Hi Joe,

I'm glad to know you checked the sanity of your dvm reading before going to the work of pulling the radio. Just the fact you own a Simpson removes most of the questions to the assumptions we make about how measurements are reported. I've watched the same behavior due to the clock, with the benefit of almost 40 years to get familiar with the ballistics of a 260's needle providing information that is totally masked by any dvm regardless of sample rate. Though the rubber test leads are dry rotted, I won't toss it in the trash anytime soon, because it is easy to replace the shunt resistor that determines the 500mA scale.

I know very little about aftermarket radios; only my youngest yet has one. All the remainder are those that came with Volvos. In the first year of owning Volvos, I had more time into repairing the cassette/radios than in the cars. I still have one that is kicking my butt, an old "Microprocessor 4" from 1983. If I give up on it, another one marked "Volvo" will be in its slot. I didn't even give a thought to the RoHS revolution and tin whiskers! Guess I'm living in the past with my old Simpson and 1980's electrical experience.

Should be pretty quick to verify the radio is the ultimate culprit, provided you can allow the car to sit long enough.


--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Church bulletin: Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Father Jack's sermons.