First Vette
I just did some trading and got an '86 that looks great and has a ton of history on the work that was done to it over the last few years. It has a few issues, nothing looks to be major though. The drivers seat needs to be repaired and the carpet is pretty dirty. The car will be a daily driver, and this is my fist time owning one.
I've been going through the forums looking at the info on this site and it has proven helpful thus far. Theres a few questions I have and am hoping there are easy fixes. Here goes

- Cigarette lighter inop
- Interior lights inop (open the door or through headlight switch)
- Radio comes on and doesnt have sound. It says bose on the faceplate so im guessing theres an amp somewhere.
All of this screams blown fuse somewhere? There is no owners manual so im not sure where the fuse box/s are located. Im guessing the radio can turn into something more involving than a fuse but hopefully someone can chime in on a starting spot.
In reference to your Bose system, each speaker has it's own amp, so if you here popping, or a lot of distortion, it is probably bad speaker amps. Search the site, there is a guy in Florida that rebuilds them, however, for the cost you may want to consider a whole new system.
Last edited by Corvette503; Nov 9, 2012 at 09:55 PM.
As for the Radio, Its not saying a word. No distorting, no sound, no popping. Comes on for sure though. If the speakers and their amps are all bad, I will replace them with aftermarket. Im sure even a cheap/er set of todays speakers would sound better than the '86 factory stuff. I'm just looking to get it working in the meantime if possible.
I will post pics when i can get it in the daylight. Im on third shift so It will be tomorrow probably

I will post in tech as suggested. Thanks guys!
I also bought a 1986 this year and had the exact same problem with my Bose radio. Look for the thread in the C4 general discussion and you will see the the frustrations that I had fixing it. I wanted to keep tha car as original as possible so it was important to me to keep the original Bose system. The problem was the amp relay. I purchased one at a local automotive shop, I had a new problem the radio fuse blew. I purchased a second one from a supplier advertising on this site, it blew the radio fuse. Five different radio people said it had to be the speaker amps and were all willing to take my money. That did not make sense I have experience in aviation electronics and can read a schematic whic you can find in the back of the 1986 shop manual. I finally fixed the system, it WAS the amp relay. I had several Chevrolet dealerships do a national dealer original parts search and I located a dealer half way accrost the country that still had one in stock. The amp relay cost $25.00 shipped and the system works perfectly.
The Best of Corvette for Corvette Enthusiasts
As suggested i posted on the technical side of the forum with the same queations and am patiently await reponses.
Jerry i will look for your thread and like you, i seem to think that my problem will be easily fixed. It seems like the amp/s are just not turning on at all. Where is this relay you speak of??? That is a simple test to find out if the relay is working or getting power. It all seems related somehow..... Like someone forgot to plug a few things in after working on something unrelated.
correct. if the same as my "84" check the top row fuse to the rear. on mine it's a blue 15 amp fuse and kills every thing you mentioned.
my radio wont work with this fuse out. even though there is a separate radio fuse














