Speaker requirements ford 1976 am/fm radio
 

Recently got my radio back from Gene of Genes tv electronics in Scottsbluff Nebraska. Gene provided me expert service at a extremely worth while price. I don’t feel comfortable posting his prices online but you won’t beat him. Flat out not gonna do it. Excellent courteous service he cleaned stuff up, diagnosed my many problems found many hard to find parts re assembled everything hand wrote me instructions on wiring MY specific radio (because all the wires were cut to nothing when I got it so he rewired the whole thing) for a wonderful price. Give him a call for your radio needs. I’ll post a pic of the face of my radio later.

mine is a model 6a- d6ta-19a241 out of a 1976 f250.

I want to be able use the center speaker location and the door speakers like I’m doing with my cheap aftermarket head unit now. I thought that with the use of a mini amp I could use my 1976 radio to power 3 speakers like I mentioned. Its looking like I cant. I’ve asked a couple other places for suggestions on how to do that and the general consensus is that my 1976 radio is really only made to run the 2 door speakers and then only 3.2 ohm speakers. That’s fine, whatever my 76 model can do I will set up.



Im having trouble finding quality 6”-6.5 inch 3.2 ohm speakers. Does anyone know of a model or set or place to buy some?

Also I’ve read some stuff about how the resistance doesn’t matter a whole lot and a person can get away with 4 ohm speakers. Does anyone know if there’s any truth to that? I know almost nothing about new radios, and absolutely nothing about old ones. As nice of an experience as I had I really don’t want to mail this back to Nebraska with a note that I killed it.

I’d still love to somehow use all 3 factory speaker locations. I didn’t have Gene wire in an aux cord so a way to hook a phone up without using a fm transmitter would also be appreciated.

Dirty Larry 79,
I sourced my 1977 F-150 Door Speakers out of my local junk yard. Took them out of 1996 Ford F-150 Eddie Bauer, there Ford OEM "Premium Sound" round speakers. I don't remember what I paid for them but it wasn't more then maybe $10. for both.

The difference between 3.2 ohm and modern 4 ohm speakers is minimal. They may receive slightly less power, but you probably wouldn't notice. The bigger concern in general is going to low impedance speakers when high are specified, as amps can get over driven and blown out. Now that I think about it, the difference could just be a function of how they were measured. Meter reading resistance, or impedance vs resistance, not sure exactly but you'll be find with a 4 ohm unit, if it's not the same. I don't have any speakers laying around, but if you measure a 4 ohm unit you may be surprised.

Didn't notice the additional questions at the end. As far as I know, an FM transmitter is your only easy option. What I would do is get a mono bluetooth amplifier and hook it to the center speaker, and you can wire in the speaker level radio outputs in parallel to the amp. The amp affects the overall impedance minimally, if at all. That way, you can blue tooth your phone, and get the center speaker on both channels.

4 ohm speakers will be fine.
Where folks get into trouble with modern speakers in old vehicles is running modern 4 ohm speakers with a radio (say from the 60s) designed for 10 ohm speakers. The increased load placed by the reduced ohm speaker cooks the output in radio. I bet you can run the center speaker as well. Contact your radio guy Gene and see what he says.

Actually speaker impedance is not a static measurement, but varies depending on the frequency being run through it. You are probably OK with 4 ohm speakers but might notice a small volume drop. Put in 8 ohm speakers and it will be far more noticeable and could potentially heat up the radio amp unacceptably. Hey, worst case, you know where to send the radio if you have problems...