1967 radio dial light

[William F.]

The wire from the dial light on the left side of my radio was cut by a previous owner. I can't tell from either the harness or the wiring diagram where this light is fed from. Any wiring experts out there? Thanks,
Bill

[Brian M.]

Re: 1967 radio dial light

I believe that this lamp is fed from within the radio.

[Donald O.]

Re: 1967 radio dial light

Correct. That wire originates inside the radio. Not impossible to repair.
Don

[Gerard F.]

Re: 1967 radio dial light

Bill,

The dial light wire is soldered onto a lug in the back of the volume-tone-on/off switch. It's a brown wire which comes out of the radio just above that switch and on the left side of it (looking at the face of the radio).

It might still be there. If not you have a job. You'll have to pull the radio, take off the left side, and figure out which lug to solder a new wire to. As I remember in replacing my switch, there is only four lugs and you should have the remnants of the brown wire on the lug.

If you pull the radio and decide to resolder, send me an email and I'll pull out the switch I replaced and my notes. There were lots of other things soldered to the switch as I remember. It's not hard, just takes a lot of time and careful soldering.

Hope you find the brown wire intact.

Jerry Fuccillo
#42179

[Gerard F.]

Re: 1967 radio dial light-addendum

the wire could be a different color as I'm just coming from memory, but it comes out of the top left corner of the radio.

[Rob A.]

Re: 1967 radio dial light

I noticed your posting regarding C2 radio dial light. Mine works intermittently. It really doesn't bother me, but I wouldn't mind doing some minor troubleshooting if you have any suggesions for a simple fix. (The radio is in the car and both side panels are in place).

Thanks, Rob

[William F.]

Re: 1967 radio dial light

Gerald, Thanks, you've been most helpful. The brown wire is not there and since my switch has the usual static when you change the volume that developes when they get old and dirty, I'll do the switch and light wire at the same time.

[Gerard F.]

Re: 1967 radio dial light

Bill,

The static is exactly why I changed mine. Guess I tried to clean it too many times. But it's no easy job. In addition to the 4 lugs or tabs on the back of the switch (which are the power feeds), there are 6 or 7 tabs to be soldered for the tone and volume control, some of which have little capacitors wired in between. Before you diconnect anything draw yourself a sketch of where each wire and capacitor goes.

Also the switch is hard to find. Someplace in my garage, I have the old switch in the box of the new(with the part number) and the invoice for it. I'll dig it out and let you know.

You can get a 10 page manual with wiring diagragm for the AM/FM from www.justradios.com. The radio should be Model No 986281.

I also replaced the DS501 main transistor in mine while I had it out and was into soldering. There are replacements available from Radio Shack online.

There are also some outfits advertising in Driveline who will refurb it for you.

Jerry Fuccillo
#42179

[Gerard F.]

Re: 1967 radio dial light

Rob,

Sounds like a loose or dirty bulb connection, or a grounding problem where the bulb socket attaches to the radio housing. It could also be an intermittent short in the wire feeding the bulb against the radio housing, or a dirty connection of the gray wire feeding the main radio connector.

The radio power feed is from two circuits, one from the radio fuse, and the other common to all of your instrument lights (which is just for the dial light). When you dim your instrument lights from the light switch, the radio dial light also dims. If all of your instrument lights are intermittant with the dial light then it's probably the light switch or connection to it.

If is just the dial light,I would start troubleshooting with the bulb, bulb socket, ground connection between the bulb socket and radio housing (make sure the housing has a good ground), and trace the circuit back looking for loose or dirty connectors. You can do this without pulling the radio, just the driver side radio side panel.

Maybe Jack H. will chime in on this, and give us some further electrical expertise.

Jerry Fuccillo
#42179

[Gerard F.]

Also

If all of the above doesn't solve the problem, then you'll have to pull the radio and investigate the Volume/Tone switch. See my post to Bill F.

Jerry Fuccillo

[Rob A.]

Re: 1967 radio dial light

Thanks, glad to hear I don't have to pull the radio to troubleshoot...not in the mood...I'll remove the driver's side panel and try your suggestions...All the other instrument lights are fine.

[Dick W.]

Re: 1967 radio dial light

Bill, before I went to the trouble/expense of replacing the volume control, I would go to an electronics store and buy a can of tuner cleaner. Most of the time using this to clean the contacts in the switch will solve your problem

[Gerard F.]

Re: 1967 radio dial light-part numbers

Here's the part numbers for the Volume/Tone Switch and the transistor:

Volume/Tone Control switch:
Delco GM 7290296 I obtained a NOS one from CorvetteRadios.com for $75 two years ago. The radio model no. is a Delco 986281 if they need to verify

Main Transistor:(back of radio)
Original was a DS501 6721(probably a date code). I replaced it with NTEX NTE 105
Cat no. 90181 from Radio Shack online. Other equivalents, I'm told, are a RCA sk3012,Sylvania ECG-105, or a GE-4.

I've tried the tuner cleaner a number of times years back from the outside without pulling the radio, it helped for a while but the static always seemed to come back. When I pulled the radio to replace the switch two years ago, I found two pieces of fabric tape which had fallen off the switch and which I think covered the ventilation holes on top of the rheostat area of the switch as a dust cover. I had probably dissolved the glue which held the fabric in place with the tuner cleaner.

If you want to try the tuner cleaner, pull the radio and the side cover, and remove the tape, if present. Then turn the radio upside down and shoot the two rheostat areas, so that all the dirt drains from the rheostats. Then replace the tape with a fabric tape which will let air flow through but not dust.

That might have worked, but I had already had the new switch, so what the heck, I replaced it.

You would be surprised what the radio sounds like with a new volume control, new transistor, and a new correct 1.5 ohm speaker coil. While you got the radio out you might as well clean it up, touch up any soldered joints in the innards, and refinish the dial face, knobs and replace the bezels. Pretty soon you'll have a radio which sounds new and looks new.

Good luck on your project!

Jerry Fuccillo
#42179

[Jack H.]

Chime!

Looking at the schematic diagram for a MY radio (I've got a '65 schematic in front of me, but the circuit's essentially the same for other years), the main power connector from the dash harness has three wires.

One is ground, the second is B+ from the fuse block and the third is the radio's illumination lamp power fed from the dash illumination circuit that's fused separately. Both the main power line and the radio illumination line route to the radio's volume pot and attach on separate ganged switches (ON/OFF).

A flickering/intermittent illumination lamp in the radio would be caused by one of three things:

(1) Faulty contact between the dash illumination lead and the power harness.

(2) Faulty contact at the volume-on/off switch and/or poor contact in that switch stage.

(3) Fractured filament winding in the radio's illumination lamp and/or faulty contact at the illumination lamp's socket.