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My 1987 Mercury Colony Park

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    I added a ground wire where the bracket attaches to the case on that nut. I'll probably need to clean that surface real good since it looks meh.

    I used your wiring setup:
    on the power connector
    yellow/black - ignition +
    gn/y - batt +
    o/bl dot - premium sound amp (hot when radio is on)
    bl/r - dash lights

    Only wires I have hooked up are the yellow/black, green/yellow, and blue/red ones. I left out the orange wire if its a hot wire with radio switched on. Only thing I could consider is maybe I mis-read the adapter plug wires and switched around the 12v constant and switched, but I figure the radio should still turn on with the key on at least. Like I said prior, only the light turns on with the dash lights.

    And regarding the extra plugs, they're all radio. They have the same P/N on the cases. The door dinger is plugged in and doing its thing, so it wouldn't be an extra here.


    My Cars:
    -1964 Comet 202 (116K Miles) - Long Term Project
    -1986 Dodge D-150 Royale SE (112K Miles) - Slowly Getting Put Back Together
    -1987 Grand Marquis Colony Park LS (325K Miles) - April 2017 + September 2019 POTM Winner
    -1997 Grand Marquis LS (240K Miles) - The Daily Workhorse & March 2015 + January 2019 POTM Winner

    Comment


      hm, really don't know why you'd have multiple radio plugs. There should only be the two.

      Radio will work so long as both constant and switched power are on, and it has a ground. If the dash lights work, its got a ground someplace.

      One thing that does sometimes happen with these is the display will go out but the radio itself actually works. Thats a problem with the circuit that drives the VFD. I have a parts radio here with that ailment. I think its the flyback transformer that failed but maybe its the driver for the flyback. Don't exactly remember, but either way it doesn't function.
      86 Lincoln Town Car (Galactica).
      5.0 HO, CompCams XE258,Scorpion 1.72 roller rockers, 3.55 K code rear, tow package, BHPerformance ported E7 heads, Tmoss Explorer intake, 65mm throttle body, Hedman 1 5/8" headers, 2.5" dual exhaust, ASP underdrive pulley

      91 Lincoln Mark VII LSC grandpa spec white and cranberry

      1984 Lincoln Continental TurboDiesel - rolls coal

      Originally posted by phayzer5
      I drive a Lincoln. I can't be bothered to shift like the peasants and rabble rousers

      Comment


        Originally posted by gadget73 View Post
        hm, really don't know why you'd have multiple radio plugs. There should only be the two.

        Radio will work so long as both constant and switched power are on, and it has a ground. If the dash lights work, its got a ground someplace.

        One thing that does sometimes happen with these is the display will go out but the radio itself actually works. Thats a problem with the circuit that drives the VFD. I have a parts radio here with that ailment. I think its the flyback transformer that failed but maybe its the driver for the flyback. Don't exactly remember, but either way it doesn't function.
        Hrm, well without having tried to wire it to a speaker output, I don't know if it plays and just has a dead display, so I might test that. I'd really like to make this thing go simply because its just such an odd unit. Is there anyway to repair the transformer if that's all that is faulty, or is it not worth the time? I've only got $5 in the radio, so if it doesn't go, I can definitely just save my aux cable configuration and swap it into another unit.


        My Cars:
        -1964 Comet 202 (116K Miles) - Long Term Project
        -1986 Dodge D-150 Royale SE (112K Miles) - Slowly Getting Put Back Together
        -1987 Grand Marquis Colony Park LS (325K Miles) - April 2017 + September 2019 POTM Winner
        -1997 Grand Marquis LS (240K Miles) - The Daily Workhorse & March 2015 + January 2019 POTM Winner

        Comment


          So I grabbed a spare speaker and hooked it up to the LF +\- inputs. The radio does work, but it’s not particularly healthy. Moving the volume knob cause the sound to get tinny or drop out until you bump it a bit, and there’s a high pitch whine coming from inside the unit. It also doesn’t like being turned off while the key is on, because it won’t play when you switch it back on. If you cycle the ignition off/on, it’ll come back on again.

          The aux jack works with about 95% functionality. Even though the pairs are separated by a shield in the cable, there’s very faint bleed over with the aux input volume turned all the way down. It’s possible it’s occurring where the pairs split in the radio itself, so I may shorten or add a shield to a pair to see if it helps any. Otherwise, it sounds good.

          Guess it’s time to dive in and figure out how to get this thing going proper.


          My Cars:
          -1964 Comet 202 (116K Miles) - Long Term Project
          -1986 Dodge D-150 Royale SE (112K Miles) - Slowly Getting Put Back Together
          -1987 Grand Marquis Colony Park LS (325K Miles) - April 2017 + September 2019 POTM Winner
          -1997 Grand Marquis LS (240K Miles) - The Daily Workhorse & March 2015 + January 2019 POTM Winner

          Comment


            Hope you can get it going. It is certainly a unique piece.

            I like oddities like multiple plugs in the car. Just makes one wonder what went on in there.
            ~David~

            My 1987 Crown Victoria Coupe: The Brown Blob
            My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320:The Benz

            Originally posted by ootdega
            My life is a long series of "nevermind" and "I guess not."

            Originally posted by DerekTheGreat
            But, that's just coming from me, this site's biggest pessimist. Best of luck

            Originally posted by gadget73
            my car starts and it has AC. Yours doesn't start and it has no AC. Seems obvious to me.




            Comment


              Yeah... that one probably needs a recap.

              Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein
              rides: 93 Crown Vic LX (The Red Velvet Cake), 2000 Crown Vic base model (Sandy), 2003 Expedition (the vacation beast)
              Originally posted by gadget73
              ... and it should all work like magic and unicorns and stuff.
              Originally posted by dmccaig
              Overhead, some poor bastards are flying in airplanes.

              Comment


                The faint bleed is something I haven't been able to sort out completely on mine. Moving the wiring around a bit can help but its there to some degree. I think its just too much signal level going on with too many things close together. I had considered rewiring the AMS button to trigger the mute circuit to fully kill the radio. Thats how the tape deck input works, it just shuts the radio output off and feeds in different signal. Its not real complex either, just +5v to the right pin on a chip.

                crunchy controls is typical. Give them a honk of contact cleaner and work the knobs a bunch of times. It will sort out.


                There may be some way to figure out what that transformer is to replace it, but its edging beyond my knowledge zone. I can scan the schematics if one of you folks who understand transistor circuitry wants to have a look. Its not an extremely complex thing, just an oscillator circuit, but I really have no idea where you'd start looking for such a device. Output isn't a whole lot either, something around 2v for the filament and like 40v for the anode I think.
                86 Lincoln Town Car (Galactica).
                5.0 HO, CompCams XE258,Scorpion 1.72 roller rockers, 3.55 K code rear, tow package, BHPerformance ported E7 heads, Tmoss Explorer intake, 65mm throttle body, Hedman 1 5/8" headers, 2.5" dual exhaust, ASP underdrive pulley

                91 Lincoln Mark VII LSC grandpa spec white and cranberry

                1984 Lincoln Continental TurboDiesel - rolls coal

                Originally posted by phayzer5
                I drive a Lincoln. I can't be bothered to shift like the peasants and rabble rousers

                Comment


                  Originally posted by gadget73 View Post
                  The faint bleed is something I haven't been able to sort out completely on mine. Moving the wiring around a bit can help but its there to some degree. I think its just too much signal level going on with too many things close together. I had considered rewiring the AMS button to trigger the mute circuit to fully kill the radio. Thats how the tape deck input works, it just shuts the radio output off and feeds in different signal. Its not real complex either, just +5v to the right pin on a chip.

                  crunchy controls is typical. Give them a honk of contact cleaner and work the knobs a bunch of times. It will sort out.


                  There may be some way to figure out what that transformer is to replace it, but its edging beyond my knowledge zone. I can scan the schematics if one of you folks who understand transistor circuitry wants to have a look. Its not an extremely complex thing, just an oscillator circuit, but I really have no idea where you'd start looking for such a device. Output isn't a whole lot either, something around 2v for the filament and like 40v for the anode I think.
                  Okay, I wasn't sure if I didn't setup my input wires right, which is why I was considering maybe there was signal bleed from where the wire pairs leave their shields. I guess I can always just tune the radio to a station that's just dead air, NBD.

                  I'll gladly take a look at the schematics and see if I can discern them enough to be dangerous to make this thing work properly. I'd definitely like the screen to work on principle, and then maybe figure out why it can't tolerate being turned off while the car is on, but does okay after being de-energized and re-powered. I'll inspect the capacitors per Sly's recommendation. I'm not unfamiliar to that work at least, since I've re-capped several ECUs at this point as preventive maintenance.


                  My Cars:
                  -1964 Comet 202 (116K Miles) - Long Term Project
                  -1986 Dodge D-150 Royale SE (112K Miles) - Slowly Getting Put Back Together
                  -1987 Grand Marquis Colony Park LS (325K Miles) - April 2017 + September 2019 POTM Winner
                  -1997 Grand Marquis LS (240K Miles) - The Daily Workhorse & March 2015 + January 2019 POTM Winner

                  Comment


                    Originally posted by sly View Post
                    Yeah... that one probably needs a recap.
                    clarification: The getting tinny at volume makes me think the power caps (larger ones near the outputs) are weak and need replaced.

                    Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein
                    rides: 93 Crown Vic LX (The Red Velvet Cake), 2000 Crown Vic base model (Sandy), 2003 Expedition (the vacation beast)
                    Originally posted by gadget73
                    ... and it should all work like magic and unicorns and stuff.
                    Originally posted by dmccaig
                    Overhead, some poor bastards are flying in airplanes.

                    Comment


                      http://www.grandmarq.net/gadget73/Ford%20radio%20stuff/

                      has the scans for the DC-DC converter part that runs the display. The whole section of manual is like 90 pages. The part thats bad in my parts unit is T701. One of the coils is open.

                      thinking about it could actually be cap related, if the supply decoupling caps are ailing it could possibly bleed signal through the power supply. Have to look at it and see if they share a supply branch or if there are likely candidates. Even without the aux plugged in, mine doesn't turn down to zero, I get a bit of bleed-through so the signal is coupling in somewhere.
                      86 Lincoln Town Car (Galactica).
                      5.0 HO, CompCams XE258,Scorpion 1.72 roller rockers, 3.55 K code rear, tow package, BHPerformance ported E7 heads, Tmoss Explorer intake, 65mm throttle body, Hedman 1 5/8" headers, 2.5" dual exhaust, ASP underdrive pulley

                      91 Lincoln Mark VII LSC grandpa spec white and cranberry

                      1984 Lincoln Continental TurboDiesel - rolls coal

                      Originally posted by phayzer5
                      I drive a Lincoln. I can't be bothered to shift like the peasants and rabble rousers

                      Comment


                        So I'll hold off on disassembling this radio until I can get my hands onto a spare unit (probably an Electronic w/Tape) since this one does work, if not perfectly currently.

                        I did get it fitted into the car...


                        I spliced on a generic 8 wire male/female wiring harness for the speakers to make it easier to disconnect as compared to my original hard wire idea. The suggestions here convinced me to do it the smarter way.
                        Anyway, it does produce a nice warm tone, and plays pretty strong with the odd speaker arrangement that I have, however I found that if you have the volume up a bit and try turning up the bass, the radio will just totally quit until you power cycle the key (still doesn't like being turned off and on with the button). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

                        I'm sure I don't need to have it cranked that much anyway, but it hits pretty good for utilizing some cheapy front door speakers, Fosgates in the dash, and '97 Premium Sound speakers in the back. I do plan on standardizing all the speakers going forwards.

                        I've got all my presets configured since I could quickly tune those by ear. NPR, Jazz, Oldies, and Top 40. Don't listen to normal radio much, but when I do 98% it's one of those stations. I know the general variety station is above the jazz station, so just mashing the seek up button gets me to that if I want it. The aux works great when you neutral out the selector between AM/FM so you don't get any audio played by either band.


                        I also haven't driven it much in the last two weeks since I had been driving, and suddenly it got loud. I thought one of the flange gaskets checked out since the mating surfaces are meh, so I got some real thick ones, got them sealed up good, and it's still loud! While looking around the bottom, I noticed condensation dripping from the driver's side section of the crossover...



                        The aluminized steel and cheapy weld checked out apparently. I've slapped some $4 "muffler weld" on the hole as a temporary measure, and I'll determine what I'd like to do going forwards. I know the mufflers are rusty internally, since I knocked out rusty chunks after getting the H-pipe and muffler combo (came off a '90 Town Car). I drilled very small drain holes a few years back at the back of the mufflers to release condensation as they would hold a bunch of moisture. If I need to replace the H-pipe, the mufflers need to be done too since: 1.) They're welded on, and 2.) The insides probably aren't great. If I have to go to that length, it might be worth doing shorty Mustang headers, getting a down pipe that accepts the O2 sensors, and then having a 2.25" system ran with mufflers and factory style exits. We shall see about that depending on how long this "repair" lasts.


                        My Cars:
                        -1964 Comet 202 (116K Miles) - Long Term Project
                        -1986 Dodge D-150 Royale SE (112K Miles) - Slowly Getting Put Back Together
                        -1987 Grand Marquis Colony Park LS (325K Miles) - April 2017 + September 2019 POTM Winner
                        -1997 Grand Marquis LS (240K Miles) - The Daily Workhorse & March 2015 + January 2019 POTM Winner

                        Comment


                          I hate exhaust work. I'm glad I'm past the stage in life where I do what I can to keep the exhaust hanging on until I can afford to actually do something about it. I think I've used that "muffler weld" putty stuff for basically the exact same purpose but on a Y pipe. Worked enough for a couple weeks until I replaced the Y. The budget was tight (about 10 years ago) so upgrading to an H was out of the question. Actually would have been back to an H since my '89 had dual exhaust from '03-'09. Yeah that Y lasted like 2 years up here in the wintery salt crap.
                          Vic

                          ~ 1989 MGM LS Colony Park - Large Marge
                          ~ 1998 MGM LS - new DD
                          ~ 1991 MGM LS "The Scab"
                          ~ 1991 MGM GS "The Ice Car"

                          Comment


                            Radio looks right at home in there. The replacement for it (when you find it with tape) will looks just as good still.
                            ~David~

                            My 1987 Crown Victoria Coupe: The Brown Blob
                            My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320:The Benz

                            Originally posted by ootdega
                            My life is a long series of "nevermind" and "I guess not."

                            Originally posted by DerekTheGreat
                            But, that's just coming from me, this site's biggest pessimist. Best of luck

                            Originally posted by gadget73
                            my car starts and it has AC. Yours doesn't start and it has no AC. Seems obvious to me.




                            Comment


                              So the $5 radio has spawned a series of minor interior repairs I've been putting off. Firstly, I ordered replacement speakers to standardize my lineup. Gone are the cheapie Dual brand front door speakers and rear '97 Ford Premium sound speakers, and in their place are Rockford Fosgate 3-way setup speakers to complement the ones that are in the dash. I plan on using '90-'91 front door panels and speaker grilles, so I'll need to modify the speaker mount to accept a 6.5" unit, since I think factory is a 6" unit. Rears were 6x8 and swapped easily.

                              Second has been the installation of sound deadener over the door superstructure. Both rear doors are done as of today. Admittedly I'm not working on this project very quickly.


                              Third is making all the door lock actuators go again. I've only had the passenger rear and tailgate functional since I got the car. The passenger front door had the actuator present but disconnected since it was jammed up. The both driver side doors do not have actuators at all. I've got NOS Ford replacements on order for the front doors. The back door I couldn't find a NOS one, so I gambled with Dorman and halfway lost. Their longest rod they provide on their multi-fit unit still isn't long enough for our back doors. That said, I've got a drill, I'll make shit happen.

                              A little fabri-cobbling of the lock actuator mount results in a bolt going through it and a little strapping folded over to make a spacer.


                              Drilled a hole, mounted everything. Screwdriver points to the original mount. The factory area was wallered out for some reason, and the metal around it had cracked.


                              Inside the door, everything works fine. It does have a bottle cap with hot glue stuck over the area where the rod meets the seal to try and keep water away. I also put a zip tie around the top of the gasket to try and prevent water intrusion going forwards.


                              Hopefully sometime next week I'll have everything buttoned back up with a fully functional central locking system again.


                              My Cars:
                              -1964 Comet 202 (116K Miles) - Long Term Project
                              -1986 Dodge D-150 Royale SE (112K Miles) - Slowly Getting Put Back Together
                              -1987 Grand Marquis Colony Park LS (325K Miles) - April 2017 + September 2019 POTM Winner
                              -1997 Grand Marquis LS (240K Miles) - The Daily Workhorse & March 2015 + January 2019 POTM Winner

                              Comment


                                I like the bottle cap idea.
                                ~David~

                                My 1987 Crown Victoria Coupe: The Brown Blob
                                My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320:The Benz

                                Originally posted by ootdega
                                My life is a long series of "nevermind" and "I guess not."

                                Originally posted by DerekTheGreat
                                But, that's just coming from me, this site's biggest pessimist. Best of luck

                                Originally posted by gadget73
                                my car starts and it has AC. Yours doesn't start and it has no AC. Seems obvious to me.




                                Comment

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