Date:         Fri, 17 Feb 2006 13:30:51 EST
Reply-To:     Oxroad@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeff Oxroad <Oxroad@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Heidelberg cassette  ??
Comments: To: unclebeer@HOTMAIL.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

In my opion when a a radio is about 20 years old and starts to smoke it's
time for a new radio. Or, if a radio plays 8-Tracks or cassettes it's also time
for a replacement. ;)

I think when a radio goes--and in your case it sounds like you may have an
idea something short circuited in the AM curcuit--repairing it really isn't
much  of an option when you consider cost and likelyhood it'll ever be fixed. If
it's  smoking I wouldn't use it all, which it sounds like you've accomplished
by  taking out the fuse.

_www.crutchfield.com_ (http://www.crutchfield.com)    is  an on-line and
catalogue automotive radio seller with a website that allows you  to punch in your
vehicle make and model and see which radios will fit. You can  get the info
from crutchfield and buy somewhere else if you want. Although I  have bought
all my car stereos from Crutchfield and will do business with them  over and
over. They supply easy plug and play adapters and you don't have to  deal with
the bully 17 year old sales man at Curcuit City and the like.

In other news the heater/defroster blower fan is something to watch for
smoke as that curcuit tends to be over loaded a bit anyway and if the motor has
bad bearing it will stress the system sometimes enough to cause smoke, fire,
what have you. (At least it's overloaded on the earlier Vanagons--maybe they
reconfigured it by 88?) Often long before this failure the fan motor will make
noise when in operation. This is something worth considering as your source
of  smoke if you were running the heater fan and it was making noise.

However the fact that it seems to be the AM button that caused the smoke  and
subsequently the AM setting did not work, it sounds likely the radio is the
culprit. It's even more likely if you have experienced the AM working prior to
 the swith over and smoke incident. (I'm not sure if you have had the bus
long  enough to have used the AM radio previously.)

(I have no affiliation with Crutchfield, just a satisfied customer.)

Good luck with the new bus.
Best,
Jeff
83.5 Westy
LA,CA



In a message dated 2/17/2006 10:15:38 AM Pacific Standard Time,
unclebeer@HOTMAIL.COM writes:

while  driving down the road the radio
started to smoke and the smell of melted  plastic filled the cabin.