I cant remember the year of the radio as I got it from a local radio shop that rebuilt it years ago. But since I am looking at possibly running a highliner headliner to give me a nice place to mount my transmission temp gauge I been playing around how I could balance the speakers in the headliner to not be over powering where you only hear them and not the door speakers.

When I installed the radio I saw that there are two more speaker output wires for a 4 speaker setup but only two are in use. Considering only two are in use and the balance/fade I have is left to right, would there be any problem if I pulled the pins and switched them around to make it a front/rear balance/fade which I think would allow me to bring the door speakers in more than the headliner speakers. Would there be any issues to the radio if this was done?

Im still on the fence about shipping my radio out to a rebuilder as the pushbuttons are frozen and wont press in, the volume **** has a dead spot where the volume doesn't change till you turn it past it, and I am kind of wondering about Bluetooth or maybe having the radio gutted and have a modern receiver installed to get better sound. Not sure just yet, trying to figure out how I could kill the volume of the speakers in the headliner since they are up by your head and would be louder than the door speakers if there was no kind of balance.

 

The speakers on the left would have been no different than the right so technically that would be a solution. However youll likely end up with a sound imbalance if you have stereo. It might be ok since it would be above/below you instead of a side side imbalance but just be aware. Also I’d remove the radio lid/ cover/ back and clean it a bit and spray an electrical contact cleaner in the volume reostat and turn it all the way back and forth to try and clean off the oxidized contacts. You might be able to see what’s stopping the push buttons.

 

Also I didn’t do it myself but for my other car I did have an iPhone connection installed on my original radio and I believe they spliced into the antenna connection so that might be an option for Bluetooth or some auxiliary input. I’m always a fan of keeping stock pieces. And make sure the headliner speakers are the same rating/ ohms so the radio can drive them correctly.

 

I've seen write ups where they tap into the cassette output to hack in a aux in cable and I'm sure you could add bluetooth to it instead.
I believe that kills any cassette function though.
As for headliner speakers / door speakers, I'm sure you could use the balance function to achieve what you want.
Make the headliners rear speakers and door front or vice versa and balance from there.

 

These old factory radios are neat when they work, but when they don't work they can be a pain and not worth the trouble. The 84 Bronco I just bought has a old pushbutton 2 shaft factory stereo radio. It works, but I can't get the pushbuttons to work right. I cleaned it all up using tuner cleaner, and the mechanical part of the pushbuttons won't quit work right. It's a fairly complex looking mechanism in there. I have still been using it the past couple of months, but on FM when I get above 103 MHz I start getting a whistle in the radio. And on the rest of the channels, it sometimes "hunts" going from one station to another if they are side by side. I think I am going modern myself. Here is a link to a radio that will fit the 2 shaft radio hole.

https://www.classicindustries.com/product/*rs7166.html

 

Here's a radio diagram for a 1981. If you have all 4 wires available, with black/white being a common to all speakers, and you have a chrome ring behind the tuning **** that turns (the fader) then putting the roof speakers as the rear left and right speakers should work.

 

same issue I was getting with my stock and why I went modern.
Plus hands free bluetooth is kind of nice along with other modern type features. such as clock on the radio, something I like even though the truck clock works fine.

 

Does your aftermarket radio revert to the clock showing all the time or has it showing all the time in a spot on the radio face? It's hard to find a cheap aftermarket radio that shows the clock with the radio or cd playing. If it does, what model do you have?

 

It has several display options, one being clock all the time. radio/clock source/clock It doesn't have a cd deck though. I hardly used my cd deck in my other truck so I just skipped it on this one.
I don't think it will revert to clock though depending on the option you choose. Such as scrolling song/artist it won't show the clock at all if I recall correctly.
I am using a kenwood bt-225u, not dual brand cheap$ midgrade I suppose.

edit to add I see they discontinued this one already.. man I just bought it.. new model is 228U

 

Radio plays fine I don't really use the push buttons I leave it on one station. Cassette doesn't work but I was thinking of getting the redi-rad that plugs inline to your antenna that has a headphone jack for an Aux input but I don't like the thought of having a wire laying across the floor and plugging into my phone. There is a guy I found out in Arizona that does this kind of conversion but I am just unsure about the fade I do have the chrome ring behind the volume **** that turns to change between left/right balance and the right **** behind the tuner **** controls treble.

I just wasn't sure if flipping wires around to use it for front/rear would cause a problem. This is a AM/FM stereo setup and if it might cause a problem then I might leave it like it is and figure out some other way to control both of the headliner speakers by themselves.

I thought about going with new but I installed a OE clock and I really don't like the illuminated digital display that reverts to a clock. I also haven't had luck with aftermarket radios sounding better than the OE ones. Seems like aftermarket radios that are made to fit without cutting the dash you pretty much have to run an amp to get any kind of decent sound out of them.

 

Looking at the diagram if I am reading it right it looks like for just a left and right speaker they jumper the two wires together at the radio. I don't think mine is wired like that the plug on the radio side has 5 wires and the truck side only has three wires a common ground and the left and right speaker wire. But based off the diagram it looks like the way they have it setup is for just front speakers it is a left to right balance but with a front and rear speaker setup it looks like they move the front speakers to the inboard wires which then provides a front/rear balance.

 

They just jump the right front and right rear together, and then jump the left front and left rear together using that factory 4 speaker radio on a 2 speaker install. That negates the fader control, which sounds like you do not even have one on your model.

Some things to watch out for; Never jump the right + and the left + together, that will blow the radio out.

And on the later model factory, and most of the aftermarket radios, you are not going to be able to use the stock speaker wiring in these old trucks. Like you see in the diagram above, these older trucks had a common ground speaker system. Most of the newer radios and aftermarket radios have a floating ground system. Trying to use a common ground harness with a newer style high output radio usually will blow the output of the radio out. Rule of thumb, run new speaker wiring for a new radio in these trucks.

 

Going to show my ago here, back in the day they had a fader **** you could add to the radio that mounted under the dash.
If you got one of them and broke out the other wires and used this new fader (hidden) could you have front / back & left / right?
99.9% of the time once you have the balance set it stays there to never be changed and why you could hide it once set.
Dave ----

 

Mine is plenty loud really. It isn't thumping loud and won't be unless I get an amp. I think speaker selection has a lot to do with the sound you get out of them.
I really haven't had to turn mine all the way up. It depends on the source I play as well. I listen to a lot of live music (aka bootlegs as known in some circles)
Quiet ones do require cranking it up but I have yet to think that I need more power to listen to something.
Radio is really plenty loud.
Now on my other truck, it has sony 6x9's and there are times I do wish it was louder.

 

See I was thinking of some kind of volume **** so I could just turn the two in the headliner down to where they are properly balanced to not over power the door speakers. But I couldn't find anything that could work. I really don't need a left right fade as I don't mess with it, its why I was wondering if I could flip the wires around so instead of a left to right fade I would have a front to rear fade. Basically make the front speakers the left and the rear speakers the right so to speak but I am partially concerned it might mess up the radio or being a stereo it might give a funky sound.

If I could find a stand alone volume **** I could hide it behind the pop out center section where I will be mounting my push button and transmission temp gauge cause once I get it set properly I don't need to worry about it long as I can use the radio still to control the volume properly.

Speakers I am looking at are Fosgate speakers OE size for the doors and 4" for the headliner as that is what they are designed for. But I know anything near your ears you don't have to turn it as loud, like wise you would in my eyes hear those speakers before you would hear the door speakers.