The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Radio question

Just bought an almost completely restored 51 Chevy 3100, and the radio worked just fine until I tried to replace the antenna. Dumb me was too lazy to turn the screw on top of the old antenna to remove it, and I used a big 18 volt cordless drill to turn the screw out. Pop went the radio, no sign of life at all now. I checked the two fuses I could find outside the radio housing in the wiring, a 1 and 3 amp, and they're okay. Any ideas?

Dan51, Welcome to the Stovebolt

Is this for the a stock radio? If it is you could have blown a tube inside the radio. Have you checked for power to the radio?

The radio should only have one fuse on it; in line to the ignition wire and it should be a 3 or even 5 amp.

Assuming that all things are equal, you should be able to mangle the antenna all you want without any effect on the radio or electrical. A cordless drill makes no charge to damage a radio that I can think of.

I would guess that the cordless driver work is unrelated to the inoperative radio.

A one amp fuse is too light and that is likely the cause. Plus, you should only have one inline fuse.

Thanks for answering fellas. It's not a stock radio, looks like it's pretty close to new, and its digital with presets, designed to fit in the stock holes and look older, like the ones you see in all the catalogs that are a few hundred bucks. Funny thing was that I put the drill to it and nothing happened until I pulled the trigger. It's a new Dewalt 18Volt drill, and I'd be almost certain the juice from the drill is what shorted something out. The drill has an all metal transmission(one of the main reasons I bought it), so I'd be reasonably sure the spark I see when I use it could pretty easily head down through the bit. There's a name of the retailer of the radio that I can barely see, so I suppose the best thing to do is figure out how to remove it, get the model and call them to figure out what I did. Gotta be a fuse somewhere(I hope!) that I blew up. Thanks again for helping. This forum is the best, it's like water in the desert for us new guys. Thanks to all you fellas for helping and being kind to us newbies!

Disregard everything I said.

I was referring ONLY to the original stock radio.

Apparently the antenna was not disconnected and the radio was still powered on ? If this is a solid state replacement radio you probably blew a "front end" overload diode or something call a "1st IF ampliflier (a small transistor)". Take the radio out and follow the antenna lead to the first component in the circuit, then test it with a VOM. Radio shack will have every part you need.

Anytime you change an antenna always disconnect the antenna lead and power off the radio.

Good luck.

Thanks Shoeless, I've been completely lost and hoped someone would give me a lead. Better things to spend money on now than tunes...And yes, I had the radio on, duh. I'll try your ideas this evening.