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electrical question

I recently bought an old FM converter/cassette player to use in my '72 Super. If I hook up test leads directly to a battery it works fine. If I try to use the test leads to test it in the car I cannot get it to ground and it will not work. I've tried multiple times at existing ground points and several areas of the body, both using test leads and trying to ground the body of the converter unit itself. What gives? Am I going to have to run a ground wire directly from the battery to get this to work? That doesn't make sense to me since everything else is grounded to the body/chassis, correct?

Thanks for any help.

Reply to
Scott H
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You're right; any chassis ground should work.

Use your voltmeter to test whether 12V is *actually* getting to the unit.

Speedy Jim

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Reply to
Speedy Jim

Hmmm wild thought! Was that player from an old British vehicle with positive as ground?

Reply to
dave AKA vwdoc1

Thanks guys.

Jim, yes the unit is getting 12V and I have two other radios that I can attach to the test leads and they both will work, yet the unit in question will not work while attached to the same system in the car.

But as I said, it *will* work if I attach it directly to a spare battery sitting on the ground. It even works if I attach the power lead to the car's power and ground it to the spare battery.

Dave, good thought but is marked as negative ground.

I'll keep fiddling with it.

Reply to
Scott H

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