Factory Radio Wiring

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Rustyfish

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So a friend picked from a warehouse that had hundreds of radios and found this Model 228 for my Barracuda for fairly cheap. It's the right model I think for the Valiant '65/'66. Either way it's the right fit for what would have come with my car. I cleaned up the inside (blew it out), lubricated the moving parts and bench tested. Everything seems to work ok, not 100% on the dial light, but the bulb work on the bench. Not sure about the socket.

Question is, the factory wiring seems intact and I know what all the wires are, but not sure where the ground would plug into as someone before me removed the original speaker (I had a unit from a '63 with its speaker to use for bench testing). The black ground wire had a plug with a male spade, so was there a pigtail that was connected to the speaker with the female or does the head unit not ground to the speaker?
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No plastic plug on the green lead if that is what you meant?
 
No plastic plug on the green lead if that is what you meant?
No, I figured that was obviously going right to the speaker. Referring to the black wire with the gray plug which is for ground. Clearly there is a reciprocal plug for the speaker ground.
 
Here is a better look at the inside of the speaker ground plug. And a schematic for the radio.
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Black wire goes to the negative connector on the speaker itself. In other words the two wires both go the speaker. I know I scratched my head too for a bit.
 
Black wire goes to the negative connector on the speaker itself. In other words the two wires both go the speaker. I know I scratched my head too for a bit.

I assume then that the speaker would have both male and female connectors. That would easily explain how to maintain polarity.
 
If you find an old speaker yes. If you get a regular generic 8 ohm speaker then the green goes to + and the black to - on the speaker leads.
You can find the male/female connectors at any store, even auto parts stores and make your own connectors.
Remember these were mono radios back then. You could fake 'stereo'
by using a 'reverb' unit with a second speaker and you would install that in the back. The tech manual for the 66 Barracuda has pictures for that.
 
If you only have one speaker, the polarity doesn’t matter. The only exception would be if one of the terminals on the speaker itself is grounded.
 
I'm sorry to disagree but it does matter to the quality of the sound. You are driving a magnet 180 degrees out of phase.
 
Thanks for the help, the terminal on the ground wire was throwing me off. Just wanted to make sure they both went to the speaker and not something else weird.
 
I'm sorry to disagree but it does matter to the quality of the sound. You are driving a magnet 180 degrees out of phase.

Phase doesn’t matter unless there is more than one speaker. There is nothing to be out of phase with if there is only one speaker.
 
Here is a better look at the inside of the speaker ground plug. And a schematic for the radio.
View attachment 1715288232 View attachment 1715288233

Sorry to hijack this thread. My 71 has the same connections and I just picked up a radio that's supposed to "light up and made noise when tested". Anyway, my test light shows power on the J4 Dual light connector but I can't get anything out of the J3 A lead.

Should I get test light power on both those leads?
 
Do you have more of the actual schematic?

My FSM only had engine wiring and not the under dash wiring but I was able to do a different search on FABO and find the info. The red wire is power for the radio. The orange wire is for the radio light. I wasn't getting power on the orange wire but that's because it's controlled by the headlight switch in my car. The other set of wires is for the speaker.
 
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