Bought my first car this week!

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Jon A.

There's a lot more open space inside the AM-FM radios. Notice the easy-access dial lamp socket, not to mention a single, bigger bulb.

Quad Ford tapes pop up on the 'bay all the time.

I think you are right...From what I could see through the holes it looks like early-mid 60's build materials inside....So I'm curious and want to see more.

I know about the ones on the bay. The only reason I don't already own one is that I have the stereo cart already...I probably will buy one eventually though.

[davet753]

I re-capped the AM/FM (non-stereo) radio in my '73 Ford a few years back, and there is a lot more space in it than the tape deck models. The only issue I have is that it seems like the AFC on the FM band doesn't work too well. It just doesn't do a great job "locking in" on a station.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by davet753

I re-capped the AM/FM (non-stereo) radio in my '73 Ford a few years back, and there is a lot more space in it than the tape deck models. The only issue I have is that it seems like the AFC on the FM band doesn't work too well. It just doesn't do a great job "locking in" on a station.

Have you checked the schematic to see if it actually has AFC? The old AM-FM radio I removed from my car acts like it does not have AFC, and I suspect that is the case.

[Adam]

It's good to see that radio put to good use rather than just sitting in a box in the basement. When I lived in Los Angeles I used to go to this junkyard that only charged $5 a radio, no matter what it was, so I pulled whatever I found interesting. I've since sold most of them, but still have a few boxes of those car radios.

I kind of hate to admit it, but the best sounding car stereo I've ever had is the factory radio/cd/cassette player in my 2003 Grand Marquis. But I did drive a 72 Impala for a while in which I swapped the original AM radio for an AM/FM stereo 8-track I got from another Impala in that junkyard. I never bothered putting in extra speakers though: I just hooked the front speaker to the right channel, and the rear to the left.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I think so. The sticker was gone, but a radio sticker saying Philco/Ford Aerospace division (found in quality planes and rockets everywhere ) materialized during my work.
I want to open the original and see how it looks inside.

I repaired one of those several years ago. They had two Centralab packaged electronic circuits, buried under the tuner assembly.
I'm willing to bet, they're NLA.

[davet753]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Have you checked the schematic to see if it actually has AFC? The old AM-FM radio I removed from my car acts like it does not have AFC, and I suspect that is the case.

No, I don't have a schematic for it. I'll bet you're right, and it doesn't have an AFC circuit. I just thought by the early 1970's, Ford would have included that.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by davet753

No, I don't have a schematic for it. I'll bet you're right, and it doesn't have an AFC circuit. I just thought by the early 1970's, Ford would have included that.

I haven't had my Ford stereos hooked up in a while, but as I recall they're prone to considerable station drift, on the weaker stations anyway.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Jon A.

I haven't had my Ford stereos hooked up in a while, but as I recall they're prone to considerable station drift, on the weaker stations anyway.

That jibes with my experiences with the radio I replaced. If the station was not rather strong it seemed like I was driving with one hand on the tuning knob...

[Jon A.]

Some two-channel stereo-tape units are Motorola-made and offered at the same time as the Philco units. It never occurred to me to wonder why. Now I figure they were a higher-end option for some cars, and/or a cost-cutting measure for Lincoln/Cougar/Thunderbird buyers who didn't care about quad sound.

[Electronic M]

My Quad unit is Motorola sourced, the plain AM-FM was Philco.

Moto sold aftermarket Quad 8-track car stereos around then, Ford likely saw the ads, and decided buying from Moto was a great way to offer quad without the R&D cost.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

My Quad unit is Motorola sourced, the plain AM-FM was Philco.

Moto sold aftermarket Quad 8-track car stereos around then, Ford likely saw the ads, and decided buying from Moto was a great way to offer quad without the R&D cost.

Plus Ford was an old customer of Motorola!
They took over the Ford car radio line from Detrola, when they went broke.

[Electronic M]

About 2 weeks ago the exhaust patch job me and my friend half completed at the beginning of the winter failed on highway 16. The pipe between the muffler and the rear bumper was rusted out and and sheared off at the rear muffler bracket which it's self is rusted out. For the time being that section of pipe has been removed since nothing was holding it anymore (I don't think I have the funds to have it done presently).

With the nice weather recently I decided to do some work on it last weekend. There were a number of bulbs out on it (under hood, under trunk lid, under dash, passenger side 'don't hit my door light', and one of the vanity mirror lights). Two were fuse style mount types, and I surprisingly had them on hand! When I was going through a box of TV tuners (I got from the estate of someone who also worked on cars) to find a suitable sub for the one in my first gen Zenith color set I happened to notice one of those bulbs. After pulling one out I was shocked when I went back to look for a second one later, and actually did find another one (that must be a magic box ). I also got the normal types changed too.
I decided to check the brake and power steering fluids while I was at it since they are on the short list of important fluids in it that I've yet to check since getting it. I'm glad I did, both were low. The back chamber of the brake reservoir was down a good ~2" below the lip (1/4" is the max safe drop) and the front while not as bad was also over 1/4" down....According to the manual excessive fluid drop is indicative of brake lining wear so I'll have to look into that when I can.

The Power steering level test revealed another problem...It instructs in the manual to warm the car, work the steering back and forth a few times, turn it off, and check the level, and after a few stop to stop rotations of the wheel I noticed that at the stops a small bit of smoke appears from the driver side of the firewall. It would appear that the power steering unit is leaking when the wheel is at the stops, but fine otherwise. Now that I know I'll keep some steering fluid in the trunk, and keep an eye on the fluid level until I can get to a doing proper repair.

I drove it down to a parts place along highway 16, got the fluid and bulbs, installed them, got insulted by a random looser, and as I was starting to appreciate the improvement in steering and braking on the way home I started hearing a scraping sound....Upon checking it I found one of the two fuel tank mount straps broke and was hanging. Ugh!...I swear to god(!) there must be a tribe of gremlins living on highway 16!...I'm at 2 trips and as many undercarriage related failures driving down that road in that car...

I think I'm going to replace that strap before I take it for any drive more than a couple of miles.

[maxhifi]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

About 2 weeks ago the exhaust patch job me and my friend half completed at the beginning of the winter failed on highway 16. The pipe between the muffler and the rear bumper was rusted out and and sheared off at the rear muffler bracket which it's self is rusted out. For the time being that section of pipe has been removed since nothing was holding it anymore (I don't think I have the funds to have it done presently).

With the nice weather recently I decided to do some work on it last weekend. There were a number of bulbs out on it (under hood, under trunk lid, under dash, passenger side 'don't hit my door light', and one of the vanity mirror lights). Two were fuse style mount types, and I surprisingly had them on hand! When I was going through a box of TV tuners (I got from the estate of someone who also worked on cars) to find a suitable sub for the one in my first gen Zenith color set I happened to notice one of those bulbs. After pulling one out I was shocked when I went back to look for a second one later, and actually did find another one (that must be a magic box ). I also got the normal types changed too.
I decided to check the brake and power steering fluids while I was at it since they are on the short list of important fluids in it that I've yet to check since getting it. I'm glad I did, both were low. The back chamber of the brake reservoir was down a good ~2" below the lip (1/4" is the max safe drop) and the front while not as bad was also over 1/4" down....According to the manual excessive fluid drop is indicative of brake lining wear so I'll have to look into that when I can.

The Power steering level test revealed another problem...It instructs in the manual to warm the car, work the steering back and forth a few times, turn it off, and check the level, and after a few stop to stop rotations of the wheel I noticed that at the stops a small bit of smoke appears from the driver side of the firewall. It would appear that the power steering unit is leaking when the wheel is at the stops, but fine otherwise. Now that I know I'll keep some steering fluid in the trunk, and keep an eye on the fluid level until I can get to a doing proper repair.

I drove it down to a parts place along highway 16, got the fluid and bulbs, installed them, got insulted by a random looser, and as I was starting to appreciate the improvement in steering and braking on the way home I started hearing a scraping sound....Upon checking it I found one of the two fuel tank mount straps broke and was hanging. Ugh!...I swear to god(!) there must be a tribe of gremlins living on highway 16!...I'm at 2 trips and as many undercarriage related failures driving down that road in that car...

I think I'm going to replace that strap before I take it for any drive more than a couple of miles.

Man when it rains, it pours! Cool you made it through winter though! Does your car take "type F" transmission fluid? if so may want to get some too, I could never find it in gas stations when the old Ford leaked.

[Electronic M]

Ain't that the truth. Part of the reason it survived was my policy of driving it almost exclusively on days where the pavement was cleared and dry (she only got driven 2-6 times a month on average after the snow fell), and the 80$ weather proof car cover she has been living under. I'd guess the rust failure of the exhaust and strap were related to what driving I gave it.

I don't know if it uses type F transmission fluid (but I'll check soon). In the fall after I got it she was down 2 Quarts so on the advice of my friend who told me 'automatic transmission fluid is all the same' I put in what the local BP had....She was down a Quart a month or two back, and that time my friend talked me into refilling it with transmission stop leak....The leak ain't gone, but it seems a tad better now.

[Olorin67]

Stop leak is a bit like putting a brightener on a picture tube, it contains an agent that swells the rubber seals, but cant do them much good in the long run. if i recall right, type F has different friction characteristics than the regular dexron type. Might be good to flush it out and get the right stuff in it soon. Some cars , like newer Chrysler products, need a different fluid and can run into expensive issues if the right fluid isnt used.