Radio Testing

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jos51700

jos51700

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I have a half-dozen radios that need testing to see if functional.

Other than swapping into a car and dicking with all that, is there an easy way to power up a radio on the bench? I suspect I can use my power supply and hook to any old speaker (at least for testing) but I didn't know if that risks hurting these dusty old units.

Also, does the antenna need to be hooked up for function, or is that just range?

Also, which wire is which!?

Thanks in advance!
-J
 
Bench testing will harm nothing. I use a low-power battery charger like a trickle charger for power, and a loose speaker for sound. If you just want to see if it makes noise an antenna is not necessary, but if you want to see how well it pulls in a station the antenna is needed.

Wiring may be harder to figure out, as I've seen all kinds of wire colors that all went to different functions. I'd suggest a FSM to check the wiring colors.
 
In a nutshell I Use a spare 12 volt car battery with a jumper wire from the radio's red wire going to the positive terminal on the battery. Another wire from the neg bat terminal to the side or rear mounting stud for the support bracket (provides a must-have ground), hook up a speaker to the speaker terminals and finally an antenna. Hook the orange wire to the pos bat terminal to check the light.

EDIT: this is for a factory radio which uses red for power, orange for the light and green and some other color for the speaker leads. Aftermarket radios are of course different
 
Sweet, thank you!
I have a few CD players that have been pirated from flip cars in the past. I was thinking about an all-weather ammo can boom box if I can find some marine speakers cheap enough.
 
Go on the net and google "Bendix auto radio service manual." Look for the models of your radios, usually like Bendix model #s 5BVE, 5BP, 5BPD...Mopar model #s 222,224,225, stamped or stenciled on the radio chassis. I found the manual for my OEM 1965 Barracuda AM radio. The power wire in most cases is red, speaker ground is black, speaker power is green, dial light orange, chassis ground to negative side of power source.

radio.jpeg


radio1.jpeg
 
I would NOT use the typical battery charger, which most of the time has NO filtering, and outputs VERY dirty pulsating DC.

Unless it's stereo, you only have 3 or 4 wires........

Ground battery NEG to the radio case
Orange is the lamp
Red is battery POS
Carefully insert a scrap of wire anywhere from 6--10 ft into the center of the antenna, and hook up the speaker to the remaining two wires
 
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