1993 Corvette am/fm casette radio mystery

[Margo R.]

Hi. My 1993 factory radio is not working. All the fuses are fine. All the wiring is connected. The light comes on but there is no display or sound. The cassette player will not even eject. The antenna doesn't work. I sent the radio to be rebuilt. After paying money and getting back radio that still didn't work repair guy said there was another radio module in the back behind the driver's seat in a compartment that was causing the problem and that I needed to send that in. I found what seemed to be the compartment. You could disconnect the compartment from one end but there was no way to disconnect it from the other end. When I opened the compartment it was just a bunch of wires siliconed together joining it to the wiring harness. Is this even the right compartment? Does the radio guy know what he is talking about? Does anyone have any ideas what else I can do? Any diagrams would be great. I would really like to keep this with the original radio. Thanks a ton. Margo

[Joe L.]

Re: 1993 Corvette am/fm casette radio mystery

Hi. My 1993 factory radio is not working. All the fuses are fine. All the wiring is connected. The light comes on but there is no display or sound. The cassette player will not even eject. The antenna doesn't work. I sent the radio to be rebuilt. After paying money and getting back radio that still didn't work repair guy said there was another radio module in the back behind the driver's seat in a compartment that was causing the problem and that I needed to send that in. I found what seemed to be the compartment. You could disconnect the compartment from one end but there was no way to disconnect it from the other end. When I opened the compartment it was just a bunch of wires siliconed together joining it to the wiring harness. Is this even the right compartment? Does the radio guy know what he is talking about? Does anyone have any ideas what else I can do? Any diagrams would be great. I would really like to keep this with the original radio. Thanks a ton. Margo

Margo------

I completely concur with your desire to keep your factory radio. Any other type of installation, while functional, will appear "hashed-up" and decrease the value of your car now and, especially, in the future. Your factory system, being 20 years old now, will be considered obsolete in today's world of almost instant electronic obsolesence but, in good repair, it will still provide excellent sound.

The Delco-Bose system you have is composed of many components and it is quite complicated. However, given the problems you are having, I would say that your problem is probably in one of two components. These are the radio CONTROL and the radio RECEIVER. The CONTROL is the in-dash component that you have already had serviced (although we have no way of knowing if it was PROPERLY serviced). The RECEIVER is the component that, for 1993, is mounted in the rear compartment. I believe it's on the right (passenger) side but I'm not 100% sure. This should be a more-or-less rectangular "box" and it should have connectors which, once removed, should allow the receiver to be easily removed. It may have a part number tag on it with a number like 1617 followed by 4 digits, possibly 8341.

I recommend having BOTH units serviced by a competent Delco Service Center like United Radio in Syracuse, NY. These folks are experienced with these units. It's not inexpensive but I think it's worth it. There may also be other competent Delco Service Centers, though.

There's also a relay involved. I think I'd just go ahead and replace it. It doesn't cost that much and the one you have is 20 years old. It's originally GM #14100455 but now GM #13502674. On a 1992 it's under the left side lower dash panel but I'm not sure if it's in the same location for 1993. It's easily replaced.

[Keith B.]

Re: 1993 Corvette am/fm casette radio mystery

Its beside the jack kept in the Styrofoam

[Ed N.]

Re: 1993 Corvette am/fm casette radio mystery

Just a practical experience, I know of a Florida NCRS member that had the same symptoms with his 1990 ZR1 and it was his receiver. Repaired the receiver and everything worked perfectly.

[Keith B.]

Re: 1993 Corvette am/fm casette radio mystery

if you are coming to Corvettes at Carlisle I can give you one