yes, quite a rats nest you have there. So... the mouse was living in your pants (that sounds similar to a "trouser snake" that women talk a lot about. A lot of real good jokes could be had here but I digress). Have you tried taking the radio out and hooking an antenna and power supply up to it to see if it still works? If it does work then you still have a mystery to solve as the next radio is most likely going to do the same thing if you hook the new one up the same way.

An opinion for what it is worth.

Lee

[crvc]

Yeah, I figgered I'd have to take it out and apart but since I know nothing about electronics.....I could send it to my dad. He spent 30 years in signal core and taught basic electronics between two tours of Viet Nam. Prolly easier just to find another one on ebay.

kevin

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Kevin, if you have a 12v battery that is any good then clamp the power lead to the pos/+ and then ground the case to the negative of the battery. It would be nice to have a fuse but if the radio is questionable then what the hey! Be sure to attach the antenna and speakers if the speakers are not built into the radio then hit the "on" switch and duck. If the radio's face lights up and/or you can find a station then the radio is OK, if not, then if it is a cheap radio it might be time to get another cheap radio.

Basic electronics like that are fairly easy to do with some guidance but just don't go higgledy-piggledy hooking stuff up that you are unfamiliar with and wear rubber gloves .

Lee

[crvc]

Thanks but the light is on in the radio. A checked the speakers with a 12V dry cell and they work as well.

kevin

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Since you have done the basics the question is now: how much would it cost to send the radio to your father then back again (plus parts) assuming he could find the problem(s) or take the radio to a shop and absorb the cost it would take to get it back running compared to buying a new cheap radio... assuming you wanted to stay on the inexpensive side of things.

I'm not really trying to be glib here; it is now cutting your losses. In the old days, when I was growing up, things were simpler and it was easy (and fun) to delve into a radio (et al) with a volt/OHM meter, a tube checker and soldering iron and fix things. With the invent and overwhelming use of circuit boards servicing things got harder and now with things being mass produced and so cheap it usually isn't worth it unless you really, really liked what you have/had. You said it wasn't an original radio so what the heck....

Lee

[Marc]

Can't tell from the pictures, but there could be up to three power inputs (one that's on all the time for clock/preset memory, one that's intended to come from the accessory terminal of the ignition switch, and one from the dimmer for the panel light). Since ACVW igniton switches don't have an ACC position you have to either connect that wire to B+ (hot all the time) and remember to turn the radio off when you leave the car, or connect it to 15 (ignition) and avoid listening to the radio unless the engine's running...leaving the key on with the engine off can overheat the coil and/or fry the points.

A simple way to see if a speaker's voice coil is intact is to apply power to it from a 9V battery - each time you make/break contact you should see the cone move, and usually you can hear it "cluck".

As cheap as you can get a radio these days I can't see the point in bothering with fixing one (unless it's an original Sapphire, of course).
When I wanted tunes for my trike, I picked up a cheap head unit and some waterproof speakers from Amazon - if they get stolen I won't cry for long, and the radio even plays USB and SD memory cards.


This is a good place to point out the basic flaw in the stock windshield washer system - there's pressurized fluid present 24/7 just above the radio, and if a hose or the diaphragm in the switch starts to leak you can usually kiss the radio goodbye. Well worth it IMO to update to an electric washer system (MexiBeetles had a nice bottle contoured to fit nicely and these are available for ~$80, but a generic bottle or one scrounged from a Rabbit/etc. at the boneyard works fine if you figure out how to mount it). The stock switch can be gutted and fitted with a microswitch to make a sanitary installation (the `72-up column-mounted switch converts especially well). Since I've never thought there was any point in the brake system warning light on `68-up cars - if you need a light on your dash to tell you that half your brakes have failed you probably shouldn't be driving - that makes a handy spot to locate a pushbutton. You can even use the early push-to-test style warning lamp AS the button with minor modifications.

[Piledriver]

You can also get a generic washer pump for ~$15 from any FLAPS.
I use the original washer bottle on my t3, drilled a vent hole in the cap.

Mice/rats pee in their own "beds": this is usually what causes the worst damage.

[Marc]

The downside to using a low-mounted bottle is that there's often a lag between the time you hit the washer and when the fluid starts coming out; the higher the bottle, the less the effect. Some folks use aquarium airline checkvalves to limit drainback to the bottle.
I neglected to mention that most microswitches (and the stock push-to-test brake warning lamp) aren't really adequate for the current draw of the pump motor, so a good installation would also incorporate a relay.

[SCOTTRODS]

For years in car audio, I found a ton of cheap fuse holders that would "kind of break" but not entirely... They're not terribly obvious, but sometimes they'll allow the fuse to just float around inside the holder... this found normally with the Glass tube type fuse holders... the end of the plastic housings is a pretty common failure point... Just check them and make sure you're not about to toss a problem out when the problem doesn't exist.

[crvc]

While vacuuming mouse duff I was fiddling with the wires with the engine on and suddenly there was sound, then no sound, then more sound. I found one wire twisted onto another and held in place with electricians tape. Moving it turned the sound on and off. I traced it to a rear speaker. I had put a pair of speakers in the kickboards below the rear bench seat. Dunno whether the problem is solved but adding more tape seems to have worked. Don't understand why but if one of the four speakers has a bad connection then none of them work.

A new radio from CIP1 was about $250. A cheapie from ebay was $160. All so that I keep the retro look and don't need to cut a larger hole for a $50 Walmart radio.

I looked into an electric washer system for bugs that JC Whitney sells. But it rains here for half an hour every six months. And when it rains it evaporates quickly. So I never put in a washer system. When I was a kid I kept a bottle of Windex in the bug and would spray it through the driver's window or hand it to my girlfriend to spray the passenger side.

kevin

[Ol'fogasaurus]

While vacuuming mouse duff I was fiddling with the wires with the engine on and suddenly there was sound, then no sound, then more sound. I found one wire twisted onto another and held in place with electricians tape. Moving it turned the sound on and off. I traced it to a rear speaker. I had put a pair of speakers in the kickboards below the rear bench seat. Dunno whether the problem is solved but adding more tape seems to have worked. Don't understand why but if one of the four speakers has a bad connection then none of them work. kevin

Take the wad of tape off the joint and check the connection. Either solder it or use a crimped wire connector (not always the best way to do it) to join the wire bundle back together. Twisting wires is not always the best way to do things as that can be a transitory fix.

[Marc]

Some stereos (cheap ones, especially) are designed for 4Ω speakers rather than 8Ω. They can claim twice the power rating from the same amplifier that way; it does no harm to use 8Ω speakers on those, you just don't get the volume that you would with 4Ω. But, hooking a 4Ω speaker to an amplifier designed for an 8Ω load can damage the amp; you can wire two 4Ω speakers in series to maintain the proper 8Ω load, but like the old series Christmas-tree lights if one goes out the whole circuit dies.

If your stereo has a front-rear fader control, it has four speaker outputs - each with its own pair of wires, which should be completely independent of the other three. If someone's gotten "creative" with the connections, there could well be some interaction - or perhaps when you massage that particular splice bundle you're introducing a short between the + and - leads to that speaker which is loading the output transistor for that channel and dragging the rest of the amplifier down (from your description, that seems to be the likely scenario here). Twisted-together connections, while crude, are seldom a problem on low-end speaker installations...but you need to be sure that there's no possibility of a short circuit between any one wire and its partner.

A "half-DIN" head unit like the cheapo I put in my trike is physically small enough to fit a VW dash without butchering anything, but may require some adapter bracketry - and of course it won't have the trim "wings" on the sides to tie into the pre`68 dashboard chrome strips like your repop unit has.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Good point on the miss/cross-wiring of the speakers Marc.