1970 "no Radio Car" Questions

[Paul S.]

If The Car Was Not Equipped With A Radio ,did It Come With:
1) A Condenser (resistior) On The Blower Motor Out Under The Hood ?
2)a Condenser (resistor) On The Turnsignal Flasher?
3) Any Other Ground Straps (except The Cable That Comes From The Motor To The Frame)?

[Jack H.]

Re: 1970 "no Radio Car" Questions

Yes and no...

The items you mention (and others) are called out for installation in the option section of the AIM, meaning designers intended them to only be installed when the car was radio equipped. Turn to the U69 section at the back of your AIM book and you'll find them called out one by one.

The logic was pretty straight forward: burden the cost of the option for these radio specific support parts rather than making the base car 'pregnant' with unnecessary cost items... So, that's the no portion of the answer.

Now, on the 'yes' side, we've seen more than one pretty straight low mileage car that mysteriously had this/that radio support component installed even though it was not originally radio equipped. That's a vote for the fact that most new Corvettes WERE radio equipped and assy line workers 'screwed up' putting on parts, by habit, that weren't supposed to be installed on those few non-radio cars.

But, that's the exception rather than the rule and our judging rules place the burden of proof on the owner to justify exception cases that are of 'non-typical production' configuration.

[Dick W.]

Re: 1970 "no Radio Car" Questions

Paul, I think that most knowledgeable judges will overlook the fact that the capacitors, etc are on a non radio car.

[John H.]

Re: 1970 "no Radio Car" Questions

A "no radio" car came down the line about once every 16 hours (1.2% of production); lots of guys who had a radio-associated item (like a capacitor or ground strap) to install as part of their operation got tired of checking that box on the Broadcast Copy on every car for the one per day that didn't need the item, and just put the radio-associated part on every car. Sometimes an inspector caught the excess part, sometimes they didn't.

[Michael H.]

Re: 1970 "no Radio Car" Questions

A "no radio" car came down the line about once every 16 hours (1.2% of production); lots of guys who had a radio-associated item (like a capacitor or ground strap) to install as part of their operation got tired of checking that box on the Broadcast Copy on every car for the one per day that didn't need the item, and just put the radio-associated part on every car. Sometimes an inspector caught the excess part, sometimes they didn't.

My 66 no radio car has both ground straps at the center exhaust location. No others though. No condensers anywhere.

No strap at the frame to body location at the cowl body mount and there was never a hole in the body mount bracket on the frame for the screw that would have attached the strap. That makes no sense because I would think the hole would be there for all frames, radio or not.

[John H.]

Re: 1970 "no Radio Car" Questions

No strap at the frame to body location at the cowl body mount and there was never a hole in the body mount bracket on the frame for the screw that would have attached the strap. That makes no sense because I would think the hole would be there for all frames, radio or not.

Michael -

Yup, that screw hole was die-pierced in every LH #1 body mount frame bracket; talk about amazing coincidence that your bracket has the hole missing and ended up on the frame for a car that didn't need it.