'69 AM FM radio installation questions

[66FBCharger]

I am putting a factory AM/FM in my '69 Charger. The radio has a wire pigtail coming out of the radio with a red wire and an orange wire. for some reason the wires/connector to hook up to the radio is missing from my car. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe the red would go to the fused side of the radio fuse at the back of the fuse block. The orange is for the dash light circuit?
If I run a wire from the fuse block to the red wire will there be any issues? Where would I run a wire from to connect to the orange wire? Can I do without connecting the orange wire? I'm surprised there is no ground wire for this radio. Is it grounded through the attaching screws?

[Ghoste]

Grounded by attachment and there should be a connector with both leads for power to the radio in it.  It's a "T" shaped connector coming from the direction of the instrument cluster.

[Pete in NH]

Hi,

My 69 Plymouth manual shows the red wire as power connected to the radio/ back up light fuse and the orange as the dial light in the radio connected to the dash light circuit. You don't have to connect the orange wire but, the dial will be dark at night. As Ghoste said, the chassis is grounded by bolting the radio into the dash.

[ODZKing]

All Chrysler radios were pretty much the same as far as power to them goes.
This is a pic of my 73 radio plugs. The 3 prong is the speaker but you can see the red/orange with plug there as well.
Red should go to a "keyed" outlet and orange to a lights outlet.
In otherwords, no power to the radio with the key off and dial should light only with headlamps on.
You should have Y type plugs under the dash in red and orange for accessories if you can't find the plug fo rthe radio.

[66FBCharger]

You should have Y type plugs under the dash in red and orange for accessories if you can't find the plug fo rthe radio.

I don't see any unused wires that are red or orange. Where would they be? I searched pretty hard yesterday and found nothing. I checked the back of the fuse box and the red wire is missing from the back of the radio fuse.
Would the radio wires be separate from the dash harness?

[Ghoste]

No, it's part of the harness.  Is there a lead coming off of the fuse spot marked for "radio"?  My radio connector breaks out from the harness behind the cluster near the oil pressure guage and runs toward the radio from there.

[66FBCharger]

No, it's part of the harness.  Is there a lead coming off of the fuse spot marked for "radio"?  My radio connector breaks out from the harness behind the cluster near the oil pressure guage and runs toward the radio from there.

There is no lead coming off the fuse. I guess I didn't look at the harness at the back of the cluster. I looked from the fuse box over by looking through the glovebox and radio openings in the dash.
I'm not sure why someone would have cut these wires out.

[Ghoste]

It wasn't a radio delete car was it?

[66FBCharger]

No its not a radio delete car. By the broadcast sheet , it is an AM radio with a rear speaker. It had an AM radio out of a Plymouth when I got it. It was not hooked up. It was probably thrown in there to fill the hole.

[ODZKing]

I'm not sure why someone would have cut these wires out.

Eh, who knows why PO's do the stupid things they do.  That's a whole thread in itself.
Maybe they used it for another connection.
You should have a plug like this or gray. Even my 73 radio plug is like this. (1st pic)
I am not sure when they went to this style plug on the harness but my 73 has these to use for accessories. (2nd pic)
If you need to find a new power source.

[Brock Lee]

I believe in my car the radio power wire has that T shape connectors with 2 piggyback connectors going straight to the fuse block. One to the radio fuse, the other to the dash light fuse.

[Ghoste]

Quite possibly, mine is taped with harness portion going to the instruments but I can't say one way or the other is correct.  One things for sure, the part where it meets the fusebox at the radio and dash lighting.

[Dino]

The connector to the radio is behind the instrument cluster.  I wonder if someone took the radio out and cut the wires because the connector was out of reach.  People tend to do stupid things like that. 

[66FBCharger]

I searched the whole harness the best I could. There is no sign of the radio connector. I ran a wire from the fuse block to the red wire on the radio.
The radio still doesn't work. I have power at the connector but I get nothing.
Whats the odds the speaker is no good? Even if the speaker was junk, wouldn't I hear something (hiss, buzz, hum)?

[Ghoste]

I would suspect the radio, there should be some kind of sound from the speaker.

[66FBCharger]

I am planning on hooking up the dash speaker from my '70 road runner to the radio and see what happens. I just had the speaker reconed, so I am assuming it is good.
I suspect its the radio also.

[ODZKing]

You will get nothing unless you have an antenna connected.
Otherwise, (with one connected) if you hear not even hiss it could be the output transistor.

[66FBCharger]

I have an antenna hooked up. Maybe the antenna is bad?

[Ghoste]

So there is a hiss at the speaker?

[ODZKing]

I have an antenna hooked up. Maybe the antenna is bad?

That is possible as well if you are hearing a hiss when you turn up volume way up or even a "pop" now and again. That wire in the antenna connector end is quite fragile.  

[66FBCharger]

So there is a hiss at the speaker?

I have an antenna hooked up. Maybe the antenna is bad?

That is possible as well if you are hearing a hiss when you turn up volume way up or even a "pop" now and again. That wire in the antenna connector end is quite fragile.   

There is absolutely no sound at all.
Maybe I can hook another radio up to the speaker and antenna and see what happens. That would at least rule out the speaker and antenna if it works and point to the radio needing repair.

[ODZKing]

  start with that

[66FBCharger]

Yesterday I installed a '70 AM radio I had. I turned it on and I got noise. The noise was the noise you get when you don't have a station tuned. I was unable to get an signal from any station. I started the car up and backed the car out of the garage thinking I was not getting a signal because of being in the garage. I did not get any stations.
So my conclusion is the AM FM radio needs repair and I believe the antenna is no good.
I also got a lot of engine noise in the radio. What causes that and how to I get rid of it?
I have a Firecore RTR dist., Firecore wires, coil and NGK plugs.

[Pete in NH]

Hi,

Actually, hearing a lot of ignition noise on the 70 AM radio may be a good thing. It likely indicated the radio is working and will pick up a radio station if a signal is available. Just as an experiment take a few feet of wire, strip the insulation off one end about a 1/2 inch and fold it back along the insulation. Then carefully insert this end into the center of the antenna jack on the radio. Throw the other end of the wire out an open window and tune the radio dial, you may hear some stations. In some parts of the country AM radio stations are few and far between on the dial.

If those Firecore wires are solid wire and not resistance wire that doesn't help with ignition noise.

[Brock Lee]

My guess is the capacitors in the amplifier section of the radio have ruptured. That is a problem with electronics made as recent as the 90's. You could pop it open and look for caps that are deformed. They are the little canister looking things. They should be perfectly cylindrical with a flat top. If the top or sides show any evidence of being even mildly deformed, that is a sign the caps have burst. Every old radio needs a cap job to function optimally. Electrolytic capacitors are like little batteries. They all go bad eventually.

I have a AM/FM that needs the job done. Perhaps I should do it and post the work somewhere around here?

[Ghoste]

Great idea, and put up lots of photos too.