Radio rebuild

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RioGrandMan

RioGrandMan

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Good evening everyone,

I have a 66 cuda and a radio that is near enough to original. I have been considering have the radio rebuilt to house a modern radio with Bluetooth etc in the original housing to keep the OEM look. Does anyone have any experience with this, anyone you would recommend or better yet maybe someone on here does that sort of conversion. Thanks in advance.
 
Instead of spending a lot of money on a radio conversion, but a Bluetooth amplifier from Amazon for about $40. Hook it up to power and you speakers & play your music through you phone. You can put it anywhere and control it with your phone.

5FC26283-BB87-4C14-9348-6D8D6EE6514E.jpeg
 
Mike69cuda said:
Instead of spending a lot of money on a radio conversion, but a Bluetooth amplifier from Amazon for about $40. Hook it up to power and you speakers & play your music through you phone. You can put it anywhere and control it with your phone.

View attachment 1715683060
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I have thought of doing at as well, thought about getting something small and mounting it in the flip down ash tray. I appreciate you sharing what worked for you, where did you mount your in the car?
 
Send it to Retro Radio in PA, and dont look back. You will be pleased.
Bluetooth.
USB port.
whatever you want.
Great customer service, call them and see for yourself
Home - Radio Restoration
 
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RioGrandMan said:
I have thought of doing at as well, thought about getting something small and mounting it in the flip down ash tray. I appreciate you sharing what worked for you, where did you mount your in the car?
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under the dash with double stick tape
 
Bluetooth is a great way to go if you just want to get some good tunes with low effort. If you want high-end sound, then go for a good head unit. It’s my understanding that the data compression algorithms for Bluetooth limit the fidelity of the sound they deliver. That’s why hi-end wireless speaker systems use wi-fi instead of Bluetooth.
 
RioGrandMan said:
Thanks, that is a cool idea, I'm currently not sure if my radio works I better hook it up to a speaker and a battery and see if it does and if that is an option.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far!
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Make sure you have a good antenna and grounds everywhere too. Those radios don't like to work without them.
 
S&M Electro-Tech Inc.
8836 Xylite Street NE
Blaine, MN. 55449
763-780-2861
 
I got this last year and absolutely love it. Yes, I had to cut the dash, but so what? It has AM/FM/CD/Bluetooth/AUX....it's got everything cept a hot blonde to give you a happy ending. And it looks cool and retro.

RADIO.jpg
 
I knew Rick when I lived in Virginia and was in the Tidewater Mopar Club. He's a stand up guy, but I haven't had my radio done by him. He owns a 64 Barracuda and is a member here. If you have someone else do it, it'll cost you!! I still haven't decided on what to do about tunes. For now I'm just listening to the engine roar!!!

Ricks Radio Conversions - Radio Conversions, Car Radio Conversion
 
5 new caps? Not really.....the radio uses 2-3 Germanium transistors that are N/A and the retrofit ones require changing a bunch of tail end components to match their impedence specs. Gut it and BT it or aux in it for a phone/MP3. or sring for a rare OEM FM radio out of a B of that same year.
 
pishta said:
5 new caps? Not really.....the radio uses 2-3 Germanium transistors that are N/A and the retrofit ones require changing a bunch of tail end components to match their impedence specs. Gut it and BT it or aux in it for a phone/MP3. or sring for a rare OEM FM radio out of a B of that same year.
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Very few I have restored have needed anything but replacing the electrolyte caps that were dried out (especially the AGC cap) $5 and 30 minutes of time can bring a lot of these radios back to life.
 
The audio amp output transistors do have some equivalent transistors that will work without circuit modifications, but they are $$$$$. I have had great luck with the Russian PNP Ge transistors from Amazon sellers. The oscillator capacitor needs to be reduced ~20%, and the RF AMP needs realignment, but otherwise in all other circuits they work well. Less than 10% of the radios that have crossed my bench over the years require any transistor replacements. Most are capacitors, hairline PCB cracks, or tuner's rusted/gummed up. I gave up on tuner clutch rebuilding and those are candidates for conversions.
Having said all that, I agree with the conversion if you can afford it as the best thing to do. AM radio will be phased out in the 7 years, or so (Germany shut AM down in 2019, and the UK will shut AM down in the next two years), so upgrading is probably the best in the long run.
 
Jim Kueneman said:
Contact @billccm to get your radio working (odds are 5 new capacitors and it will work perfectly) and toss in a bluetooth box. I have Out of Sight boxes, they now have one that can be used for hands free phone now too.

Out of Sight Audio - Hidden Bluetooth Audio and Hands Free Calling for any vehicle.
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Except for the one with the phone hook up, these would appear to be about equivalent to the the one in post 3 from Amazon, only about 10 times the price. I wonder if there is a lot of difference, or they are just upping the price for a niche market?
 
Jim Kueneman said:
Very few I have restored have needed anything but replacing the electrolyte caps that were dried out (especially the AGC cap) $5 and 30 minutes of time can bring a lot of these radios back to life.
Click to expand...
Educate us. What can we look for in the future to get these Bendix 222 radios 1965 CircuiTrace Bendix Radio back up and running? Common cap fault areas?
CircuitTraceMopar222model3.jpg
 
Typically don't need the schematic for the caps. There are normally 4-5 Electrolytic caps in the circuit board. Just get the voltage rating and capacitance value and find them on Digikey. here is the '63 Dart Radio all fixed. This one was odd as it packaged 2 caps in a single package in two places. The black one is the AGC cap... As Bill says look VERY closely at the circuit card and look for cracks in the foil. That is another common failure from heating and cooling cycles over 50 years.

1963 Dodge Dart 270 Convertible for the Wife

Jim
 
Mike69cuda said:
Except for the one with the phone hook up, these would appear to be about equivalent to the the one in post 3 from Amazon, only about 10 times the price. I wonder if there is a lot of difference, or they are just upping the price for a niche market?
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Designed and made in the US. It will be more :)
 
There is a black plastic case capacitor in the AVC feedback (automatic volume control) that is usually suspect for weak reception. If this capacitor goes full open circuit it will cause motorboating as the loop is not dampened.
Values are 4 to 22uf and generally 6V.
Jim is being professional in calling it AGC capacitor, but I was taught old school.
The next capacitor that fails frequently is the negative feedback bias cap in the audio output. It is generally part of a three cap can, so you need to just swap that entire can for replacement with 3 capacitors. Symptom for this is low volume.
 
Circuit Trace Block 9 is the AVC capacitor; far left. Can't read the Reference.
This audio amplifier does not have negative bias feedback (simple cascade amplifier).
 
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