Old Ford Radio

[MadMan]

I bought a 77 Ford LTD, and the damn thing has immediately become a money pit. Engine's blown, and just about everything else is not working. Among which is the radio.

At first, it would do nothing at all. Except the speakers would pop when you turned off the radio. Out of the car, I'm messing with it, and I discover I can hear some radio station coming in if I hold the volume knob right at the on/off detent. I wash out the pots with contact cleaner and now the speakers work. I fixed a couple of suspect solder joints, with no effect. FM is stuck on one station with no effect from the tuner, and it comes in so poorly I can't make out what the DJ says is the station frequency. But they did say 'slow jams' which apparently is not a station that exists in Chicago. Also, the stereo indicator light seemed to come on and pulse with the more bass-y parts of the music.

I very carefully messed with some of the tiny adjustment pots on the board, making sure to put them back were they started, and one of them changed the tuning, and would pick up different stations.

On AM, it's only silence. Until you turn up the volume and it goes pop pop pop, and interestingly the pops get longer and less frequent the higher you turn the volume. Messing with the tuner will give that old timey squeal when you tune between two stations, but nothing actually comes in.

Unfortunately, all of the stickers have fallen off of the radio. I intend to fish around in the dashboard and see if I can find one. The big yellow sticker on the top was a quality control sticker that fell off when I removed the radio. All I have to go by is an ebay listing that looks just like it:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/35348241005...kAAOSw9nBgdwxh
Identical on the outside, except mine is not marked 'Aeronutronic.' Mine has a rubber stamped number on the side: 18812. There's a piece of masking tape on the bottom from a previous repair that reads:

G. BA??
10-16-77
RO# 56242
FLOAT

Interesting that it was repaired the same year the car was new. I'm wondering if it's not the original radio. Not sure, but the repair looked like just a couple of joints resoldered in the middle.

Any ideas?