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Radio turns on by itself

15K views 12 replies 4 participants last post by  m-hickey95 
#1 ·
I have searched but not found anything on this one yet so I might have a new one for you.

When I turn the truck off, all seems to shut down as it should. But after a few minutes the radio will power back up and begin playing. If I turn the key on and back off, it will shut off like it is supposed to but after a short time I will come back on again. I do not know if there are any other systems turning on but I do not hear anything from the glow plug relay or anything else. It is of course killing my batteries. I pulled the face plate from the radio to force it to turn off but that doesn't seem to work because my batteries still wind up dead.
Does anyone have any ideas on where to start?:dunno:
Thanks
 
#3 ·
Sometimes I think it is haunted. I have resorted to disconnecting the battery wire from the solenoid when I park it. I haven't put an amp meter to it yet, but when I pull the wire, there seems to be quite a bit of juice going through the wires. There has to be another solenoid somewhere that is not going off when I turn off the key but have no idea where to look.
 
#4 ·
a good temporary fix me thinks is one of those battery isolators people use to isolate one battery from the system you can turn on and off @ will or for storage ...just a thought ;)
 
#5 ·
And that was a good thought. I had thought of something similar, one of those knive blade type switches. That would allow me to easily disconnect the batteries when I park it and easily reconnect when I want to use it. My only fear is that it will diminish my motivation to figure out what is actually wrong with the thing. I need to come up with a schemetic so I can figure out how the system works.
Thanks for you help and input.
 
#6 ·
sounds like someone wired the acc wire to a hot wire or something similar
i take it this is an aftermarket unit since u mention removing the face. did u wire this up or have it done somewhere else?
 
#7 ·
I wired the radio myself into the original harness. It worked correctly when I first put it in, and looks like it works even now. When you turn off the key, the radio, engine etc turns off. Then, a few minutes later, (I haven't timed how many) the radio turns back on. What I don't know is what else is coming on with it. No lights are turning on that I can see but I wondered if it was energizing the whole system or is it just the ACC circuit. It doesn't make sense to me why it would turn off at first, and then turn back on later.
 
#9 ·
BajaDean,
Thanks for the reply.
Is this the connector that goes right to the key lock cylinder in the column?
Do yo happen to know how to get to it?
So far I have been just disconnecting the battery when not using it. I sure would like to get this figured out though.
 
#10 ·
yes, attaches to the key lock cylinder in the column.

I did not see him do it. He did give me the defective part., So here is the part that was defective. It apparently was worn and not sliding to the proper alignment.


RockAuto Parts Catalog
1990 FORD F-350 7.3L 445cid V8 DIESEL MFI (M) OHV : Electrical-Switch & Relay : Ignition Starter Switch
ORIGINAL ENGINE MANAGEMENT Part # IS80 More Information About this Part {#E7TZ11572A}


..
 
#12 ·
mine was very lose also, the part I pictured is the culprit. Though the picture just shows the connector side. It is a sliding mechanism, after all this is just plastic so over the years, 20 of them it deformed a bit to have some slop. As the key turns it moves the slide to contact at different positions.

you might as well give a pictorial on how you do it here or a link to another thread that does for future do it yourselfers.
 
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