I finally picked up a 70 Skylark AM/FM radio. How do I bench test it, ie what wire is what? It has the rear specker fader too..... - Bill
Bill, On the drivers side of the radio, in order, you have yellow(+12V), Green (front speaker+), Black (front speaker grnd -), and on the passenger side of the radio, a single blue lead for the rear speaker. The - side of the rear speaker is grounded. The original speakers were 10 ohm, replacement car speakers these days are 4 ohm. You can wire 2 4 ohm speakers in series and get 8 ohms. In case you don't know how to do that, you connect the wire from the radio to the + side of spkr1, then - side of spkr1 to + side of spkr2, then ground - side of spkr2. Hope that helps
As Larry knows it will probably work with one 4 ohm speaker for test purposes, but because of a mismatch of the impedance between the load and the output of the amp, it will be less efficient. This translates into less max. volume.
Yup, I agree with Jim, for testing purposes, the 4 ohm speaker would be fine. I wouldn't turn up the volume very much though. You know how 33 year old wiring and components reacts to being overdrivenou:
try to avoid using a battery charger to test your radio. instead use a car, motorcycle, or lawnmower battery that is fully charged. using a battery charger might cause the radio to pick up interference (through it's power supply) and sound like crap. rotsa ruk!!
On a similar note, I just got my radio all hooked up again and I can't get it to turn up loud enough to hear. If it is a very quiet night I can here very tiny voices (not in my head) come out of the speaker, but nothing beyond that. Both the radio and speaker are original to the car, so they are both 33 years old. Should I suspect the amp or the speaker? And can they be repaired at home or do they need to be replaced/refurbished? Just curious if anyone has ever tried fixing their's before...
could be either. hook any old speaker that you know works to you radio, and see what happens. blown transistors in old radios are harder to find than to replace...LOL
That's what I was afraid of. Well that project may have to wait a little while longer, but eventually I will have my AM radio to listen to. The V8 rumble will have to do for now :Brow: :TU:
You might have crossed wires somewhere. When I wired up my speakers, I crossed a wire and the whole system lost about 2/3rds of it's volume till I got it fixed.
radio Anybody used a radio repair/service/refurbish person? I know the guy on ebay (mrgranprix) that sells a lot of radios does do service, but he's backed up awhile. Anybody else???
