really weird radio problem

[chrisl757]

96 XJ.

I bought it used. The stock radio was never able to pick up fm or am reception unless it was a few miles away from a major antenna. The tape deck was inoperable.

I checked to see if the antenna was plugged in, and it was...still no radio reception.

today I went and bought a new stereo for it. I got all the way through the harness, and adaptor kits, plugged it in, and the radio works as long as I don't insert the stereo into the dash slot. Once I start to push the stereo into the mount---the reception fades immediately.

I tried a few more times to reposition this, and I saw a large spark come from the antenna plug to the stereo. The ground was wired, or so I thought. the fuses never blew.

Any ideas on what to check here to get the radio reception working? I have a fluke multimeter, but am lost on this and would love to have some music back.

any ideas welcome. please help.

[chrisl757]

Update.

After hours on the internet, I found that the antenna cable has a connection behind the passenger side kick plate. I pulled that kick plate off, and the connection was poor. Plugged it back in, and Voila...

my radio works just fine (which also means that the stock radio would have worked fine too. uggh.)

Here's a BIGGER problem though: I keep blowing fuses to the radio/cig outlet when I push the radio deck into the dash. I have taped up all exposed wires in the harness and can't see what might be causing this.

Now, my battery is DEAD.

Where do I start looking? Problem with the antenna? something shorted out? Please help.

[chrisl757]

after spending the morning and afternoon checking all the wiring and putting everything back to original, the engine started fine, and did not shut off.

So, I went back to put the new stereo in.....and amazingly things all work now.

I suspect that I had a wire somewhere in the harness that was disturbed and grounded, but is ok now.

thankfully, a neighbor helped me out!

[fredjacksonsan]

Sorry for the slow response! A poor ground is hard to find but sounds like you did a great job.