fastbackford351

Can somebody please post up a picture of how the bracket that holds up the rear of the radio is suppose to mount? I haven't been able to find one. My shop manual doesn't seem to have that particular picture.

'preciate it.

fastbackford351

I haven't found a decent picture yet but what I did find was absolutely mind boggling and a shining example of FoMoCo oddball wiring. Stick with me because I have been scratching my *** and blinking trying to figure this one out.

To begin with, the radio hasn't worked consistently for several years. Sometimes it worked but usually it didn't.
I have the wiring schematic from the shop manual and because it is only an AM radio there are just 3 wires going to the unit. A yellow wire with a black stripe that is the power wire and two blue w/red stripe wires that operate the dial light. One that turns the light on when you turn on the parking lights and the other that turns the light on when you turn the radio itself on. EZ PZ.

When I had the radio hooked up and was banging around the dash trying to figure out how the bracket worked, I kept getting a 12v arc between the chassis of the radio and the metal in the dash. When I tried to play the radio it would not play when it was grounding out against the dash but if I held the radio so it was floating in the air it played just fine.

I figured that since I had the radio out anyhow and it probably hasn't been apart since it was new back in 1967, that I see if I couldn't clean it up a bit and try to figure out why it was arcing.

I pulled the radio apart and found that the yellow w/black stripe power wire was soldered directly to a small piece of copper foil about 1.5" square that is in turn affixed to the chassis of the radio. WTH? In what world does this make sense? But at least I thought I figured out why it was arcing against the dash. Unable to believe that this was right and the radio hadn't worked right in a long time I reversed the wiring going into the unit so there was no power running directly to the radio chassis anymore.

I finished hooking up the rest of my other wiring under the dash and put the radio back in but the damned thing wouldn't play no matter what I did. Ground it out, nothing. Hold it floating in the air, nothing. I was about to give up and write if off as just being a tired old radio and since I didn't really listen to it anyhow, just keep it in the car because it looks right.

I then checked to see if the dial light would come on when I engaged my parking light and the radio started playing.?!!?!! Turn the lights off, the radio died. Christine revisited.

Obviously reversing the wiring played hell with the normal operation of the radio so I switched it back to how Ford originally had it wired and now all of the sudden everything is working perfectly.

I am not sure what exactly I did to get the radio to work properly again and stop the arcing but I swerved into the fix somewhere along the line. But what blows my mind is that Ford powers their old radios but running 12v to the chassis of the radio which by P.F.M. as far as I am concerned, causes the radio to play.

bop11

Someone modified your radio who did not know what they were doing. They soldered a wire from the blue with red input to the on-off switch so that the radio will only work with the lights. This puts a draw on the brightness control for the dash lights and will probably burn it out. The yellow and black wire comes from the accessory terminal on the ignition switch and has power any time the switch is not in the off position. Wiring this to case will cause a big problem when the case is mechanically connected to ground. The radio is probably too old to fix in an economical way. Being that old, the electrolytic capacitors are probably not working as required and need to be replaced. This is called recapping and will cost you more than installing a new unit that looks old from places like Custom Autosound.
As for the rear support, I could not find any info on that but normally a piece of 3/4 perf metal, like the kind to hang duct found at most hardware stores, will do for a back hanger.

fastbackford351

I think you misunderstood. The only reason the radio came on with the lights is because I reversed the factory connections myself because I could not believe that the hot wire was supposed to be connected to a piece of copper foil affixed to the chassis of the radio.

After I did that THEN the radio would only play if I turned on the lights. Knowing that was messed up I put the wiring back to the factory configuration, finished reconnecting everything else and now it works like a champ. 12v running to the radio chassis and all.

fastbackford351

Ok. I couldn't leave well enough alone and had to figure this out. I have an AM radio from a 68 Torino lying around so I tore it apart in hopes of gaining insight to what was going on with the Mustangs radio.

That piece of copper foil that the power wire is affixed to is coated on the back side so as to insulate the chassis from the 12v.

Whahahappenedwuz..that piece of foil is mounted right next to a hole in the bottom of the chassis and I guess, somehow, someway, something got up in there and put a very tiny kink in it that bent it over just enough to ground out to the chassis. Hence the arcing and non-working condition. When I was probing around with my test light and continuity meter I did notice that and straightened out the kink and inadvertently fixed the arcing issue.

Now of course it all makes sense. I knew that having 12v to the chassis was absolutely illogical but yet, there it was.

So my logic was sound but the conditions were wrong.


Phew. Noodled that one out. Onward and upward!

bop11

Sounds like you not only got it going but you fixed the problem. Were you able to figure out the rear mount? I couldn't find anything on that.

fastbackford351

Apparently that piece of information is tucked away in an obscure shop assembly manual somewhere. I put it back together just the way it has been for the last 20 years and called it a day. I know good and well that it is not "correct" but it does take the weight off of the console and it does hold the radio in place so screw it.

I forgot how much of a pain in the *** it was for one person to install a console so after about an hour of screwing the pooch and getting nowhere quick I called my brother over to help and we got it slammed in place in about 20 minutes.