blackthumbz

I just bought a 94 Vette..garaged Kept all its life. 29k miles..like new. It had a Bose gold cassette player , that played cassettes..but stations would run through and not tune at all. The two back speakers are loud. The two front when you fade to front are audible..but lack power and bass.
So i bought a refurbished 94-96 Bose Gold CD player/cassette..so i could have cd. The cd works great..The power antenna goes up and down as it should. But the tuner in the new unit..just runs through the numbers and wont find a station. The same problem with the front speakers having sound..but weak and tinny sounding. Back sound great. All lights work..time..etc. Any idea where i should start? I want to keep the car original as possible..So im keeping the current system..just wanna fix it. As i said..garage kept under cover. So..interior and exterior is like new. HELP!

RollaMo-LT4

What part of the system did you actually replace?
Just the head unit in the dash?

blackthumbz

Yes...i replaced the casette player with a cd/cassette player. Before i changed it out. The cassette unit would light up and display time. The attena stopped goin up and down. Cassette stopped working to. When i plugged in the cd unit..the attena went up and down..cd works..tuner wont land on a station..and two front speakers are weak when you use the fader as compared to back.

markKlein

Just a wild guess, I'd say maybe the antenna wire is either unpugged on one end or the other, or it is broken somewhere in between.

blackthumbz

but it would still go up and down unplugged?

Kmcoldcars

The radio head unit, which is the one you replaced, just has the controls and the mechanics for the CD and tape player. The actual electronics for the radio is in the storage compartment behind the passenger seat. That is probably why the tuner part for radio stations does not work. The speakers each have their own separate amplifiers, which go out a lot. That may be the problem with the front speakers. The way to check that is to move a rear speaker to the front and see if it works properly there. If not then the problem is most likely in the tuner behind the passenger seat.
Bose radio systems give a lot of trouble as they get older and are expensive to repair. Even if you get the tuner section repaired you are still using 19 year old speakers.
If you want to keep the original send it to Dr. Don for repair. If you want to have good sounds at a much lower price, with HD FM and Pandora and an USB port that lets you put in a flash drive, etc, get all new radio and speakers and wires. It will sound better and also work.

blackthumbz

Thanks for the insight! Like i said..car has 29k original miles. stock except tires...original window sticker and all..just spent $300 on the head unit. Im not butchering this up..im gonna keep it stock..not matter what it costs.. I wanna show this one. Guess i will try to get the thing behind the seat tested ..or replaced and start there..

blackthumbz

Here is some more info, The cassette player said delco..the speakers said bose gold series. So i bought a cd player that says gold series. I took pics of the stereos and the cdm.

RollaMo-LT4

That "thing" in the compartment behind the passenger seat is your radio tuner part of the system.
As mentioned, the part you replaced in the dash is just the controller with tape and/or CD player.

blackthumbz

Well now..the cd player isnt working. The screen is lit..with power turned off..the clock shows. The power antena no longer goes up ...wtf?

markKlein

I beleive so, the antenna just carries the radio signal, there should be a separate wire that sends power indicating when the antenna should go up and down.

Kmcoldcars

Now you are seeing why many of us have changed out the radios in our cars. They may not be original but they work and sound better.
You can change the radio and speakers and keep all the original parts so it can be put back to stock.

mxw128

It's interesting that the "originial" radio isn't a Bose head unit but the speakers seems to indicate that the car originally had a Bose System. I wonder if it was replaced at some point?? I know a regular radio won't work (or won't work for long) with the Bose speakers (I think it has to do with the individual amplifier setup but I'm not sure).

I'm replacing my Bose unit in my 94 (CD player is non-functional) and I know that I had to get a seperate interace to use it with the existing Bose speakers...

Phat98

This is NOT a Bose Gold receiver, it's a Delco. The cooling fins on the CDM are for the internal amp...you may just have speaker covers that have Bose emblems on them.

Pull one of those rear speaker covers (6 screws) and let us know if the speaker is a 6x9 (Delco) or a round 6" (Bose). Something ain't right here...

Phat98

FYI...the radio heads are actually interchangeable, it's the CDM that drives the speakers. Speaker out for Delco, line-level for the Bose amps. I'm thinking either the previous owner (or dealer) installed those covers if it's a Delco system.

Check your RPO codes for UX0 - 6 speaker system (Bose).