When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I have a 1984 GSLSE Clarion combo including RT-9006C - Radio, PT-8006C - Cassette, and ET-302C - Equalizer. The EQ and Stereo are working fine (except for my power antenna, but that is a fight for another day), but I cannot get the cassette to power or light up when connected to the set. All the internal 3A fuzes are good.
The J-3, J-5 and antenna are connected to head unit, J-4 is connected to the jumper wire. The 6-way round from wiring harness is connected to head unit far left port as looking from rear. The 8-way connector from EQ is connected to head unit and 8-way from cassette to EQ. See attached diagrams. The cassette diagram has a power connector, but according to the FSM wiring diagram for Stereo version 3&4 you use the jumper in that location.
If I power the cassette by itself using a 12v power supply, I can get it to light and power up. I have checked the power microswitch inside the cassette and it appears to work fine.
With the EQ connected to the head unit and 12v power to the head unit, I get 12v out on the 8-way plug that goes to the cassette.
Anybody have any idea what kind of wizardry involved or secret there is to powering the cassette when connected to the EQ and head unit?
Forgive me if my advice is obvious, as I'm not an electrical wizard LOL. Have you used a test light or a volt meter to see if the cables are getting any voltage? I would just start tracing back into the harness if it is not, if so, I would try looking and seeing if the plugs are bad... I went through a whole ordeal with my se radio so I know a bit... I also have an extra working cassette deck, but it's in rough shape, you may be able to switch faces....
Thank you Brownrx7, real wizards have to start somewhere, so here we are lol.
as far as tracing power, yes I traced the 12v pins in the DIN cable from the head unit to the EQ and the cassette. That all have 12v as they are supposed to, so I have 12v through the DIN all the way to the cassette player.
just to confirm your stock SE wiring harness you have a three pin and a single pin going into the head unit along with a DIN connected to an adapter from the main wiring harness and the antenna of course. Nothing is connected going into the cassette, correct?
I do have an “extra” connector from the main harness under the dash that is connected to a jumper as shown in the FSM for radio types 3 and 4. See photo below. Is this supposed to connect to the cassette player?
Thanks KansasCityREPU. Im not the best at reading these wiring diagrams… it looks like the J-04 is connected, but there is a callout saying Short Cord.
I have only had this RX7 for a few months now and still sorting through it. I thought the cassette and EQ both pulled power from the DIN cables as there is 12v running through them as I tested. The PO had the jumper short cord plugged into J-04. Maybe I will try plugging it in to the cassette and see where that takes me.
Looking at this again, there seems to be confusing information from the Mazda Wiring Diagram and the Body Electrical, 85RX7(50)Wiring_Diagrams.pdf, and the Body Electrical sections, 85RX7(15)Body_Electrical.pdf. In some documentation, the "Short Cord" is a DIN connection and in others it's that 6 pin square connector J-04.
The GSL-SE is a System 1. In this image from the 85RX7(15)Body_Electrical.pdf, it shows for System 1 a Short-Cord DIN. For System 3 it shows a Short-Connector and a DIN-Cord.
Last edited by KansasCityREPU; Sep 1, 2025 at 08:19 AM.
Thanks for pointing this out… honestly wasn’t sure if I had radio 1, 2, 3 or 4. Knowing the SE is helpful.
As I look at the wiring diagrams and what I have in my car, maybe there is two different types of “short” wires. One is the 6 prong connector where the two terminals are “shorted” with each other using the blue jumper cable. The second is the DIN “short” (as in length) connector. This one converts the wiring harness 8 pin coming from the balancer and amps to a 6 pin for connecting to the back of the tuner.
See attached photo, short connector one is in the front with the white connectors and short two is the black DIn cable in the background.
All that said, the wiring diagrams are leading me to believe I should not be using the white short one connector since I have radio 1. I guess then this cable gets connected to the cassette, as there is no other connector on the radio set of that style. I’ll give it a shot in the next day or so and report back.
So curiosity got me and I decided to run out and give it a shot. Unplugged the “short” J-4 connector and plugged it into the back of the cassette. Jackpot, that fixed it up, when I inserted a tape, it shut the radio and the cassette portion lit up and I could hear the motor whizzing. Now just have to wait for the belt I had order to arrive and should be good to go.
Now onto the next adventure of fixing the power antenna up. Antenna works properly on bench test providing 12v power, relay seems to test correctly IAW the FSM, just need to trace some wiring from front to back to verify that.
So curiosity got me and I decided to run out and give it a shot. Unplugged the “short” J-4 connector and plugged it into the back of the cassette. Jackpot, that fixed it up, when I inserted a tape, it shut the radio and the cassette portion lit up and I could hear the motor whizzing. Now just have to wait for the belt I had order to arrive and should be good to go.
Now onto the next adventure of fixing the power antenna up. Antenna works properly on bench test providing 12v power, relay seems to test correctly IAW the FSM, just need to trace some wiring from front to back to verify that.
Thank you all for the assistance.
Glad to hear that you figured out the daisy-chain path, I could have also provided photos as well since I recently had my full head unit out to investigate a different and very weird issue (all audio works properly, even the makeshift aux cable I soldered to the equalizer pinout over a decade ago, but starting very recently I don't have FM radio only. AM still works. No clue lmao)
Out of curiosity, where did you order your cassette deck belt from? I'm not able to find anything that isn't like $15 plus shipping, or included in a massive assortment of belts that I do not need.
yes, thank you for the reference, tracking all the great manuals there. I could not find the specific clarion stereo internal wiring diagram on that site, but located it elsewhere.
@Toruki here you go… came from website kevinchant.com. I believe the GSL-SE three piece receiver is a RT9006-C and this manual is actually for a RT-9022, but I am certain they are the same.
