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vintage Clarion radio odds.

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5K views 19 replies 11 participants last post by  gmgreen 
#1 ·
Ok, I obey You folks and here's a new little thread about the Clarion radio. I decided not to spoil my build/repair thread (cj7-czech-small-build-repair-thread) with it...

Here's the thing:
I absolutely adore this crappy radio, I feel that it belongs to my CJ. It has digital 8-segmented display and yet looks retro enough to take part in some old school tv series ride. I think it's made in Japan.


There were rotten drive belts in cassette player. We bought O-rings in town, because rubber band is no good:))), I put them in place and I took cassette drive for a spin with stabilized power source, which was splendid until something smoked from the eastern part of the radio and it turned no more. Later I discovered, that one little gear was completely jammed(no relation with the smoking though). I found some hidden straws and I wouldn't be surpriced if water had settled there for some time (Due to recent discovery of mud in top engine harness from previous owner...no relation as well). So I lubricated each and every moving part. But the motor wouldn't spin. I always connect the power source this way: Minus pole to radio chasis and Plus pole to the cable which is supposed to be power from ignition. When I connect 12V directly into the electric motor, it runs fust fine.

there is the drive:


At first the motor was spinning for quite some time, but It wouldn't FF nor RW (That would be the stuck tooth wheel). Evry once in a while electromagnet would trigger. Now, when I think about it, it may trigger beacause the motor had to much of a resistance from the bigger o-ring, it is 2mm thick and a bit tight. Anyway, there was some smoke and I saw a glare in one particular area.

I took a multimeter and applyed my knowledge of Ohm law and discovered one component, which limites power supply to the motor. Instead of 13V there is about 5.5V...which doesn't add up. And the solenoid for play-back trys to move every 3 seconds. But I don't know in which direction. When I extend it all the way up by my hand and then connect it to power supply it snaps like it should, but nothing else. The trying of the solenoid is recognizable by ear(bzz) and by voltage reduction.

So I melt this suspicious part away. It pretends to be a rezistor, but I don't trust it. I will guess it is fuse of some kind. For the motor I mean. It is sly green whereas other rezistors are striped as usual. When I short out the resistor poles the motor starts to spin, which is good, but the odd knocking by the solenoid is still the same(Before the glare it kicked hardly all the way in and out as it should-it slides the magnetic reader head and the wheels-usual stuff). So I guess I will have to investigate a bit further.

here's how the "rezistor" looks like(it reads "I B J" over the "2 2ohm" but multimeter says 47ohms and it reduces the voltage dramatically):


Next thing I'm not sure of is this electric part right under the small shaft:


It is located under both gears for rotatating cassette spools. It seemed to me as it could be LED diodes, but why in that spot?...it does not make any sence and no current seem to bring them to life.

Thanks for any comment You can spare!
 
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#2 ·
Today I studied why the "2 2ohm" thingie is there to prevent the motor to spin propperly, but I didn't understand it. I made 25ohms(the closest I could get with home supplies) with two resistors in parralell mode, but they were just heating when turned on. I was fed up with it, so I replaced it with plain wire, which turned out just fine.

I propperly lubricated all the spinning parts again to achieve minimal resistance forces. I found out, that the trying of the solenoid to flip sides was caused by unattached spring. It is fascinating to learn how the stuff works. So that's working now well. And Yes, it did that every 3 seconds, because motor was not spinning and I now suspect that bits, which looked like LEDs to me, that these have something to do with monitoring propper spinage of the motor(which would be clever because motor can spin and belt drive can stay still).

I tryed to connect one speaker, just to clarify what's going on, if I burned something earlier or what. The radio drone was OK I guess, no antena for any connection, but the cassette player didn't say a word when disco cassete applied.

Another thing is, that player turns with the gears OK, I measured with no cassette in place. It takes about 0.25A to roll it, when fast forwarding it takes about 0.30A, but when I rewind, it goes up to 0.35A, which I think is a bit too much, because it looks like it sorrows, it is notably slower. It should'nt be that significant to play and to rewind, because both gears are driven by the motor all the time. Only one wheel that takes a part when FF or RW is the gear, which was completely stuck at first. Now it's ok though...
 
#4 ·
OK, so what I have done since the last time is that I stretched the bigger O-ring because it was too tight and rolled heavily and I waited a bit(got bussy with something else) and today I assambled the whole thing.

went originally from this mess:

to this workspace:


I went ahead and polished the front end a little bit and tried it out with couple of spare Pioneer dual-cone TS-G1620 speakers which are 20W nominal and 60W max output. (Too big for my CJ dash) Connected the radio to my home antena, put it on a stabilized power source. And amazed is what I was. Incredible piece of work I can tell You.

Assambled now:


There are three memmories for FM(UKW) one for MW and one for LW(which is no use in our country) But as I explored the controls I was surprised that the right button is used not only for tuning the stations but when a cassete is in and You push this knob, It changes the direction of rolling the tape. And the left one is not only for changing volume level and powering it on/off, but by pushing it, bass can be adjusted and if You pull the knob You can adjust the treble. Behind the left one there is a ballance control(L/R) and behind the right one there is a mono/stereo control I think...I don't have much experience with car stereo systems, so if this is old news and common garbage, sorry for wasting Your time :)

But as I replaced the "2 2ohm" thingie with a small wire, the motor has more input power than it should have and as the stretched bigger O-ring now lets the motor roll the cassette with fewer resistance, the cassete rolls a bit faster and every song is now sung by the smurfs :). So I'll have to put in a resistor with a propper value.
 
#9 ·
But as I explored the controls I was surprised that the right button is used not only for tuning the stations but when a cassete is in and You push this knob, It changes the direction of rolling the tape. And the left one is not only for changing volume level and powering it on/off, but by pushing it, bass can be adjusted and if You pull the knob You can adjust the treble. Behind the left one there is a ballance control(L/R) and behind the right one there is a mono/stereo control I think...I don't have much experience with car stereo systems, so if this is old news and common garbage, sorry for wasting Your time :)
Yeah, this was fairly common controls for a shafted unit. Are you sure the rear control on the right side isn't a f/r fader?
 
#5 ·
Very interesting writeup. On the display, are there actual lights that illuminate the display? That is probably a really stupid question, but I have a Pioneer digital shaft radio from the early 90's (supertuner) and the display works fine but the buttons are no longer illuminated. I'm wondering if it would be as easy and soldering in a new led bulb or ? Sorry for the off topic question, but given what you've done with this clarion thought it might be easily answered.
 
#6 ·
I don't know about other radios, but I can describe mine. The front panel is removable and all wirings can be unpluged(the only two sockets in the radio). I had it in pieces as I cleaned it, so here is the describtion:



The Ilumination on the picture are actually two diodes wrapped with some green rubber filter. And as both are touched to sides of the plexi on front, You can see every writings in the panel in dark. Of Course this is provided by other wire behind the case. I have a tag on it that says Ilum... This wire conected to "+" pole of a battery iluminates the display but without it the radio still shows You the frequency, STereo (I think), MEmory, LOUD, NL, MTL and the arrows pointing in direction of rolling the tape.

wm69, I don't know about Your, but be sure, that ilumination cable is connected to parking lights or whatewer plus pole You want, then if You still want to add Your own ilumination, it can be done. You might be even able to use stock LEDs if a connection betwen them and ilum. cable is corrupted, or You can add Your own. I'm talking about my radio here, so that eventualy I should be able to add ilum my self. I know how it looks like in there, that there is a place for wiring and stuff. But I don't know about Yours. Also older radios are all connected through wires, not much of solderless connections. Which is pro.
 
#7 ·
#10 ·
Oh, Yeah, I'm so stupid! I didn't give it much of a look. That's right, they let us look at different switches at high school on electromechanic classes and I rembember it now, That's so obvious now...but the function of these...They switch on and off when each gear is rotating and if one stops and the second continues to turn it turns off the player? Could be for not damaging the magnetic strip?

I admire your work on this radio. Most people would have tossed it in the trash without question, but I agree with you that it has a certain vintage appeal. I like the simple LED segment display pared with the old 2 knob chassis design.
Exactly, thank You, I like that nobody before me cut silly hole to my CJ dash for nowadays radios and left it for these classic two knobbed trash :)

Yeah, this was fairly common controls for a shafted unit. Are you sure the rear control on the right side isn't a f/r fader?
Same question for You, how is it done with this shafted units? What is it for?

And Yes this is not f/r fader and that's a cool thing about it. Because CJ has only two speakers originally. I'm nearly sure it's mono/stereo switch because it has only two positions(no long tracks) and if I switch it up or down it changes a tone a little bit.
 
#8 ·
I admire your work on this radio. Most people would have tossed it in the trash without question, but I agree with you that it has a certain vintage appeal. I like the simple LED segment display pared with the old 2 knob chassis design.
 
#11 · (Edited)
I taped a process of tuning in my garage. I found out that I have two speakers from my other jeep laying around. So I tried to record the right mono/stereo switch, but the difference is barely noticable. I gave it a try and I showed how the treble and bass are changed by the other knob. Here's what's happened:

clarion youtube video link

Unfortunately I didn't connected the illumination wire. It could have been more obvious then in a picture.
 
#14 ·
I love my OEM am/fm stereo radio in my CJ too and would never think of getting rid of it.

I'm currently working on it to add an AUX jack so I can plug in an I-pod or other MP3 player so it will play through the radio and give it the ability to control the volume too.
Found this post while researching on how to add an AUX jack to old factory AM or AM/FM radios and it gives all new life to these vintage AMC Jeep radios: Adding an AUX input to a Stock AM Radio

Here's a U-tube video of the same guys radio after he completed it:
YouTube - Aux Jack for my AM Corvair Wagon Radio
 
#16 ·
I would guess that the reed switch would monitor the 2 drive wheels and watch for if the tape started to get "eaten" by the player. If one wheel spins above a certain speed, or stops, then I would think it could tell that the tape has issues and stop. It could also monitor the tape and tell the player the tape is finished on that side - if the switch shows the reel stopped, it would know to reverse the tape.

That 2.2 OHM resistor would probably be a current limiter for the circuit - I'd get a new one back in there. If you can't find one new - rob an old radio or any other electronics device that you are throwing away. Just try to match the diameter and such - there are different wattages to them, and the larger the part, the more watts they can handle.

As for the poster that was asking about the newer Pioneer.. I have the same issue with mine, a couple LEDs are out. You could open it up and look for a bad solder joint. I have found most electronics failures are usually that. They are getting cheaper in the manufacturing process, which means smaller amounts of solder and also the process itself sometimes leads to bad soldering. I took mine apart, but I didn't see anything obvious - I wasn't in the mood to dig into it so I just put it back together and am still running it - I know where the buttons are., so who needs a light? lol
 
#17 ·
As for the poster that was asking about the newer Pioneer.. I have the same issue with mine, a couple LEDs are out. You could open it up and look for a bad solder joint. I have found most electronics failures are usually that. They are getting cheaper in the manufacturing process, which means smaller amounts of solder and also the process itself sometimes leads to bad soldering. I took mine apart, but I didn't see anything obvious - I wasn't in the mood to dig into it so I just put it back together and am still running it - I know where the buttons are., so who needs a light? lol
Yeah, I know, but it's tough having OCD.
 
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