Stock radio not working

[Jetman88]

Not sure where to post this but I have a 88 7.3 idi turbo and am trying to save the stock radio. I tried to use one of the cassette tape to aux adapters and now I can’t get the radio fully eject the cassette. I can pull the tape out easily but I can’t get the radio to fully switch back to AM/FM. Any one have a fix for that?

 

[franklin2]

The belts get old and hard and lose their traction. So they start slipping. The eject mechanism is driven by a belt. You probably could take the radio apart and "help" the mechanism back into position so it hits the micro switch. But after that you would probably need to forget about using the cassette mechanism.

Those cassette adapters sound very good for what they are, but if you get the radio going again, you probably need to buy one of those FM converters that take a aux input and convert it to a FM signal that you can tune in with the radio. They are very common, people plug their phones into them to play through their older radios.

 

[XOLATEM]

On my truck while I had the dash out I took the radio apart and cleaned the dust out of it...red dust...a lot of it...

it still has a few quirks but I am ok with how it works...have not tried the cassette player at this time...I gotta FIND some tapes, first...have to figure out where I tucked them...oh, about ten or fifteen years ago...

If you remove(carefully) the cover on your radio you might be amazed at how it is built...a work of electrical art...

When I tested all of the wires going into and out of the radio...I found out how the speaker wires were routed...it was interesting...

give it a shot...

 

[KansasIDI]

On my truck while I had the dash out I took the radio apart and cleaned the dust out of it...red dust...a lot of it...

it still has a few quirks but I am ok with how it works...have not tried the cassette player at this time...I gotta FIND some tapes, first...have to figure out where I tucked them...oh, about ten or fifteen years ago...

If you remove(carefully) the cover on your radio you might be amazed at how it is built...a work of electrical art...

When I tested all of the wires going into and out of the radio...I found out how the speaker wires were routed...it was interesting...

give it a shot...

I also cleaned mine up before using the casette player, fwiw

 

[IDIBRONCO]

I also cleaned mine up before using the casette player, fwiw

I didn't think that you're old enough to knew what cassettes were.

 

[KansasIDI]

I didn't think that you're old enough to knew what cassettes were.

Hey now, I actually have a few of them, but I usually just use a casette adapter. But every once in awhile I listen to a casette

 

[Nero]

My new to me camper came with a cassette tape in it. Good ol Johnny Cash

 

[XOLATEM]

every once in awhile I listen to a casette

The exciting thing about a cassette is developing the awareness of just the moment you need to jerk the tape out before it gets hopelessly entangled in the workings of the radio...

..and discovering the fact that you still have a need for a standard #2 pencil..to wind the wrinkled tape back together and hope that the static-y part is not your favorite part of the song...

And then guessing what-the-heck is on this home-made recording on a blank tape when you (or somebody) neglected to label it sufficiently...

those were the days...

 

[Old Goat]

Those were the days....
I have a LOT of cassette`s.....
you ain`t cool unless you have a bunch of 8 Tracts.


Goat

 

[tbowker]

you ain`t cool unless you have a bunch of 8 Tracts.

I was waiting for you to say something about reel to reel.

 

[XOLATEM]

you ain`t cool unless you have a bunch of 8 Tracts.

8-Tracks are responsible for me developing the habit of thinking about two songs at once...I think about one song I had on 8-track and then I think also about the bleed-over song from the next track that is playing ever-so-faintly while the first one is playing...

Sort of like having an argument with yourself...

I used to have a stack of 8-tracks...I still remember the labels on them when I hear a song that was on them...

They sure took up a lot of room in the car...I imagine a lot of tapes were forgotten in the trunks and floorboards of wrecked vehicles...

Oh, yeah...when I was a kid and walking down a neighborhood street I found an 8-track tape of grateful dead...did not know what the heck they were...it had gotten eaten up by the tape player and the guts were hanging out in the ditch...

I carried it home and took it apart and fixed it...when I played it I figured out that it should have stayed in the ditch...

...oh, it played ok...too well...but for a kid that grew up listening to the Beatles, Tom Jones, Herb Alpert and the Tiajuana Brass, Englebert Humperdinck, Glen Campbell, Lynn Anderson, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith,(you get the idea...)....I could not listen to that tape for more than a few seconds before I yanked it out and put something in that had a little more meaning to me...it went to the dump...

Now...a few of you will shake your head and maybe bristle a bit...a lot of you will not be able to relate...and some of you will not know what-the-heck I am talking about...

That is ok...I feel the same way about other idiosyncrasies that I encounter from time-to-time...but that is what makes us all exceptional...

When I find my cassette tapes...I am going to (carefully) try a couple in my stock radio...just to see if it works...for old times sake...

Thanks for bringing the issue up, guys...

 

[rwk]

I sold my Craig 8 track player and my few 8 tracks and bought a cassette when they became popular! Can't remember the cassette brand tho!

 

[tbowker]

I carried it home and took it apart and fixed it...when I played it I figured out that it should have stayed in the ditch...

I wouldn't call myself a "deadhead", but I do like the grateful dead. With that being said, that was a funny comment...I laughed out loud.
Of all the other singers and bands you mentioned, the only one I never heard of before was Lynn Anderson.
All my cassettes and albums went to live with the ex after the divorce. The 8 tracks, however, I gladly disposed of. I always despised those, the way some albums tracks were laid out, the songs wouldn't fit on an 8 track and maintain continuity. It would skip in the middle of a song and go to the next track, then pick up the song again to finish it out. I was so happy when cassettes replaced them.

 

[KansasIDI]

8 track… well… now I’m lost…

@IDIBRONCO is right, cassettes were dying just as I came along… and really, any way of listening to music before that… is not real well understood or known to me…

Despite my young age, I remember listening to cassette tapes quite often as a little kid…

The reason I have a few cassettes, is because several came with my Dodge, when I bought it. The previous owner had no reason to keep them, the only other vehicle he had with a cassette player, it had one stuck in there, and since we had such a similar taste in music, he gave them to me.

Chris Ledoux - At His Best
Garth Brooks - All Star Country
Alan Jackson - Who I Am
Randy Travis - Greatest Hits Vol. One

My music tastes are broader than this, have migrated away from only classic country, to include other types of music, mostly older stuff, but definitely not strictly country music, once every song in a genre has been heard 139 times, one begins to wander a bit…

And so most of the time I use an auxiliary jack to cassette adapter, and simply listen to music from my phone. It doesn’t sound too bad, for an old work truck, better than I expected, and certainly better than my Dodge…

A few of the artists @XOLATEM mentioned, do make my playlist…

 

[Old Goat]

XOLATEM, you might remember this, back when I was a kid, we
only had AM radio, and black and white TV, only 3 channels from
San Francisco. TV was an Admiral. Later on San Jose started
channel 11 KNTV and Frank Darin was a talk show guy on there.
TV Stations went off the air at mid night and we got the test pattern,
and they had a prayer and played the national Anthem.
Ha a small Motorola am radio, and in bed at night could slowly turn
the dial and pick up far away stations.
Could pick up KSL in Salt Lake city, was blown away.
I was in 5th grade.
Can`t do that with today`s digital Radio`s.

Then they came out with a small device about the size of a pack of
cigarettes that you screwed under your dash and some how wired
into your AM Radio to pick up FM stations.
Then later we could buy Radio`s with actually AM along with the FM
in them.....then there wasn`t anything good to listen on it, what good
were they? Went back to the AM side and the Rock N Roll we had in the
late 50`s and 60`s. How could any one for get "Alley O0p"?

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

Had an 8 track around 66 or 67, was a Borg Warner unit, a big thing
under the dash....

How times have changed, not can`t figure out how to even turn on
one of these new electronic things.....

OH well, gotta keep up with the times I guess. But Iam stuck in the good
ole days when things were simple. why I drive an old 86 F-250 and olde
Mercedes Diesels of the 80`s, simple, dependable etc.....

Have 3 old push button Radio`s from PNP, some day well see if they
work so I can have some tunes in the old truck.

Goat