I bought a very nice 1985 GSL RX-7 with 12.5k miles, knowing that it had two problems. The radio doesn't work and the fuel opener **** has broken off. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on fixing the radio. I have done a lot of searching, but haven't got the information that I am looking for.

Currently the radio is dead, nothing powers up. So I took it out and checked the connections and everything appears to be in great shape. I was wondering which wires I could test to see if it is getting power. Also the antenna is acting very strange. It goes up and down at very random times. Sometimes when I turn the car on, once when I turned the headlights on, and another when I put it in reverse. Also it sometimes goes up when I hit the power button on the radio.

Any help would be much appreciated, I already scratched the interior around my stereo, and that has got me in quite the wrong mood . Thanks

 

The power for the radio is as follows:
LW - +12v Accessory
LY - +12v Battery
RG - +V Illumination

L=blue
W=white
Y=yellow
R=red
G=green

 

The antenna relay, located under the dash on the drivers sidekick panel, is wired as follows:

LW - +12v Accessory. There are 2, 1 is for the solenoid the other is source to the antenna drive motor
LG - switched ground from deck when deck is on and set to Radio mode. This wire changes to LO (blue/orange) at connector X-04.
R & L - switched +12v/gnd. One lead will be +12v, the other ground dependent on if the radio is in use or not. The key must be set to ACC for the antenna to go up/down. With the key set to ACC and the radio ON L will be +12v and R will be ground and the antenna will go UP. With the Key set to ACC and the radio OFF the polarity will be reversed and the antenna will go DOWN.

You can test operation of the antenna relay/motor by applying/removing a ground at the LO (blue/orange) connection of the antenna relay.

The color code is the same as above.

Do you have the Factory Service Manual for the car? If not I can email it to you.

 

There are also 2 fuses for the radio you might want to check. one is 15A and the other is 20A. the 20A also supplies the antenna motor.

 

My recently purchased '85 GL has radio issues too. The antenna was working when I purchased the car a week ago... but now it's not. A relay under the dash (driver side, near the steering column) clicks when I press the power button on the radio. What is that relay... and how do I test it?

Where is the second fuse for the radio?.. I read that there are two somewhere else too.. But there is only the one 20A fuse on the driver side fuse panel.
Nate

 

Can someone help on this?... I've check and there power at the back of the radio... and at the antenna relay... but nothing works... antenna doesn't go up even. Is there a fuse in the radio itself?

 

Did you ever get you radio to work. Mine is also dead

 

I finally got mine working a couple weeks ago... It was a fuse inside the cassette player... If you can confirm you have 12V going into the back of the cassette player (check the wiring diagram to confirm which wire that is)... then you may not have power going out of the cassette player to the radio, which is where the power button is... which means the thing won't work. Both the head unit and the cassette player have a little glass fuse inside... easy to get to... so I would check both of those... especially if you know you know you have 12v coming to the back of the head unit/cassette player.
I was getting illumination in the cassette player... but that's a different wire. I have a couple extra head units and one extra cassette player... If need be I can see if I can get them working... they may just need a fuse too... I just haven't had time to mess with them. My power antenna still isn't working... but I haven't had time to check into that either.
Do you have the wiring diagram to find your power wires? Do you have an analog tuner or digital tuner... know that if you have an analog tuner your 12v constant plug/wire isn't necessary. That stumped me for a little while... seems obvious now, but it had been a long time since I had worked on car stereos.
Hope this helps!
Nate