Craig radio fuse

[Aleksander]

While trouble shooting why my radio is dead I found that the glass fuse on the Light Green White cable was blown.
I changed it and the radio worked a short minute. Now the fuse blows while I change it.

Is this a 5 amp fuse?

Anybody else encountered this problem?

Can I go for a 10 amp fuse?

All advices welcome :D

[ccurzio]

The light green wire should be taking a 5 amp fuse.

Do you have anything else on that circuit?

[Aleksander]

Everything should be stock. The car only has 4335 miles on it, has been in storage most of its life.

[Jonathan]

How quickly does the fuse blow?

Is a "short moment" basically immediately after turning it on, or can you play a song or two and then five or ten minutes later it blows?

If it is blowing immediately, I would expect there to be a short somewhere. Meaning, somewhere along that green wire, the insulation got worn away and it is touching directly on to something metal. If this is the glass inline fuse up behind the stereo head unit, you want to look along that green wire AFTER the fuse (between the fuse and the Craig head unit) as opposed to before it. Which should make your search easier because there are no other components on that wire after the glass fuse other than the radio.

If the short is somewhere before the glass fuse, you might see the other things on main fuse #11 not working. Those being the power windows, AC panel lamps and gear selector light bulb (if you have an auto trans). Do any of those things not work also?

[David T]

How quickly does the fuse blow?

Is a "short moment" basically immediately after turning it on, or can you play a song or two and then five or ten minutes later it blows?

If it is blowing immediately, I would expect there to be a short somewhere. Meaning, somewhere along that green wire, the insulation got worn away and it is touching directly on to something metal. If this is the glass inline fuse up behind the stereo head unit, you want to look along that green wire AFTER the fuse (between the fuse and the Craig head unit) as opposed to before it. Which should make your search easier because there are no other components on that wire after the glass fuse other than the radio.

If the short is somewhere before the glass fuse, you might see the other things on main fuse #11 not working. Those being the power windows, AC panel lamps and gear selector light bulb (if you have an auto trans). Do any of those things not work also?

If you are talking about the in-line fuse near the radio and it blows, the radio should not be drawing 5 amps. The thing to do would be to put a meter on it and see just what it is drawing and if it is over 3 amps there is a problem inside the radio. The Craig (and for that matter the ASI too) are not worth fixing unless originality is important to you. If the radio is in bad shape the speakers are also probably shot. The Craig especially is not worth fixing because the display goes bad. It is hooked up through a flexible circuit board and it cracks. There are still shops that can fix it (and the ASI) but it isn't cheap. I just had my ASI serviced and it cost $100 but to get the cassette tape transport mechanism rebuilt (all of the rubber is bad and has to be custom made) would have cost another $400. The most cost effective thing to do is replace the speakers, the wiring, get the DIN adapter and put something modern in with GPS, USB, Satellite, and CD. All depends on what your budget is and how much you will be using the car. Even on a good day when the Craig was working it won't receive a weak signal and puts out a whopping 20 watts per channel!

[Aleksander]

The first time it played for about a minute, when I changed it after that it blew immediately.
It's the glass fuse, so will take a closer look at the LGW between the fuse and the unit tomorrow.

The cigarette lighter don't seem to work, nor the antenna. It's supposed to go up when the radio is turned on?

[Aleksander]

I had hoped to enjoy the Craig for a year or two, before updating to a newer system. But if the cost will be ridicules I have to reconsider.

[Jonathan]

The first time it played for about a minute, when I changed it after that it blew immediately.
It's the glass fuse, so will take a closer look at the LGW between the fuse and the unit tomorrow.

The cigarette lighter don't seem to work, nor the antenna. It's supposed to go up when the radio is turned on?

The cigar lighter is supposed to be on a different fuse (#17) than the radio. When you say it doesn't work, is it the small lamp bulb that "lights" up the plastic ring around it that isn't coming on? Or the main heater part in the middle if you push down on the button? That's fairly easy to correct, but lets stick to the radio for the time being.

My car had the Craig, but not a rear antenna. So without saying for certain, yes, I believe the antenna is supposed to come up when you turn it on. That being said, if your fuse blowing problem is not a short in the light green/white wire, it might be the motor in the antenna trying to make the mast go up and it's hung up on something and the fuse is blowing to protect it. Not sure about that as I had thought the power antenna pulled it's up and down power from somewhere else (someone could confirm please?)

Perhaps a test could be if you have a way of selecting the tape function and not the radio to stop the antenna from trying to come up and then seeing if the unit stays on with the tape only playing? (not sure this is possible mind you).

[jwrayth]

So without saying for certain, yes, I believe the antenna is supposed to come up when you turn it on. That being said, if your fuse blowing problem is not a short in the light green/white wire, it might be the motor in the antenna trying to make the mast go up and it's hung up on something and the fuse is blowing to protect it. Not sure about that as I had thought the power antenna pulled it's up and down power from somewhere else (someone could confirm please?)

Power antenna is supposed to go up with the radio turning on, and go down with the radio turning off or the ignition going off (or more accurately, when the ignition goes off the radio loses power and so does it's output to the antenna). The antenna has a separate (always live?) power feed to allow it to retract when the ignition goes off, and just takes a signal feed from the radio.

[Szabi]

Hello, I have the following problem: my original Craig radio suddenly stopped working (while playing a casette), although it is not totally dead. When I turn it on, the small green arrow will light up that shows the casette playing direction. But I cannot hear the motor turning the casette, so that part is not working at all. It will not eject the casette when turning off, so I am not sure the FM radio would work. The other `sign of life` is that I can hear the antenna-motor working but the antenna does not come out. Fuse is OK, everything else is working on that fuse. I checked the wire connections, all good, and I even tried with another radio harness (#110683) that I had on hand.

Reading back in this topic, I understand there should be a 5 Amp fuse on the light green-white wire, I do not have it for sure (I removed the central console and have clear access to all wires now). But I have this thing on the wires coming out from the radio, I`d bet this was added later (?):
http://m.blog.hu/de/delorean/image/craigdsc01746.JPG

Either way, lack of the 5 Amp fuse might have killed something in the radio? What do you think?

[DMCMW Dave]

Either way, lack of the 5 Amp fuse might have killed something in the radio? What do you think?

That's a noise suppressor and is factory installed. The radio should have two inline fuses, one is for the radio itself and one is the keep-alive on the radio memory (and sometimes the clock). There should be a fuse in the green wire and in the purple wire. Bigger is not a huge problem as both are fused again in the fuse block.

I think you have an internal radio problem, time for a repair/replacement.

[Jonathan]

You mentioned your console is out, have you run the car's engine recently? Maybe your battery is just about dead and is causing some of this because you aren't getting it enough power? A blown fuse won't cause a low power problem... it'll be all of it or zero. Just thought with what you've seen, it'd be like a flashlight with a battery that's just about dead and now the light is dimmer than normal. Otherwise, yea, like Dave said, sounds like the belts inside the Craig are worn out or something and it needs work.

[Elvis]

As you are in Europe it make sense to repair it here in Germany.

I do have all the needed parts and can update them to MP3 input and european frequency steps.

if interested - PM me.

[MML]

As you are in Europe it make sense to repair it here in Germany.

I do have all the needed parts and can update them to MP3 input and european frequency steps.

if interested - PM me.

I can thoroughly recommend Elvis' work - he repaired my Craig, and now it's like a whole new radio!

[Szabi]

You mentioned your console is out, have you run the car's engine recently? Maybe your battery is just about dead and is causing some of this because you aren't getting it enough power? A blown fuse won't cause a low power problem... it'll be all of it or zero. Just thought with what you've seen, it'd be like a flashlight with a battery that's just about dead and now the light is dimmer than normal. Otherwise, yea, like Dave said, sounds like the belts inside the Craig are worn out or something and it needs work.
The battery is fine, the radio started dying while driving on the highway and I have driven a few hundred miles since it happened.

[Szabi]

As you are in Europe it make sense to repair it here in Germany.
Thanks Elvis, will send PM!

[Aleksander]

Fiddling with my radio I have now ended up back att the antenna. Gotten the radio to work, but moving the red and blue wire shorts the in line fuse to the radio.
When is the antenna supposed to go up?
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/08/0080ecc8f4ac5c5b4b78045558da8521.jpg

[refugeefromcalif]

When is the antenna supposed to go up?

When the radio is turned on. When you turn the radio off, it goes down.

George

[Aleksander]

When the radio is turned on. When you turn the radio off, it goes down.

George
That was what I thought. Gotten the radio working, fixed the bad isolation att the antenna so now the inline fuse doesn't blow. But, the antenna isn't going up, it looks to me, to be brand-new with the dmc logo. Does the antenna have any fuse somewhere?

[Aleksander]

Found the glass fuse for the antenna under the cover behind the driverseat. Now it all works! :D:D

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/08/8ba932947dbe79092e8a81c0b08665e3.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/08/f624a689ac135f857bde42d4c1cbbf61.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/08/250260b47d3a59a34ba480bbaef28926.jpg

[Szabi]

Hello, can someone confirm the inline fuse information is correct on this page: http://delorean.wikia.com/wiki/Fuses_and_Fuse_Box
5 Amp for the light green wire and only 1 Amp for the purple wire? What is the function of each wire?

[Jonathan]

Hello, can someone confirm the inline fuse information is correct on this page: http://delorean.wikia.com/wiki/Fuses_and_Fuse_Box
5 Amp for the light green wire and only 1 Amp for the purple wire? What is the function of each wire?

See the wiring functional descriptions here:

35547

I'm not sure about the Amperage, but the reason you would see a lower value on the "always on" purple wire is because its function is to keep the radio presets and other memory functions so they aren't lost when you turn the car off. The larger amperage fuse is that way because it powers the stereo/speakers when it's actually being used when the car is on.