A couple of questions regarding the Air Chief radio

[59fcholden]

Hi
I have just picked up an Air Chief radio for the FC and i have a couple of questions,

There is 3 wires that come out of the corner, 2 for the speaker and the other is a black coloured wire. Now i took the black wire to power and grounded the unit out to a suitable ground. I switched the unit on and it lit up. All good i thought but then after 10 seconds it started smoking. There was no sound coming out. I then thought could it be that the black wire was ground and postive to the body. I tried this and the radio worked.  Now can anybody confirm this, is it meant to be like this ? Doesnt seem right and safe. Could it be a fault internal or is there something inside that you can switch?

My second question is to the location of the radio. I thought it would fit in under the speaker grill, where that chrome piece with the lion emblem is on, even though it has the same shape, it cant fit there. Does it just locate under this piece?
Any pictures would be greatly appreciated.
Also would anyone have a spare knob, the station changer knob.
Here is a pic of the radio.
Thanks for any assistance.
Ken

[FC0058]

Ken
We have some Guru's on here that know a hell of a lot more than me. Firstly I beleive the radio and facia are out of a later model holden and there for the facia does not match up with he speaker grill and maybe that is why it does not fit properly.

As for the fitting / wiring I have a manual stashed away here somewhere, if I find it I will try and answer your question. I have to go to club meeting s will look when I get home and will post answer tomorrow.

Cheers Jim

[KFH]

Ken, as Jim mentioned the radio is not one originally designed for the FC series and appears to be a later model radio designed for another car.  This radio as it stands appears to be one built for vehicle with a positive (+) earth system.  Most lilely designed fpr a "pommie" vehicle.What is the model of the radio?  Being an Astor (Air Chief) it will have a model stamped somewhere externally on the chassis.  As an example it will be something like "GRS" on any set of three letters.

I may have a circuit of the radio.  It is possible there is a polarity change over plug somewhere. The radio is probably a fully transistorised unit.  Did it start immediately you turned it on?  You are very fortunate you did not do severe damage to the radio.  As it is you have probably cooked up the emitter resistor(s) of the output transistors.  That is why you had smoke.  Also be careful what speaker did you use with it?  The original?  The radio was probably designed to run with a 15 ohm speaker.  If you use a speaker with a lower value than 15 ohm you stand a very good chance of cooking up the output transistors in a very short time.  A lot of these transistors are now becoming difficult to obtain.  A bit like FC grill badges and correct knobs for these radios.

Keith

[59fcholden]

Hi,
The only letters and numbers i can find on it is
"DJR012637"
It lit up when i turned it on, but when i turned the knob to increase the volume,it went out, after a couple more attempts, it stayed on, and everything worked.
Thanks Ken

[KFH]

Ken.  I have a service manual for the Aie Chief/Astor radio.  This is where it gets confusing.  it does not look like the picture you attached.  It is possible that somebody in the past has adapted to another vehicle with a different escutcheon.  This was quite common.

the bad news is that it is positive (+) earth with no provision for changing polarity.  It was originally designer for tailor fitting to Vanguard Phase III and has four valves and two transistors. The speaker requirement for this radio is 3.5 ohms.  There is a warning in the service manual "Battery connection of incorrect polarity will damage the receiver".  The picture is the front page of the service manual which is dated 2-11-59.

Keith

<a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i27.tinypic.com/euqbg6.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">[/url]

[KFH]

Can somebody tell me how I can make the picture fit the page when using Tinypic?  File size is 92kb

Keith

[59fcholden]

Many thanks Keith,
Im going to return the radio,
Anyone have a FC Airchief radio for sale
Ken