Prepping an Analog Ford Stereo for Aux Jack

[Kodachrome Wolf]

So as it goes I've had some reliability problems with my current electronic AM/FM only tuner in the '87, but I came across a good condition analog model that's essentially the same configuration. A little more common, but I just want to enjoy my tunes from either my phone or over the air.

Anyway, I'm calling to the internal radio gurus if y'all know which wires in this chassis are the inputs to the amplifier:


I don't want to wildly start cutting anything, so I figured I'd reach out first.

[gadget73]

Pic of the face, and a part number? I have 86 and 87 radio service manuals but there are so many different types I don't know which section to look at without more info

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Pic of the face, and a part number? I have 86 and 87 radio service manuals but there are so many different types I don't know which section to look at without more info

You got it.

Basic analog Ford Stereo with AM/FM. The orange wire on the back of the board says 'PRM SND' which heads out of the radio chassis, so I guess that's the amp on signal wire when the radio is turned on if it was being setup to go into a Premium Sound car. The other wires going into it is the B+ wire and the illumination wire. For the speaker output, it has 5 total speaker wires, so I assume a common ground based on color.


So the part number that was stamped on the side has been rubbed on considerably. I can make out E5XX-XXX241-AB. The best argument I can make of the faintest outlines of the remainder is E5AB-17R241-AB. I'll say the 'AB-17R' is a stretch as it goes. Dunno if any of that helps, but all the brackets and such are also E5 family numbers.

[gadget73]

OK, that tells me enough to find it in the book

there isn't anything you can easily unplug to add an aux, but if you're up for a bit of circuit board surgery, it can be done. basically you'd need to break the circuit between the tuner output and the balance control. I'd break it between R314 and C313 on the right side and R315 and C314 on the left. The two caps appear to be on the board directly behind the balance slider. The resistors are a little further back and slightly to the left near IC301.

If you don't want to slice the board (I wouldn't), changing those two caps to an axial type would let you take output from the wire sticking up on the cap, and feed back in to the board in the now-empty hole that the original cap used.

The tape deck model has a plug-in for the balance and fader, electrically its about the same but physically its less involved.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Thanks for the info!

Sounds like I’ve got a little disassembly to do. When I get home Sunday, I’ll ID the capacitors you’ve listed so I can get the uF rating off of them and find some axial types.

I guess I do need to look at how difficult it is to separate the face plate from the chassis along with removing the board.

[gadget73]

maybe this will help

http://gadget73.com/images/radio_stuff/Ford%20analog%20radio/