Not really a Kei Truck specific problem, I just bought a 1991 Mitsubishi Minicab and the radio doesn't work. Everything else is fine, all the lights work and the heater is good. But when I turn the radio on I get a burst of static (proportional to how high I have the volume nob turned) and then dead silence. The lack of any background hiss leads me to assume that it's not a speaker issue, perhaps the antenna is busted? Although externally it looks fine. Any ideas where I should look first? I'm waiting for warmer weather so I can spend some time and check the fuses.
You will end up replacing it if you really want to use it. Its built to use Japanese speced frequencies for FM (and I think AM). So for FM you won't get much above 91 on the dial.
I would expect that if that really is the case I'd pick up static or "dead air" instead of silence. Something you can't really do with a modern radio but with old manually tunable ones if you go to a frequency that has nothing on it you just get static. Though perhaps I am misunderstanding your comment or how the radio works?
My 97's factory radio was AM only, it worked, but didn't pick up US frequencies, and the backlight was shot. I removed it in favor of a mobile dual band vhf/uhf two way radio.
Did your factory radio fail to make any noise when you turned it on? How did you diagnose the frequency as the issue?
I didn't even attempt to use the radio that came in my truck. I uninstalled it and replaced it with a cassette deck and put two small soundbar speakers in the cab. Used them to fill in two rather useless cubbyholes. The other speaker is on the driver side under the air vent. Much more satisfying that fiddling around with that old aio japanese radio that was beat to crap.
Just a guessing game until you remove the stereo and test power at each wire. Or just save yourself the time , remove , and replace it with a modern receiver.
