1990 K5 bad/no radio reception
 

When I bought the truck, it had no radio in it, but the factory speaker wires were there as well as the antenna cable. The wires that control the illumination of the radio and give the radio it's constant 12V power were cut. So I installed a factory 1990 K5 radio I had lying around. So I bought an adapter and wired it up. The radio works fine, it displays time and when I turn on the headlights, the radio lights dim out like they should. When I first installed the radio, it would get fine reception. Then one day I turned it on and got no reception at all. AM and FM. Nothing at all, not even static; just silence. I made sure the antenna cable was plugged into the radio tightly, it was. What am I missing here? Is the radio itself the culprit? I need some insight, this is very annoying. Also I tried searching about this subject on google and only people with 88-98 pickups had a similar problem and 88-98 pickups use different style radios.

whats your antenna set up? is it the windshield antenna or the one on the fender? if its the fender one try and trace the antenna wire to the antenna itself. ive seen on older trucks they will just rot in half somewhere or rot off the fender causing that. if your close to a actual radio station you can try driving by it to see if the radio works with it set to that channel

It has the antenna on the passenger fender. A friend of mine who is an audio technician thinks that the radio itself is the problem. I will try to get my hands on another factory radio and see if I still have a reception problem. I pulled the antenna off and took off the screws that hold the antenna mount to the fender and the cable looked good and it wasn't broken anywhere that I could see, but most of the cable sits in behind the firewall and I can't see it.

Bump...

should just be your standard old gm radio. that would be your next best bet try a different radio or if you can get your hands on another antenna just to plug into the back of the radio. alot of cars ive messed with including chevy trucks have a two piece antenna wire. so the wire that you plug into the radio and the coming off the antenna plug together somewhere, usually under the dash, but finding it is the fun part

I am working on getting another radio, that is the next step. From what I saw, the antenna cable is intact and not broken, but that is just from what I saw. I tried plugging the old radio in again and I didn't even hear any static, absolutely nothing coming out the speaker.

sounds like the radio to me

I think it's the radio too.

Put in another radio, it works now. Was the radio after all.