1964 Delco AM car radio service

Servicing a 54 year old transistor car radio.

[@waltschannel7465]

Cool! Nice job getting that one going again. Delco radios were the best. I've had three. 1966 Nova AM, 1974 Vega AM / FM, 1981 Chevette AM all had Delco radios, and all performed fantastically. They could pull in stations others could not, even other OEM car brands.

[@rsattahip]

Between the dial string and pushbuttons, that looks like a real joy to work on.

[@neccron9956]

Nice old radio. The dealer made radios of that time were make like tanks. You might want to check the can capacitor. The Can and the choke are used to suppress the engine noise, so if it is bad, you will hear the spark plugs through the radio.

[@12voltvids]

Gustave Green Yes I am aware of the can cap. Don't have the values inside it. That's why I mentioned it. Will be swapping it when I get parts.

[@markanderson350]

Those old radios had excellent performance. Those were the days when AM radio ruled. Yes swap the cap and clean the crap off the board..

[@miltonbroome9725]

First experience was my 63 F 85 Olds. Just am at that time. Found s gentleman that worked on them. Brought it to life, lighted dial, snd antenna adjustment. Before I owned an FM model.

[@TheGuitologist]

Thanks for sharing.

[@olradguy]

Worked on lots of these,most often needed repair was bad speaker, rotted cone around the v.c and broken v.c wires at the glued joint,sent many to get reckoned because of the odd shape and mounting system usually a bracket around the magnet.

[@edpickering8075]

I have one, thank you...

[@jorgevelez3651]

Thanx 4 the vid i had the same noise with the power supply .🍻

[@tankerman4916]

Have a 67 Bonneville, the radio and 8 track are all in one unit. There was a after market under dash unit installed. Don't know if the original unit works, ready to take it out for bench test. I am nervous about it. all new to me. What should I look for on unit first? Any suggestions will help. Want to get this unit working, have a reverb to hook up on the unit when it is working. Hope I'm not getting in too far over my head. You have given me the confidence I needed. Thanks

[@isabellab4950]

I'm a true beginner and I don't know too much about wiring but I'm restoring my 67 impala and I want to be able to restore the radio as well. Fantastic video and I think I can get mine working again but I was wondering if you could list the supplies you used because I'm not sure where to find specific connectors, the battery, and a speaker that you can wire up. Thank you much

[@tvtech2582]

I had an old Cadillac car radio in my room as a kid.There was nothing like a car radio for AM DX ing at night.Are you in Canada? I bet you can receive what once was the old Westinghouse broadcast stations WBZ Boston Am1030 WINS NYC AM 1010 And KDKA Pittsburgh PA AM 1020, witch is the only radio station east of the Mississippi river that starts with a K call letter

[@12voltvids]

I used to AM DX all the time when I was a kid. Still have my old Halicrafters radio, and one of these days I will overhaul that old beast, as it was old when I got it, and I have had it for 50 years.

[@JV-im1lf]

Gut gemacht 👍🏻 ✌️😎

[@jimtrucksis1505]

During bench testing do you need a specific car radio with the right resistance or will any stereo speaker work?

[@tvtech2582]

I remember working on a few radios older than that when I was about 15 years old.It had a vibrator tube in conjunction with a transformer to produce high voltage for the tubes.

[@12voltvids]

Yes worked on a few of those myself. A vibrator, for those unfamiliar with the device is a mechanical DC to AC converter. It consists on a metal can with 3 pins on the base. 12 v in, ground, and output. Inside there is a coil, and a magnet which is mounted on a flexible spring. On the spring there are 2 contacts. These 2 contacts both connect to the 2 output pins, and the flexible side of the spring is connected to the 12 volt input. The 2 contacts form an NC and NO switch. The NC side goes to the coil, and the other side of the coil goes to ground. When power is applied current flows through the coil, which magnetizes the coil and pulls the magnet towards it. This action breaks the contact on the NC side of the switch, and connects it to the NO side. 12 V now flows out the output pin. The magnetic field now collapses and the spring is pulled back breaking the contact to the NO contact and once again making contact with the NC side and staring the process over. The result on the output pin is a 12 volt pulsed output which is sent to the primary of a step up transformer that generates the high voltage for the tube plates. It makes a distinct buzzing sound, and also vibrates. Hence the name a vibrator. I was hoping that this radio would ahve been a tube style, but no, missed it by 1 year.

[@FindLiberty]

Yea, I remember those mechanical DC/AC/DC up-converters. Another blast or two from the past: multi-tap batteries used in some (portable?) tube radios and the toxic smell of a roasting selenium rectifier stack.

[@12voltvids]

Yup, had a grundig radio from the mid 50's to overhaul a few months back. First thing to go was the selenium rectifier. I wonder if MY Normende radio has one. I guess I will find out when I service it.

[@SamSon-xo1cj]

Same question as one of the posters... on the speaker. Why only 1 wire to the speaker not 2 wires to the speaker ? Or did you ground the speaker to the radio chassis with a jumper lead and that acts as the 1 speaker wire ? Will any speaker work ? I have the same radio for my corvette. Want to test run it before putting it in. Mine has the decal on the back about 'must be connected to a 10 ohm speaker'. Thanks much !

[@eman59461]

YEs i definitely did . Make u think how much noise they generate,

[@airkore]

What type/ brand of battery did you use to eliminate the interference? Thanks for a great video.

[@12voltvids]

Just a 12 volt gel cell

[@forbes80751]

hey there, I have an AM radio in a 1961 corvair. I would like to be able to keep the stock looks, but somehow add bluetooth. Would it be easier to gut the vintage unit and put new components in, or would it be easier to put one of the bluetooth modules I saw in another video into it. Thanks for your input!

[@12voltvids]

Providing you're not planning on using the AM radio it would be much simpler just to use one of those Bluetooth modules that has its own built-in amplifier and run it to a pair of speakers and just leave the original one unaltered. The Bluetooth preamp module that I demoed could probably be made to work however a 1961 radio is going to be dealing with vacuum tubes which are running at a high voltage and you may have some issues trying to interface one of those modules into it. yes it's generally fairly simple to connect it to the volume control but some of those old sets actually had high voltage on the volume control itself depending on the design.

[@pettyofficerwelch]

Hey, I've got a delco 986545 am radio in my 66 Chevy and it comes on, the light comes on ect, but I don't get any sound out of the speaker aside from a bit of faint static when you turn the volume knob up and down. I've cleaned it out with CRC QD electronic cleaner and compressed air, but no have had no luck so far. Any idea what my next step is? Sorry for posting in your youtube comments but I haven't had much luck finding any info online for these old am car radios.

[@12voltvids]

I don't have any info on them either.

[@glenngoodale1709]

It even has music from the 60s........

[@bondjovi4595]

😆

[@n1kkri]

I am trying to troubleshoot a Philco Ford AM only radio out of a 1967 Ford Mustang On the side of the radio its marked 7TPZ . It powers up and has audio but its squeal with static like its going into oscillation. With a 5 foot piece of wire I could get a local radio station weak not clear. If I connect it to my outside wire antenna the station drops out as though the radio was overloaded. I have been searching for the schematic but so far no luck. I checked the only 3 transistors with a meter in the diode mode and they look good. There is a germanium diode that measures good too. I certainly would appreciate anyone offering a schematic. I might be able to fix this. There is one large round capacitor. It looks like a multi-capacitor. I noticed its corroded on the top. Could use help with a schematic. Thanks

[@TheGuitologist]

Couldn't you just place a large polarized cap from B+ to Gnd and still use the power supply?

[@russellhltn1396]

It's not the ripple in the DC voltage, it's the RF noise being conducted on the lines. (Odds are, if he powered it from the battery, but connected the power supply to the radio ground, he'd still have the noise.) You could probably rig up a filter, perhaps using a coil or ferrite cores to choke out the common-mode signal.

[@12voltvids]

Russell Hltn Yes I did hook the power supply up as my battery is not charged and noise came back . Just turning it on wiped out radio just turning it on. It is likely noise radiated out on the ac power cord and being picked up by antenna.

[@TheGuitologist]

Is that a flaw in the power supply? You think a better designed supply that separated the primary from the output would fix that? And is that the Provono or whatever that you reviewed? They emailed me and sent me one to review also. I need to do that.

[@russellhltn1396]

A better power supply would have good filtering. (Ham radio operators using switching power supplies) - but how much filtering is needed? It's one of those things that separate the "good stuff" from the "cheap stuff".

[@HDXFH]

3rd commenter lol, nice old radio love the build quality

[@skuula]

Doesn't it just have a built in ferrite rod antenna? What does a MW antenna compact enough for a car look like? A long coil or something?

[@12voltvids]

Last time I checked a car was basically a faraday cage. No, there is no built in antenna. That is why your car has an antenna on the fender, roof or built into the glass

[@skuula]

Yeah okay a care does screen pretty well.. but how do they get a little whip antenna tuned to radio waves a quarter mile long? Anyway - they got it solved, and it still works!

[@Subgunman]

Times like this its nice to have an el-cheapo Pyramid power supply, linear and very little noise as long as the cap hasn't gone bad.....

[@12voltvids]

I use an Astron for my ham rigs.

[@Subgunman]

I used an Alinco switcher for quite some time here in SV9 land until it took a dump. Bought another supply similar to the first from one of the local dealers but I was very displeased with what Alinco has done in re-engineering this classic. First the adjustable voltage is limited to 9 volts to 15 (old unit was from 5.5 to 15). Second, they decided to make the supply dedicated to either 220 or 120 volts, no internal switch to select input voltage, bad for me when I return to the States. The Astrons we used for repeater supplies where space was not an issue however if the repeater was a high use unit the Astrons need a two year maintaince cycle to replace the heatsink compound on the pass transistors, it tends to dry out, especially the compound supplied from the factory. As for the old Alinco, I will probably shotgun all of the mosfets and drive transistors and see what happens since all the caps check ok. 73!

[@12voltvids]

I have 2 Astron. A 35 for my HF radio and base rigs, and a smaller 12 amp that ran my repeater for many years when it was operational.

[@TedFeight]

What did you use to clean the tuners, just air or an oil?

[@12voltvids]

Air

[@waxore1142]

you can use ANY power supply. even switching. as long as it has proper filtering.

[@12voltvids]

Filtering has nothing to do with it. Switching supplies generate lots of RF noise, and with this radio having an IF in the 200KHz range, harmonics from the switching supply radiating back onto the power cord will get picked up by an AM radio like this easily. I tried to hook the power supply up to charge the battery, and I didn't even get it connected. As soon as I turned on the power is started buzzing.

[@ourkid2000]

Nice video! So the speaker "+" comes out of the radio connector and the speaker "-" uses the frame as the connection? Do I have that right?

[@12voltvids]

That's right. They use the car chassis as the ground.

[@ourkid2000]

@@12voltvids Awesome thanks for that!

[@zx8401ztv]

Good old positive earth radio with the fancy preset buttons, i always thought they were a clever design :-D. I too made the switchmode mistake, you are not alone. it was for a frends hacker sovereign radio, oh dear Bzzzzzzzzzzzz, i should have known better :-(. I built a standard linear psu in a metal earthed box with a LM317 bolted to the case. The voltage could be adjusted by +/- 1 volt. I never give a preset too much control.

[@12voltvids]

zx8401ztv Negative ground on this one.

[@zx8401ztv]

Ow er, i got mostly positive earth on the ones i've repaired, i had just one that had a set of jumpers inside to swap the polarity. Usually it was the p.a output transistors that popped there clogs, germanium ones. Valve ones are fun to play with, motorola and philips.

[@netmeet800]

Why not clean the PCB board,it's dusty!

[@dhpbear2]

3:32 - Sounds like your computers and/or fluorescent lighting is generating that interference. UPDATE: D'oh - It was the frickin' power supply!

[@ytrewq6789]

AHH!," "We got mooned!" @ 1:03

[@ICStation2013]

Good afternoon♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

[@brianandrews7099]

At least around where I live, the weakest point of an AM radio is poor AM radio reception and programing. I am really only interested in being able to show someone who is interested that the AM radio still works in my antique cars because it’s nearly impossible around here to prove that an AM radio isn’t performing at it’s peak because reception is too spotty. Even FM is not great here. My focus for my antique cars is about making the original radio face, knobs, and plate look good. As far as sounds, a hidden amp with bluetooth or an MP3 reader attached to it give me the only music source that’s really worth using or listening to. I am not a fan of news talk, sports talk, political babble, religious programing, nor Spanish music - which is the extent of what my local AM tuner has to offer anyway.

[@12voltvids]

It's the same here. Punjabi, Chinese, sports, news, talk. No music stations at all. We have but 1 good FM station and they are relatively low power but at least they stream to the world and that is how i listen at home.