I have a 1964 F250 all stock including the radio. I can just barley hear the am station and turning the volume up doesn't seem to make any difference. Any suggestions?

Gary

 

check antena connection to radio. Is the antena grounded to cab metal is the mounting base making good contact with the cab metal. Thats were I would start first.

 

Do what buzz said then take a known good portable AM radio over to the truck and tune into the same station to test the reception, HTH.

 

Thanks, I will try both suggestions.

 

Also GDM there is what is called an antenna trimmer on the radio case. Might be on the left or right side of the radio. Let the radio warm up as it might be a tube radio. Next extend the antenna to full length. tune to the weakest station between 12 and 16 on the radio dial. Turn the volume down until you can barley hear the station. Next turn the trimmer screw either way until peak volume is reached. thats how you would trim the antenna if it is all in working order.

 

Don't forget that these old radios have two paper capacitors in them and those things do not last forever but you can replace them.

 

Any idea where to get the paper capacitors? Im having the same issue with my truck.

 

also the specs of the cap would be great. my radio can be up all the way and you can bearly hear it. the am comes in clear but its just so quiet when it is up all the way? thanks and sorry for hijacking.

 

Hey Mike sounds like you are up on the radios. If it has a bad tube do you have a source for the tubes.

 

Buzz44,

It is considerably less likely that you have a bad tube.

The first and easiest (not to mention cheapest) step is to replace all paper and electrolytic caps with fresh electrolytics. Take note of their orientation as you remove them (electrolytic caps are polarized), look up the values (they should be stamped on the capacitors that you pull out), and get the equivalent valued caps at your local electronics shop.

 

First there are no tubes.

Now, if you have only a hum or a buzz or low audio it is most likely the old electrolytic capacitors. The link shows how to effect replacement of them complete with a diagram and then shows an easy hack to add an auxiliary input for an mp3 player.
Adding Auxiliary Input (for an mp3 player) to an Old AM Truck Radio

The next site talks about doing the same thing in a 1965 Mustang radio. While the radios might be different just reading the guys technique is where you will learn how to do it the right way. He also goes into how to pick the right replacement as we will not find an EXACT replacement. Luckily slightly higher in values is just fine.
1965 Mustang AM Radio Repair

 

tbm3fan: Hey, that's the instructable I posted! Thanks for linking that here.

By the way, I believe there is a chance that some of these radios do have tubes in them. I found this handy-dandy Fomoco radio lookup that can tell you exactly what you have before you crack it open:

Decoding Ford Radios and 8-Tracks

 

Thanks for those links guys. I put them both in my favorites to refer back to. Im not the one with radio problems. Those will be good for future reference when I get to that stage in my rebuilds. I have at least three radios I know one works fine not sure about the others.