I don't have a way to test it set up out of my truck. When I have it apart I can get it power but what do I do for a speaker? Does it have to be 8 ohm or will any standard speaker work?

What do you recommend for coolant? Aerosol household electronics duster comes to mind as something that get quite cold...

 

The compressed gas duster should work fine. I use an old can of Freon, but not sure it's the safest thing to be using, either.


An interesting test is to put the radio in the refrigerator or freezer and see if it happens, but you'd have to run wires from a power supply (could be an auto battery, too). If the problem doesn't occur under the cooler conditions then that can confirm the thermal intermittent. Larger areas can be cooled by removing the directional spray tube from the can head. The offending component can be isolated by cooling progressively smaller areas of the circuit with the spray tube and a lighter touch on the spray can's button.


A regulated power supply needs to provide about 15 volts and at least 1 amp for this radio. Modern switching power supplies aren't a good choice because the noise from the switching migrates into the radio and you hear it over the speaker. Makes adjusting things a lot more difficult. I use a couple of old 60's era Hewlett Packard power supplies, a 6285A (0-20V, 0-5 A) and 6286A (0-20V, 0-10 A). The second one puts out a lot of juice and is overkill for most radio work.


I use an 8 ohm speaker when working on these guys. The final output amplifier needs to see the right load or it can fry after a few minutes. You can usually get away with a lighter load for a bit but I wouldn't run it too long and keep a finger on the transistor to make sure it's not getting too hot. The big transistor on the front next to the light bulb - you'll have to pull the faceplate to monitor it.


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So, to revisit an old thread.

Is anyone making/selling the aux cord hack? Or even a usb?

Id like to keep mine as stock as possible, even the radio, but would like more than just AM.

And i don't want to spend 400-600 dollars.

Id even think of shipping mine to get all this done

 

Came across couple 'how to ' articles may find helpful.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-addition.html

Adding an AUX input to a Stock AM Radio