Blue wire with plug not connected from radio?

Hi,

I have a 66 Skylark with a factory a/m radio it does not turn on I have power to the back of the radio proved out with a test light. I noticed a blue wire coming out of the radio, not sure where it goes? there is a male and female plugged together and it is cut 12” from the plug. Trying to get it to play. also Is there a way to test the speaker? Lastly where is the light bulb for the radio located?

Thanks
Steve

 

I'm also curious about this I have the same situation. I can actually hear the radio very faintly if I turn it up all the way and press my ear against the housing

 

On my 68 the blue wire fed the rear speaker. It sounds odd as there is no companion ground wire but that's how it was wired, ground is chassis ground ...speaker was locally grounded to the chassis. As I recall I think the dash speaker is gray and green, that does have two wires... you need a 10 ohm or at least an 8 ohm speaker to test it....not a 4 ohm. Today, 4 ohm is common for new speakers... On my radio the light was under the cover, had to pop it open.

 

Blue wire is usually (GM) rear speaker and bulb in the radio - right under the top cover

 

One of the worst things you can do to an old radio is to crank it up all the way with either no speaker, a bad speaker or no antenna. You can destroy the output transistor like that. Step one is you check for a shunt like Jason said, hook up + - to a power source, you barely turn it on and see if it lights up. Then you go from there hooking a good antenna, good speaker, etc. You need to know you have good stuff before you can check the radio out well.

 

Well speaker was blown, I found a guy to rebuild the radio in NJ for $165 goes right thru it. Dropping it off today.
Ordered a new speaker direct replacement. I’ll let you know when I get her back. Thanks for all the help guys.

Steve