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No sound from the radio

12K views 12 replies 4 participants last post by  Mikel69  
#1 ·
My 93 k1500s radio doesn’t make any noise when you turn it on and you can’t change the station or anything. I bought the truck recently and the previous owner thinks that there is a tape stuck in the cassette player is there a way to disconnect the cassette player to see if that’s the problem
 
#2 ·
if you have a slave tape player as in disconnected from the radio then all you should have to do is pull the radio out and disconnect the plug on the back that runs to the slave. I dont have a whole lot of experience with messing around with these older trucks radios, I did have a 94 with that slave tape player and equalizer though.

I do know these older radios are not hard to mod and add an aux cord or bluetooth.

If you take a visit over on www.gmt400.com there is a tonne of info about these older radios.

take care.

Al
 
#3 ·
I had a 1994 Silverado the radio went out on it in a similar way, it seems to be fairly common on these trucks.

Depending on what route you plan to go whether repairing it or replacing it with another OEM I do want to point out Walmart sells a Bluetooth/Aux Stereo for $15 from Dual and they have a CD version of it as well for $45 which is really a good deal for these trucks it is nothing special but it's a good cheap upgrade.

They sell the dash kits which will give you extra storage as well.
 
#4 ·
I never had a problem with my 94 Burbs radio so I never messed with it. are the common failures like the other common failures of gm electronics.... as in cold solder joints. reflowing the solder on the board(s) could easily fix it. I like the oem style of radio in this year rather than aftermarket because it goes in that middle of the dash hard to reach spot. there are some sweet aftermarket bluetooth enabled oem style thaat go in the original weird small spot there but they are expensive as hell! and if you move it to the center of the dash the possibilities are endless.....
 
#5 ·
I never repaired mine in my truck to see what caused the failure, but it happens often from what I have seen and also a lot of people report it all over forums.

My guess probably solder joints but me personally I prefer a CD player, actually my 2003 S10 CD player went out so I installed a Pioneer DEH-S13BT so far it is amazing but I think the extra bass button shredded the passenger side door speaker since it rattles now so yea time for speaker upgrades as well probably go with Kickers.
 
#7 · (Edited)
heres a tutorial on adding aux in to an 88-94 radio. theres lots of very detailed info like this on this site.

Al

 
#9 ·
I have not removed one besides in my 97 and 98 which are different but probably similar. the dash has to come off first which isn't all that hard, remove some screws, pop some clips then there is a tab on each side of the radio that releases it.

heres a video it dosent seem that bad. this guy seems to have a series of videos on these and he has one for troubleshooting....


Al
 
#11 ·
no sound... man its gotta be simple. so in the removal video I posted above he explains how this is a 2 or 3 part system. the control unit (the radio), a head(an amp) which is in the dash, and the cassette deck/equalizer ect. he says a no sound is usually the plug on the amp or back of the radio has walked out and needs to be pushed in. but there is also this video on troubleshooting. he just has it completely out of the truck and on a work bench.




Al
 
#13 ·
The first things I would do :
1) pull the radio and check power and ground with a meter not a test light ( also unplug the antenna before you do as it may supply a false ground).
2) check your speaker leads.
A) check the impedance?
B) check each wire to make sure it is not grounded.
if all that checks out ok you have a bad head unit.