A.M. radio reception poor

[LarryWard]

Wonder if there is ways to strengthen signal for a. m. on my Alpine am/fm/cd radio. FM is ok.

 

[BPickerel]

good question, I have the same problem with my alpine it might just be A. M. Radio, a friend has the same problem with his Pioneer in his Dodge

 

[WBusa]

I might be barking up the wrong tree here, but try this maybe. Given your truck's age, your antenna cable may be going belly up (mine did last year)... it develops an internal short in the mast mount, which then grounds the mast to the body panel, which degrades or kills your reception, depending on how bad it gets. Way to test this is to unmount the mast from the body panel and, if reception instantly improves when the mast mount is not touching the body panel, that's your problem and you need a new cable/mast-mount assembly.



Let's see, from memory here's how you do it (the shop manual would have you removing interior panels, which is completely unnecessary):

1. Unscrew the plastic sheath from the base of the antenna.

2. Unscrew the antenna mast from the mount.

3. Unscrew the mount's nut (Dodge has a Special Tool; use your imagination)

4. Pop the hood, reach around inside the right front fender, and extract the mount from its hole in the fender. Screw the mast back onto the mount, and hold it in mid-air (not touching the fender). Turn on the radio. Good reception? You need to replace the cable/mount assembly. You can access the quick-disconnect on the other end of the cable by taking out your glove box; on mine at least, the disconnect was right there in the hole behind the glove box. Before you pull the old cable out (from the engine compartment, through the firewall) tie a string to the end behind the glove box; this string will make it easy to fish the new cable's end into the cab; otherwise its kindof a PITA.



Hope this helps.

 

[Dual EE]

I lost AM reception completely, but still had FM. Read this thread and see if it helps.



https://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/showthread.php?t=112877

 

[LarryWard]

That suggestion to disconnect antenna from mount on fender. etc. , did reveal after reassemble of it outside of fender some, on again, off again background static. But it would clear up everytime I grasp the mount itself and remain clear until I would remove my grasp on it. It made an obvious improvement. I always like to tune in to KCBS for the SF/Bay Area traffic especially when choosing which route into SF or out. According to that, I am to understand the solution is a new cable and mount, right? And is it only available at Dodge?

 

[WBusa]

Oh goody, I was right (for once)!. Yep, you prolly need a new cable + mount (Dodge, in its infinite wisdom, made a single unit out of the two). Dodge is the only souce I'm aware of. I don't recall it being too expensive (for Dodge, at least); maybe $50?



The "quick disconnect" behind the glove box that I mentioned is the same thing as the broken jack discussed in the thread cited by Dual EE... its the rear end of the cable/mount assembly. The original version is a spring-loaded piece of poop almost designed to fail. When you buy the new assembly from Dodge, it will have a MUCH better jack on it. It sounds to me that replacing the cable/mast-mount assembly is 100% certain to fix your reception problem. Keep us posted. REMEMBER TO TIE A STRING TO THE OLD CABLE BEFORE YOU PULL IT OUT!!!!!!! That way, its a 5 minute job to replace; otherwise, you're prolly lookin' at a coupla hours of cussin'-time.

 

[Dual EE]

I believe the mast/cable was less then 20 bucks through the dealer. My dealer even had one in stock.

 

[WBusa]

I believe the mast/cable was less then 20 bucks through the dealer. My dealer even had one in stock.

Yeah, come to think of it that sounds right. My dealer had it in stock, too... nothing short of a miracle for them... which suggests that these things go bad pretty frequently.

 

[drives mopars]

try this

lots of times just grounding ant base is loose



chk hold down screws first





if am is bad its normally that



if fm ok and am bad chk screws grounds to antenna base